The Woods At Night

Chapter 20

I wake up in Amy's arms, hearing someone screaming. It takes me a few minutes to realize I'm the one screaming and stop. Amy and Jen try to calm me down from my nightmare. I've been staying with them for about a week, today I get to go home and pack my things before I go to visit Vivian for the first time since that night. She's in the hospital, her parents tell me she's not going to die, but she will be disfigured for the rest of her life.
It's seven in the morning so we decide to get some breakfast. We eat in silence. I imagine they're grieving too, since they knew Hope too and they sort of became friends with Vivian and Nate. I can't stop thinking about Hope, she warned me not to trust him, she tried to warn my mother about him, she died for me. She had three grandchildren, who were going to visit her on Christmas, but now they will never get to see their grandmother again because I didn't heed her warning. If only I had taken her seriously.
Apparently Nate's dad flew out here to get his son out of jail, according to the police officers he tried to make Nate seem like the victim and even tried to bribe them. I was glad to know they didn't take it because according to the officer, "We here in Lucky Tree don't take to kindly to bribes. We do our job, unlike those lazy ass city cops." Which were his actual words. It made me feel a little safer knowing that Nate was taken away by the FBI. Apparently Nate's dad wants to sue the Lucky Tree police station now.
Amy, Jen, and I get in the car with Amy's parents who drive us to the hospital. For some reason the hospital is a twenty minute drive away from town, but apparently there's a doctor in town for emergencies.
When we get to the small hospital I run to Vivian's parents and hug them before going to her room. I walk in and go towards her bed, she has an IV in her arm and stitches all around, there's a large bandage on her right cheek and an eyepatch over her eye, her hand that lost some fingers was wrapped up in gauze. She turned her head to me as I slowly stepped over to her bed.
"Heh, you look like shit." Vivian tells me, I sniffle and give a sad laugh.
"So do you." I tell her.
"Are you okay?" She asks.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I wasn't actually hurt, other than a couple bruises from the cops before some hunter guy brought in Nate." I tell her.
"I heard he got taken away by FBI agents, they asked me to testify against him." She tells me, she has a sad look in her eye.
"Are you okay?" I ask, she looks up at me on the verge of tears.
"I let him use me, I loved him you know? I actually loved him for a long time. Pheonix I... I think I made a big mistake." She says, she starts to cry and I hug her.
"It's not your fault, you didn't know. None of us did. We all made a big mistake trusting him." I tell her, she cries into my shoulder for a while.
"I made a bigger mistake than that. Pheonix I... I had... we... we had..." She can't even finish her sentence, but I already know what she's trying to say.
"It's okay, like I said, you didn't know." I try to calm her.
"I should have known, the whole time he closed his eyes, he... he covered his mouth, but I could swear I... I heard him mutter your name." She tells me. I look at her in shock, then she continues. "That's not the worst part."