Breaking Free

Chapter 30: Present

Continuous beeping and low whispers are what I hear first. Cracking my eyes open, I see my mom and dad standing in the doorway, talking to a smiling doctor. My mom's shoulders were shaking as she cries. My dad has an arm around her back, his whole body tensed as he listens to the doctor.

"She'll be awake soon. The trauma of the recent events took a toll on her body. It's only been a day. Just give her some time." The doctor's eyes shift to me on the bed, and his smile grows wider. "Actually, she's awake now."

My mom and dad whirl around with one shocked expression mirroring the other. "Paige!" My mom flings herself on to me as sobs wrack her body. "Oh, Paige!"

I stare at my dad over my mom's shoulder. His face is pale, and his eyes glassy with unshed tears, but the smile on his face shows how relieved he was. "I'm glad you are okay, bug."

My mind flashes back to the final moments at school. I feel the dread set in, remembering Joshua, and then Anna. Oh god, Anna. "Is..." My voice cracks and I try swallowing to moisten my dry throat. "Is Anna okay?"

My mom pulls back, and she swipes a strand of my black hair out of my face. "Anna is fine. She and Seth are so worried about you. I sent them home a couple of hours ago. They didn't want to leave you until you woke up, especially Seth. But their parents wanted them to go home and get some rest. They will be so happy to hear that you are awake."

My dad clears his throat and pulls his phone out of his pocket. "I'll go call them right now. They wanted us to call them if anything changed." My dad gave me one last smile before heading out the door, his phone already at his ear.

"Can I have some water, please?" I ask. While my mom grabs the pitcher of water to fill up a cup, I slowly sit up. Doing this makes me wince when I felt a pinching pain on my left side. "Ow."

"Don't move too quickly. The shot was 'through and through,' the doctor said, but it will take a few days to heal." She hands me the cup. "Paige, when we got that call..." Fresh tears fall down her face. "We were so worried about you." I see the worry lines underneath her eyes, and I felt a tug of guilt.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Anna said you fought hard. We are so proud of you." My mom squeezes my hand and gives me an encouraging smile.

A thought strikes me after a few seconds, and as much as I don't want to ask, I need to know. "What about Joshua?"

The smile on my mom's face freezes, and she looks down at our conjoined hands. "They have arrested him. He was treated for his injuries and then taken down to the station. He'll live. Even though your father and I would prefer otherwise." When she looks up again, her lips are in a tight, thin line. "He'll never hurt you, or another living soul again. He's right where he deserves to be. And he'll stay there. We will all make sure of that."

My dad comes back into the room, followed closely by Officer Cunnings. "Good to see you are awake young lady." She closes the door before grabbing one of the hospital chairs and sits down beside the bed. "I'm sorry I had to do it. There was no other way. I prayed and prayed after I shot you that you would survive it. They said you passed out so quickly because of the shock of it all. That young man of yours, Seth? He's got a good head on his shoulders for trying to talk down a suspect. For a second there, I really thought he could calm down Joshua long enough to disarm him, but it didn't work out that way."

"Thank you," is the only thing I could bring myself to tell her.

She shakes her head at me. "No, thank you. If you didn't come forward, who knows how many more girls he could have hurt." She leans towards me. "Beth showed up at the police station and told us everything. She couldn't live with the guilt of anything else happening to you. That's how I knew he was at the school. I also wanted to tell you Wendy came forward to."