K, this was floating around in my head, and I apologize in advance for the very, very dark nature.
I watch my best friend eat a bowl of cereal, and ponder what's going on in her blond head. It's about 11:30 at night, but she was hungry, and the cereal is technically hers. She brought it with her when she moved in. I guess, that begs the question,' why do we still have a box of cereal from 3 months ago'? Anyway, I guess i should explain.
Y'see, Sam moved in with me and Spencer about 3 months ago, after her mom's accident. On the way back from a job interview a drunk driver had run a redlight. She was killed on impact.
No one could find Sam's dad (no surprise, there), so Sam was gonna move in with her cousin Annie. She was the only one not in jail, but Spencer figured since we only had 1 year left in High School it would be easier for Sam to finish out the year, and offered to let her live with us. SO, Annie flew out here, and signed over legal guardianship to Spencer.
That's been the norm for the last 3 months. It was summer when her mom died, so we've been back in school for about a month.
Anyway, we were enjoying cereal at 11 PM when my we hear a bang on the front door. I spring up to grab the door. Who could that be, this late?
I open the door, to see Freddie standing there, a very scary look on his face. He rushes in the apartment before I can say anything.
"What's going on, Frednub?" Sam looks up from her cereal. "What's so important you burst in here at nearly midnight?"
"NOT NOW, PUCKETT." He nearly jumps on Sam, but I put my hand on his shoulder to calm him.
"What's going on Freddie?" I try to soothe him.
He visibly calms, but his voice is still shaky as he tried to explain. "It's my mom, she was working the night shift again." I guide him to the chair across from the couch, and kneel down to run my hand over his knee.
"Take your time, we're here." I look back at Sam, quizzically. "She usually works the 3rd shift, what's different."
"I got a call from the hospital." A tear slowly rolls down his cheek as he looks up at me. "Something happened. They won't tell me exactly what, but I need to go. Will you two come with me?"
"Of course, Freddie. Let us grab out coats." I stand up, and rush to the stairs to get my and Sam's cots outta my room. Spencer comes out of his room, groggily.
"What's going on, I heard screaming." He rubs the sleep out of his eyes.
I try to explain as quickly as I can. "Something happened to Freddie's mom, we're gonna go with him to see her."
"Ok, do you need me to go?" Spencer looks over at Freddie.
"No, that's ok. Thank you Spence." Freddie seems to have clamed considerably.
'Why do I have to go, though?" Sam whines, but I can tell she's faking.
"Becauwe Freddie is your friend too." I explain to her, as if I were her mother. "Now, get some real clothes on." She grabs her jeans from behind the couch.
"What can I say, old habits die hard." Freddie gives her an odd look.
…
At the hospital
…
We burst through the door of the ER Department, where Ms. Benson was supposed to be working the front desk. There are police everywhere.
Freddie runs up to the front desk, where there is another woman sitting. "Where's my mom?"
The nurse looks up at him, and starts to say something, before a cop walks up behind him. "Are you Freddie Benson?" He places a hand on his shoulder.
Freddie turns to look at the heavy set police officer. "Yeah, that's me. Where's my mom?"
"Hey, you're Carl." Sam bounds up behind the officer, and hugs him form behind. "You know all of us."
"Oh, yeah, you're the iCarly kids." He doesn't look as happy to see us, as Sam seems to be.
"Anyway, your mother is in the ER, room 5. There was an 'incident'. Can we walk while I explain everything to you?"
I walk up next to my best friends. "Yeah, but tell us what's going on."
'Like I said, there was an incident." We start walking down the hall toward the ER room. "Your mom is not doing so well." He looks at Freddie, who looks like he is going to collapse. Sam sees an old man in a wheelchair, and grabs it. She dumps the man on the floor, and shoves Freddie in the chair.
"What is that about?" I give Sam a very surprised look.
"He needs it more." She says with a note of finality.
"Anyway, like I was saying. A guy grabbed Ms. Benson when she went outside to get her lunch out of her car."
"What do you mean, 'grabbed her'?" I ask Carl.
"He was looking for drugs. He came in the ER dragging her. He had a gun to her head, and told the other nurse on duty, if she didn't get him some stuff, he would kill your mom."
We get to the door of Freddie's mom's room. Carl puts his hand on the door, and looks back to us. "I warn you, it isn't pretty. She took a pretty good shot."
I start to ask what he is talking about, but Freddie jumps out of the wheelchair, and burst into the room. He collapses to the floor, looking at his mother.
He head and arms are wrapped in bandages, and there is a constant, but slow beep filling the room.
"They had to induce a coma. Your mom was shot in the temple, when she tried to wrestle the gun from her attacker." Carl helps Freddie into the chair next to the bed. "The bandages on her arm, are from the burn, when she tried to grab the gun, it burned her pretty bad."
"Is she going to be ok?" Freddie pleads with the police officer.
"According to the doctor, it's pretty iffy. We don't know, she may pull through, but it will take time."
"And where is the bastard that did this to her?" Sam runs up to stand in front of Carl. I can't approach any closer than the foot of the bed. I'm holding on, to keep form collapsing at the sight before me.
'He was injured, as well, in the scuffle." Carl starts to explain. "He is in the next room, handcuffed to a hospital bed. We have to wait until the drugs he was already on wear off, before they can treat him, and we can arrest him."
Freddie runs out of the room, before Carl or I can grab him. Sam grabs me, and we run after him.
We get to the next room, to find Freddie trying to strangle the man in the bed. "WHY? WHO ARE YOU?" Freddie is nearly crying. Sam and I jump on Freddie to pull him off, before he does anything stupid. He is surprisingly hard to move, even with both of us working.
We finally pry Freddie off the man. I spot his jacket sitting on the chair, with is wallet hanging out of the pocket. I let go of Freddie, to go and retrieve it. Freddie breaks away from Sam, and jumps at a drawer on the cart next to the bed.
He grabs a scalpel out of the drawer, and jumps on top of the man. I drop the wallet, and his license falls out. I start to jump at Freddie, before I catch a glimpse at the name. It can't be.
Sam grabs the scalpel away from Freddie, pulls him off. I motion for her to come to me. She has Freddie in a chicken wing as she walks over to me.
"What Carls? Kinda busy here."
"This." I hand her the license. It belongs to one MR. James PUCKETT. Sam's estranged father, finally returned.
Sam takes one look at the card in her hand, and releases Freddie. She switches the scalpel to her right hand, and jumps on top of the man in the bed, with a feral yell. Before Freddie or I can do anything, she plunges the knife into his heart.
I know, the end was abrupt. It was meant to be. This is probably the darkest thing I will ever write, hopefully. In the original draft Ms. Benson was dead, but I figured it was dark enough already.