When I had regained my composure I looked back up at him, he was a strange looking character; he looked like the others but more regal, more arrogant and sure of himself than the others did and he even looked more complete. He also looked like he had come to terms with some great burden, he had dark circles around his eyes like he hadn’t gotten a decent night’s sleep for a long time, he looked a bit on the thin side as if he hadn’t been eating well either. I looked at him with growing distain; he was like an eel, slippery and cunning. Yes, that summed him up in one glance nicely.
I could not believe it, ‘He’ had taken interest in me for some unknown reason but by the look on his face, I thought that he looked like he was sorry for me, I don’t know why because he started this in the first place.
He stirred some unknown emotion in me, I don’t know what it was, it could have been pure loathing or fear or something else entirely that I didn’t want to acknowledge. I would never acknowledge that feeling for him or from him, he looked to be five times my age and had the compatibility of a cat is to a mouse.
“What is your name child?” He asked, lifting my chin up and examining me as Jennifer had before,
“T-T-Trish sir, my name is Trish,” I stuttered trying to avoid his gaze,
“Look at me,” he commanded, I couldn’t help it I wouldn’t dare defy his order, I looked up and noticed that his eyes were an unnatural green, and his skin was a dark caramel brown, his black hair tied back with a leather thong.
“Trish…” he said my name, sounding it out, rolling it around in his mouth like a sweet,
“My name is Nicholas, but my servants call me ‘He’ because I gave them the life that they now have,” he continued, his attention starting to wane. He let go of my chin and stood back, he turned around to look at David, Ben and Jennifer. He beckoned them forward, “Follow,” was all he said and walked out of the room, Daniel, Ben and Jennifer trailing after him like leaves caught in a draught.
I don’t know what he had said to them, but when they came back in they had looks of joy crossed with sadness on their face, they all glanced at Daniel and sharply looked away, hurrying past him like he had the plague.
“Daniel, a word,” Nicholas said, standing near the door, he waited till Daniel had walked past before he shut the door, before he left he glanced briefly at me, I glared at him defiantly and waited till he left before I broke down in tears. I missed my parents, I missed my cat, Fat Louie, I hated these people for keeping me here and most of all I hated Nicholas for making me feel insignificant.
They were all staring at me as I cried, they were fascinated by my tears; one of them walked forwards and touched a finger to a tear that was sliding down my face, they retreated back to a corner and touched their finger to their tongue,
“Salt, she cries salt like humans do,” they said, amazed as if they had expected something else. The others all darted towards me, touching my tears and darting away like the first one had; only Ben stayed where he was, staring at the others with distaste as they prodded and poked me. Ben had tanned, chestnut brown skin, chocolate brown eyes and light brown silky hair that fell down to his shoulders in braids; his arms were crossed in front of him, making his huge ropey muscles bulge even more, he looked like a tree made out of metal, he was tall, strong and mesmerising. He was fascinating, he was every bit like the others but in every way different, the others were like little children, something small would fascinate them for a short while before they got bored of it, but he would remain captivated by the smallest detail, just like I would. He seemed revolted by me but enthralled as well, to him I was like a confusing puzzle that needed a lot of time to figure out. I would put his age at fourteen maybe even fifteen. The others I would put at eighteen to twenty-three, but Jennifer and David would be probably around twenty-five and Nicholas gosh he would be twenty-seven or older.
I had stopped crying when Nicholas walked back in with Daniel. He just stared at the others as they all retreated to a corner, cowering away from him as he glared at each one in turn, he turned to Daniel and motioned him forward, Daniel came towards me and looked at me in disgust, his eyes were filled with sadness, regret and anger,
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” he said and looked away,
“‘If?’ what do you mean ‘if’ you scared me? You great big bully!” I shrieked at him, he jumped back, startled and looked at Nicholas for help,
“I think she’s a little upset, but I think this is all you’re going to get as ‘apology accepted’,” Nicholas said amusedly, he nodded his head to Daniel and walked towards me, Daniel slinked into a corner away from the others. I started screaming obscenities at Nicholas as he walked towards me,
“Hmmm, a girl your age shouldn’t be saying such things,” he said with a smirk, he waved his hand in my direction and I suddenly found that I couldn’t talk,
“Ah, that’s better, now you’re going to sit there and listen aren’t you,” he said with a wicked grin, I glared at him as I couldn’t even open my mouth to stick out my tongue. He walked towards me until he was leaning over me; his green eyes stared into mine. I thought that he was never going to look away, he abruptly stood up ramrod straight and sharply looked at one of his ‘servants’ with a look that could kill, apparently it could as one of them dropped to the floor thrashing and holding his throat. He walked over to them, said something in a whisper and walked back, from the expressions on the others faces he must have said something that had gotten them really scared as they all hurried about trying to look busy, a few grabbed the now still corps and dragged it out of the room. Nicholas watched them with a look of disgust, finally he got bored of watching them and turned his attention back to me,
“Now, if you’re prepared to shut up and listen and not shout obscenities at me, I will answer your questions,” Nicholas said, I nodded my understanding, he waved a hand at me and I was able to speak,
“Ok, first question, why do you want to kill me?” I asked with a glare, he looked at me as though he hadn’t heard me,
“Ask me another question, I can’t answer that one,” he said, I stared at him uncomprehending,
“Why?” I asked,
“Because I just can’t,” he replied, his gaze shifting from my face to Ben, he beckoned him over and whispered something in his ear, Ben nodded and walked out of the room. I watched him walk out, and looked back at Nicholas,
“Hmmm, good choice, Ben is a nice bloke or was before he became mine,” he said with a smirk,
“I don’t know what you mean Nicholas,” I said ignoring him, looking anywhere but at him,
“Oh come now Trish, I’m not stupid,” he replied exasperated
“I never said you were, but I just don’t know what you’re on about,” I snapped back at him, he was really getting under my skin, he glared at me, his gazing boring into me until I looked at him, he shifted his gaze to a patch on the wall,
“You like him, I’ve seen a look like that on a girls face too many times to not know what she’s thinking,” he replied coolly, it almost sounded as if he was jealous, I couldn’t help myself, I was so angry that I was shaking,
“Oh don’t flatter yourself Nicholas, you act all high and mighty but really you’re just some scum that I find under my boot!” I shouted, he looked at me so fast that I thought he had snapped his neck; his eyes were blazing,
oops, that wasn’t the smartest thing to say, I thought, cowering under his gaze. He didn’t say anything but just looked at me, suddenly he stood up and walked away, he stood there in front of the dust covered window, staring at his reflection, he started to mutter too himself, incomprehensible, unfinished sentences, with each word he seemed to sag and become paler,
“Nicholas?” I said softly, to see him battle with himself like that, even if I did hate him, it made me sick, I looked down and silently started to cry. Sometime later he walked over and stood in front of me, he placed a hand on me head, I recoiled at his touch, he removed his hand and walked out of the room. I thought he had left me alone for good but after a few seconds he came back dragging a chair behind him, he placed it next to me and sat down heavily,
“Ai god,” he said, resting his head in his hands, “You know, you’re right, I am nothing but scum,” he continued, he heaved a sigh and looked up at me, leaning his arms on his thighs he leaned forward, he started to speak but I cut in,
“Nicholas, look I’m sorry, you were right, I had no right to shout at you,” I said, not meeting his gaze,
“Trish, you had every right to shout at me, I killed your parents, brought you here, attempted to kill you for reasons you can’t comprehend at the moment, christ, I even tried to seduce you,” he said, holding up a hand to stop the torrent of words that were about to come pouring out of my mouth. I just stared at him, blinking like an owl, he smiled ruefully and pulled out a knife, he leaned towards me, I jerked back but he only cut my bonds and sheathed the knife,
“If you’d like to follow me,” he said, standing up and motioning towards the door,
I just nodded numbly, rubbing my wrists to get the circulation going again, we walked out of the room and down the hallway, I thought about running away but the only problem was that the front door was in the direction we were going and Nicholas was in front of me. I sighed in despair, resigning myself to my fate, it seemed like we would never stop walking. I started humming the Mickey Mouse Club House theme song too myself to pass the time, not long after I had started a new tune we walked into another room. I stood in the door way stunned, the room was massive but what caught my attention was the table in the middle of the room, it was filled with food and seemed to stretch on forever, my jaw nearly hit the floor,
“If you don’t shut your mouth you will be full of flies before you get your hands on any food,” Nicholas remarked dryly, he was standing behind a chair, waiting for me to sit in it. I shut my mouth and glared at him, he cracked a grin, the first actual genuine grin of happiness I had seen yet, I couldn’t help myself; I grinned in response and sat down in the offered chair, he had a nice smile,
“Thanks Nicholas,” I muttered, blushing, Nicholas sat down beside me,
“Please call me Nick,” he said,
“Ok Nick,” I said, “So what’s all this about?”
He looked at me and shrugged, Ben walked towards us carrying a silver tray, he offered it to Nicholas, I couldn’t see what was on the tray, but when Ben whispered something into Nicholas’ ear I got a feeling of dread and despair. Nicholas took whatever was on the tray and turned to me, with a sudden movement, whatever had been on the tray was now embedded in my chest, I looked down and saw a knife sticking out, I looked up at Nicholas, a sentence was bubbling on my lips but he shushed me,
“You’re not going to die, you’re just going to sleep,” he said sadly, he removed his hand from the knife, I just stared at him, tears starting to drip down my face,
‘Sorry’ he mouthed. Everything became blurry and mixed up, it started to rain inside, I was outside looking in, and I saw myself sleeping inside in the rain...
I awoke with a start, sweat dripping down my face, the details of the dream already starting to fade from my mind, I looked down and saw my bandaged chest, both my legs were bandaged up and the pain factor of my injuries had gone from eleven to fifteen. For some reason it still felt like I had the knife embedded in my chest, it was only a dream Trish, relax you’re fine, you’re alive just breathe, I thought, taking deep breaths to steady myself,
“Oh hello, welcome back to the land of the living, you’ve been out for a couple of hours, you’re lucky you survived, with the amount of blood you lost and the crash itself, you should be dead,” a nurse said, walking over as she noticed that I had awoken. I nodded, I really didn’t care, I was just glad I was awake,
“Where am I?” I croaked, my gummy eyes starting to respond by opening a fraction wider. I looked around me; someone had placed flowers next to my bed, they were roses, I love roses. The curtains around my bed were pulled shut,
“You’re in the Royal Children’s Hospital of London.” The nurse said, looking for a file on her desk. I recognized the ambulance officers from the crash sitting over at one of the tables, drinking coffee by the smell.
Hi, welcome back, how you feeling? a voice said, I jumped
It’s ok, it is me, Josh, from the crash, the ambulance officer, you remember me? he said
Oh, hello, yes I remember you, I’m Trish, Trish Stewart, I’m thirteen and I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck, I replied, looking over at the table again, Josh seemed to be talking animatedly to the other officer.
How do you do that? I can’t hold two conversations at once, I asked puzzled,
Oh, it’s not that hard, just a little practice and concentration and there you have it, you better answer the nurse, she’s getting impatient. he said and with that, he ended the conversation. I looked back to the nurse; she did look a bit red in the face,
“Sorry? I didn’t quite catch that,” I said looking abashed,
“I said how are you feeling? I need you to tell me your name and age please,” she repeated
“Oh, sorry, I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck, and my name is Trish Stewart and I am thirteen years old, born on the 13th of August, I can’t remember what year though,” I replied, thinking,
“Thank you, and you were born in…1994,” she said consulting my file, she flashed me a grin “Now if you need anything, just press this red button, and the TV is up there and the remote is here,” she continued, gesturing to the things as she said them.
“Ok, thank you, um one question, may I talk to Josh?” I asked nodding my appreciation,
“Yes I think you should be able to talk to him, I’ll just go see what he says,” she replied and walked over to Josh and told him of my proposal. He nodded and walked over, telling his colleague to go back to the crash site and help.
“Yes, you wanted to talk to me?” he asked with a raised eyebrow,
“Um…yes, I was wondering a few things,” I said, “what’s going to happen to me now?”
“Well you’ll go up for adoption as you have no living relatives that we know of,” he replied with a strange expression, I thought of this,
“But I have my Nana, why can’t I go live with her?” I asked puzzled,
“Well, um...ah...well, your Grandmother was found dead in her home yesterday,” Josh said feeling awkward; I just lay there staring at him, my Nana dead, the thought wouldn’t go away, it remained there like it was stuck to my forehead with superglue. A tear slid down my cheek and splashed onto the bed sheet; a flood of tears suddenly cascaded down my face to join the first tear on the bed sheet. When I stopped hiccupping Josh came and sat on the bed beside me, I hugged him and had to stop myself from crying again.
Adoption hey, hmm well can’t be too bad, as long as I get treated ok,I thought to Josh to try and avoid thinking about it,
Well you should be ok, as long as you go to a good family, he replied,
Well could I come live with you? You seem to be a nice enough guy, I asked excited,
I doubt they would let me, I’m not exactly in a great situation at the moment, I have my own house but I’ve just finished school and I’ll be going into university soon, plus I’m hardly at home because of work, he told me nervously,
Oh that’s ok, I can take care of myself, I mean I’m thirteen years old and I’ve already survived a car crash and an encounter with a God, I said reassured by my capability,
You did what! Which God? he asked suddenly anxious about my encounter,
Oh don’t worry, he’s a lower god anyway, besides it was only The Grim Reaper, I replied, completely unfazed about his reaction.
That is beside the point, even though he is just a lower god, you should be very careful, never upset a god, even if they are lower ones. I made the mistake of upsetting a god, and they just happened to be Hathor the goddess of love, happiness, music, inebriation, female sexuality and fertility, I guess you could say I was attracted. I have a scar from her just because I rubbed her the wrong way up the street, severely pissing her off. Do not make my mistake, it isn’t fun, he said abashed, ignoring my statement of my ability of autonomy,
Whatever, how old are you, I mean don’t you have to be a certain age to adopt anyway? I asked changing the subject. It felt weird without Mum and Dad around anymore, I was about to start crying when I thought,well it wouldn’t do me or them any good if I start crying, what have I got to gain from it anyway?
I am only nineteen, not that old, as I said, I am just out of school, he said answering my question uncomfortably.
Oh ok, I said.
“What can I do to make me get good adoptive parents?” I asked aloud to end the mental conversation, which was getting uncomfortable,
“Nothin’ really, all you can do is hope,” he replied, also glad for the end of the conversation
“Ok…Jesus Christ! Have you seen the knife I had? It’s missing!” I said suddenly realizing it wasn’t with me, slapping my head at my forgetfulness
“Hey don’t do that, you’ll open your stitches up, and don’t worry I have it here,” he said and produced it from a pocket,
“Jeez, thanks, I had completely forgotten about it,” I said and took it from him, and studied it to make sure it was the same as it was when Death gave it to me. As I was thinking of Death and his visit, I suddenly looked around, trying to spot my raven that was supposed to be following me, I could not see it.
“Hey Josh would you mind opening the curtains of that window please?” I asked, wanting to look outside for it,
“Sure, this one here?” he asked, gesturing to the window next to my bed, I nodded and he pulled the curtains wide, revealing the gold streaked forget-me-not blue sky of the morning, the sun had not long risen. Sitting on the windowsill were a bunch of pigeons and one black raven, thank god for that, I thought privately, hmmm time to test Deaths’ word that only him and I can see it. I counted the birds sitting on the window sill, one, two, three, five, seven, I counted seven including my raven, so there are only six pigeons, good I thought and turned to Josh,
“Say Josh, how many birds are sitting on the window sill?” I asked, curiosity was getting the better of me,
“There are…six birds sitting on the window sill, why?” he asked, taking a few seconds to count them,
“Just wondering if my eyes are working correctly, you know just making sure I didn’t get hit in the head to hard,” I replied, relief washing over me in waves, he shrugged his shoulders and went and got another cup of coffee,
“So when am I gonna get released from the hospital?” I asked as I watched him fill his mug with, strong black coffee,
“Dunno, until you get adopted I guess, or you get put into a family to take care of you till you get adopted, if that makes sense,” he replied, dropping two cubes of sugar in his cup and using a paddle pop stick to stir it in with. He walked over with his coffee and sat in the chair next to my bed watching me over the rim of his mug. I looked around me taking in the most minuscule details of my surroundings, I had been changed into a pair of hospital PJ’s and I had a drip in each arm, one was giving me blood and the other was a fluid drip. Josh was staring at me,
“What, why are you staring at me. It’s not nice you know,” I remarked smirking, he shrugged his shoulders,
“‘Cause I can? There is just something about you that I find interesting? I dunno,” he said breaking eye contact, I’m not that stupid as to not know when someone is hitting on me,
“Hmmmm, you know flirting with me, an thirteen year old at that, won’t really affect me?” I asked, giving him a look that made him look down with a smile and a reddening of the face and ears, he coughed down a laugh and raised his head to look at me,
“Well it doesn’t help that your cute, smart, funny and amazingly attractive for your age, if you were taller I would put your age at….oh I dunno…between sixteen and nineteen,” he remarked wryly, I shrugged my shoulders in reply,
“So, that makes no difference, your nineteen you should know better,” I said still smirking,
“Hey, it’s my eight hour shift, I’ve been up since ten o’clock last night and only got three hours rest, I’m on my seventh cup of coffee, so I’m actually going pretty well for a rookie,” he said defensively,
“So what do you do in your line of work?” I asked, deliberately changing the subject
“Nothing much, mostly things like crashes, rescues, house calls, but we do much more, but me being a rookie I don’t get to go to most things, I guess you can say I don’t get much action” he replied, relaxing as the conversation got into an area he was comfortable with. We talked for hours about various subjects, until about 10:20 am,
“Jeez, is that the time! I really must go now, my shift ended forty minutes ago, I’ll talk to you later when your better, see ya!” he said, astonished at how fast the time had gone and walked out with a newspaper under his arm, hurriedly drinking what was left of his cup of coffee,
Guess I’ll talk to you later then, I thought to myself, it seemed lately that everyone was running away from me.
At lunchtime I was allowed go to the bathroom, a bed pan, man I never want to see another one in my life.
Before I got to eat I had to fill in a form to say what I was going to have at dinner and breakfast the next morning.
Jeez, they’re pretty organized, now what do I want for breakfast, cereal and orange juice, egg and orange juice, porridge and orange juice, toast and orange juice or fruit, grains and orange juice, so many choices. I thought amusedly, and ticked the box for fruit, grains and orange juice. Now for dinner, I can have, macaroni cheese with vegetables and milk or orange juice, pie with chips, vegetables and milk or orange juice, beef stroganoff with vegetables and milk or orange juice, or I can have steak with chips, vegetables and milk or orange juice, jeez these people are so original! I thought sarcastically and ticked the box for beef stroganoff. Do I want dessert? No, I do not think I’ll have dessert; my head was starting to hurt with thinking. I gave up, placed the card to the side, and ate my ham and cheese sandwich with orange juice, savouring the taste of plastic cheese and ham that I was pretty sure wasn’t ham but silverside, I drank my bitter orange juice, making faces as I did. After lunch I decided to have a nap, rolling onto my side and staring out the window until my eyes felt heavy, feeling them slide down and going to the welcoming folds of sleep.
I dreamt of skulls and people of old. I was running through ruins, the ruins of Athens for some reason, I was running from something, what I don’t know.
I woke in a cold sweat, not knowing why I was scared. I looked around me, felt reassured and took a deep breath, slowly relaxing my tense muscles one by one. I looked around again, and saw Josh sitting over at the tables again, by the looks of things he had fallen asleep slumped over the table, funnily enough he had a cup of coffee next to him, and I guessed it to be at least his fifteenth cup today. I looked for a clock and saw one hanging over the doorway, how convenient, I thought straining to see what the time was,
The time is two thirty, in case you’re wondering, Josh said stretching and getting up, bringing his coffee with him and plunking himself down into the chair next to me,
How long have you been here? I asked worried about him,
Oh I’d say ten minutes, I was pretty tired he replied rubbing his eyes, he replied rubbing his eyes, at least he had changed out of his uniform,
Did you even go home and sleep? I enquired,
No, I just went home, changed, went and found something to eat, then came here, he said smiling,
“You really need to stop drinking coffee, you know,” I said smiling in reply, Josh nodded,
“It’s bad for you, I know,” he said, he sat there in the visitor’s couch smiling at me, sipping his coffee,
He made a face, “Yuck, lukewarm coffee,” he said, he got up and walked to the sink and tipped out the remainder of his coffee, he rinsed his mug out and placed it on the draining board,
I’m just going to go up to the cafeteria to get something to drink, I’ll be right back he said and walked out of the room,
No coffee I shouted back at him, he laughed in response.
After a few minutes Josh came back holding a bottle of orange juice and a steaming liquid in a Styrofoam cup, I gave him a look and he laughed,
Relax it’s not coffee, it’s hot chocolate and I got it for you, he said still laughing, at the word chocolate a huge grin lit my face,
“Thanks Josh,” I said, blushing as he handed the cup to me, as we sat there drinking I got a real good chance to study Josh; his lightly tanned skin and strawberry blond hair made his eyes the centre of attention, even though they were already quite astonishing; his eyes were a light shade of purple.
Nice eyes Josh, I said admiringly
Lay off the eyes Trish, he said blushing, he grinned,
Hey, I think that they’re pretty cool, I remarked smiling back
Thanks Trish, Josh said, I nodded.
I was contemplating on whether to ask him about Nicholas or not when Josh’s pager went off,
“Ah shit, I have to go, I’m on call and it looks like something bad has happened, sorry Trish,” he explained, regretfully he got up and speed walked to his locker,
“I’ll be back soon, I promise ,” he shouted over his shoulder, I watched him walk away, a tear sliding down my cheek. I berated myself for crying, he’ll be back, he probably has a girlfriend anyway, besides he too old for you, I thought, angrily wiping away the tears that had started to pour down my face. The nurse walked over and started to sooth me as though I was in pain, she asked me if I wanted some pain relief, I shook my head and continued crying, letting the nurse comfort me, she handed me a tissue and I blew my nose, sniffed and dozed off as the nurse left.
A short time later, I awoke to the sound of doctors talking; I cracked an eyelid and saw a bunch of them huddled around the bed across the way. The curtains around that particular bed had been shut for a while, since I had first awoken, now that the curtains were open I could see another kid lying there with enough tubes, wires and other things to keep five more kids alive, he was as pale as the sheets he was lying on. I squinted as I struggled to read the name that was scrawled on the board above the bed, a doctor walked from the boys cubical to mine, blocking my view,
“Hi, I’m Dr. Frank Mitchell, I operated on your injuries, how do you feel?” he said as he studied my chart that hung at the end of my bed,
“Ah....ok I guess, my legs throb everyday and my chest doesn’t hurt as much,” I replied, eyeing him warily
“That’s good, I can get you something for you legs if you want, to stop the pain,” he said, I nodded accepting his proposal and he seemed satisfied. He walked over to the reception desk and told the nurse stationed there about pain relief for me when I needed it, she nodded and the doctor walked out, I never saw that particular doctor again.
The other doctors soon left the boy across the way, the curtains remained open, I stared at him, he was asleep or heavily drugged and he remained that way for a few days.
