Blame

The Hospital

"-- alright, who are you visiting?"

"Laura Dumont."

A groan.

"Oh my Scott, more visitors?"

Jesse just shrugged. "She has a lot of friends. What are you gonna do?"

"Well, she doesn't seem to mind all of the people. And the last visitors just left, so... go on ahead. She's in room 203."

"Thank you."

Jesse, Mister Afton, and Elizabeth walked past the front doors and towards the rooms.

The walk was rather long, and Mister Afton abandoned them halfway through to stop at a vending machine.

When they finally arrived, they were pretty much greeted with what you would expect. Sterile white walls and floors, two beds an equal distance apart, a couple of chairs strewn around, a single window, and some random medical equipment.

The bed closest to the door was unoccupied, and Laura was in the other one.

"Hello, hello," Jesse greeted.

"Jesse!" Laura's face lit up, and she held out her arms. "Give me a hug. Don't squeeze too tight, though. Everything is still sore."

Jesse headed further into the room and gave the older woman a hug.

"You too, Elizabeth," Laura said. "I know you're here. Don't be shy."

Elizabeth, who was still standing by the door, ceased her knuckle cracking and complied.

Jesse collapsed into one of the uncomfortable chairs and Elizabeth chose to stand beside the window.

They held a rather casual conversation with Laura, who seemed to be her usual cheery self.

It was almost as if nothing had happened at all.

Eventually, Mister Afton entered the room, a bottle of water in hand.

He took a seat in the unoccupied chair, giving a short greeting, which Laura returned.

Things were normal for about another four minutes before the ringmaster decided to casually drop the question.

"So... what happened?"

Jesse exchanged a look with Elizabeth. "Uh... Mister Afton, she probably doesn't want to talk about that."

"Well, you don't know that for sure, do you?"

Elizabeth immediately began to absentmindedly stare out the window as the two started to bicker, tuning them out.

This wasn't a particularly unusual occurrence by any means, but she never liked to listen to it when they started up.

It reminded her of her parents.

She stared down at the parking lot down below.

There were quite a few different cars somewhat neatly parked, and a couple that were rather crooked or simply taking up more than one spot.

No people could be seen down there. Not even one person leaving or coming in.

She shifted her gaze to the thick line of pine trees that surrounded more than half of the lot.

Despite the fact that they all looked relatively the same, she still looked at each and every one individually.

Something shifted in the sixth tree that she looked at.

A shape emerged from behind it somewhat slowly, blanketed by the tree's shadow.

It might have been a person, but it was a bit hard to tell.