How to Slay a Beast (Book 1)

Chapter 24

They discharged me from the hospital fairly quickly . other than a few massive bruises and a couple of scrapes from rolling down the riverbank. I was fine. Good to go. The same couldn't be said for the rest of my family.

My mom was in surgery almost immediately. She was unconscious by the time the care flight arrived. They took Mr. Breeden away too, for what good it would do. His heart had stopped but they tried to revive him anyway. but I knew his insides were too smashed up. I told them where Billy and Jade's bodies were. I said we'd found them shot and didn't know how. And I left the sword lying in the riverbed.

My grandma came to the hospital to sit with me. She hugged me and tried to help me brush my hair. I said to leave it and she actually did.

My father didn't come. I don't know if nobody told him or he didn't care. Well I was technically fine so I supposed he didn't care. Cyrano did not come back either. Him I was worried about. I suspected that he and Del had led the beast back to Nowhere so I could escape. I just hoped it hadn't gotten them too.

"Miss Gates?" a nurse came out ,"You can come and see your mother now."

I stood up and followed her back. My grandma kept a hand my shoulder.

The doctor was in the room with us waiting to see her. They had my mom hooked up to a bunch of monitors. All of them were beeping comfortingly and glowing. They had oxygen up her nose and she was swaddled in bandages around her chest and her head had a couple of band aids on it.

"Your mother made it through the surgeries fine, we were prepared to give a blood transfusion but she never needed it. mostly it's the shock from the injury as well as some blood loss she's suffering from now," the doctor said, "She'll wake up a little later, once the sedatives wear off. We did an ultrasound and the baby is all right now, however time will tell if there are any last effects due to the stress."

"What?" I asked, stupidly, looking up at the doctor.

"Baby?" my grandmother asked, looking at her then at me.

"She was pregnant---you didn't know? We assumed you knew---there wasn't anything on file with the hospital but we thought her gynecologist—"

"She couldn't have children, not after Del," my grandmother said.

"She could, apparently, as I said, the baby is fine has a normal heartbeat," the doctor assured us.

"She didn't know," I said, quietly.

"How far along is she?" my grandma asked.

"Judging from the images, about thirteen weeks," the doctor said, a little nervously. "Is her partner here---should he be notified?"

"He was brought in as well," I said, my voice clearer than I thought it could be and remarkably free of tears, "Richard Breeden. Where is he?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry," the doctor said.

"Can I go find him?" I asked, holding my mom's hand.

**

"Mr. Breeden? Mr. Breeden-------Richard----dad?" I tried, softly. He wasn't waking up. He was just lying there quietly in the room. machines were hooked up to him but they weren't beeping or anything.

"I think he's gone," Cyrano said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Why isn't he with us then?" I asked, "Why didn't he come here it wasn't his time to die?"

"He was at peace," Cyrano said.

"No---no I still needed him that isn't fair---not him too," I said, shaking my head, "Not him too."

"I'm sorry," Cyrano said. "I'm very sorry."

They had him laid out on a slab like so much dead meat. At least they washed his face and cleaned the worst of his wounds. I walked up and touched his cheek. His skin was worn and burnt. His chest was all bound up with cloth where it had bitten him. the machines still surrounded him, keeping his heart going. But the leads taped to his head showed no brain activity.

"I'm sorry, Del's with me he's crying too," Cyrano said. he was there. "How is your mother?"

"She's okay," I said, kneeling next to him. "Mom's okay. so am I. you saved us. you are the protagonist."

He didn't move or do anything. of course not he was dead.

"Are you okay?" my grandma asked. of course I was not.

"I want to go home now," I said, to my grandmother, "I want to get changed and take a shower." I want to slay a beast.