Chapter 6: A new life awaits
Cass feels exhausted as she went through a world wind of speaking to the many news stations and the newspapers to send out an alarm of her niece's disappearance. Now she has to address the public in King Tadashi's place.
Tadashi wanted to address the public. He especially felt useless when he had to get his face stitched and bandaged up from the accident.
But Cass advised him that it wasn't a good idea until his injury is less prominent looking. Especially since they want to try to focus the story on Hana and not the incident.
She stands behind the main doors ready with what she has to say as Callaghan announces "Countess Cassette is here address addressingthe public in the King's place."
That cause more of an uproar in the public and paparazzi as Cass comes out from the doors and to the podium.
" As you all know, a lot of things has happened. My nephew's coronation and my niece's disappearance." She started.
" Cassette! Isn't it true that the Princess has attacked her own brother before fleeing the palace?!" A newsman asked.
Cass felt a surge of anger when everyone keeps saying "attack" like her niece was a monster. But she kept her cool and said, " No. It was accident if you must know."
" Then how come she ran after the so called accident!?" Another man asked.
" Well she felt horrified of what she did." Cass said the obvious fact.
But the questions of the attack just kept on coming. Like a man firing out his favorite gun.
" Was she jealous of her brother's reign!?"
" Has she always had problems of being the second born?!"
" Was there a possibility that this was planned?!
" Is it true that the King might suffered permanent damage because of the attack!?"
Cass wanted to tune out all of these verbal attacks and it wasn't even for her. All this pressure to say the right things to the people. Trying to figure out what to do in this situation. "Everything my niece went through." She thought.
She looks up and the crowd and glares at them. She shouts, " ENOUGH!" and they finally shut up.
She breathes heavily in anger as she says, " Just look at you guys. Have you ever once wondered how my niece feels? Now wonder she ran away. Last night may have pushed her over the edge, but all this pressure you rained on her didn't help. Every single one of you expects her to be perfect? Before her training, she was perfect to me! From what I see, the pressure has done nothing but destroyed her. So before you all go blaming her, take a look in the mirror and see who has contributed to this! You need to remember, Princess or not, she is fourteen years old! If any of you have children, would you pressure them to be someone impossible like you are doing to my niece?"
Silence dawns on the press as they could not believe of what they had just heard. No dared to speak out against the countess again. Most of the them even actually had taken it to heart and looked away in shame.
Cass recovers and says this in a demanding tone, " I want my niece found. The King wants his little sister back. I'm asking you guys, not as a Countess, but just as a civilian to please to help me bring her home. Is that hard to ask? We love her so much. Even after what has happened. She needs to know that she is loved."
Hana's vision swims in deep pain and darkness as she starts to wake up in a bright room.
Her eyes adjust to the bright light and sees in herself in a strange sterile like room in a weird bed that prompts her up. There is a sink in the corner near the door and big windows on her right side.
" What kind of place is this?" She thought.
She looks down at herself to find her in a white hospital gown and her right leg casted.
She tries to move her left arm on for her to find it to be dark black and purple and handcuffed to the bed with something on her middle finger.
She starts breathing heavily and fidgeting with anxiety trying to figure out what's going on and what's going to happen to her as she looks around in her strange prison.
" Rest easy. You really took a major hit." She hears a raspy voice. She turns her head slightly toward the voice to find it belong to an elderly dark skin man. He was wearing a simple black dress shit and pants. The only thing significant about this guy was that he was carrying a bible.
" Oh great." She thought. " Someone to tell me I should be in hell."
She tries to speak, but can't find the words to say and keep scrunching her face from the pain. Her head and the left side of her face really hurts.
" If you want to know where you are, you're in the security ward of San Fransokyo general hospital. I'm the chaplain of the hospital. Father MacArthur. Can you try talking?" He asked the girl.
She slows her breathing down and gulps down the bile that has risen to her throat.
" You don't even know me or what I did." She finally croaked. " You would hate me."
" Hate is such a strong word. One does not hate without reason. But it's true. I don't know who you are, but I may have an idea where you came from." He said before he puts something on her lap. A cherry blossom kanzashi. The symbolic status of the princess of San Fransokyo.
She takes it in her right hand and stares at it. The very incriminating evidence of who she was. "Does everyone know who I am!? Has Tadashi found me?!" She thinks worryingly as she breathes shakingly.
" I found this in your sweater pocket. Doesn't take much to figure out who you are." He explains. " But if you think I said anything to the press or to anyone else, I didn't. Whether you wish to tell is up to you, but I don't go around making decisions for people."
She doesn't know what to say. She never had someone who gave her decent amount of respect to respect her personal decisions. Being a princess has never let her have that pleasure. But she doesn't deserve it.
She croaks, " Look I don't need a priest. No one cares about me. God doesn't care about me."
" On the contrary. I believe he works in mysterious ways." He responds.
" Last time I asked him to help me, I end up here." She said. as she frustratingly tugs on her handcuffed wrist again. She gasp a little from the pain in her wrist.
" I think you are where you are exactly meant to be." He said before he pulls out a bible and reads a passage from it.
Hana doesn't know what to make of this sudden generosity. All she could do was look away from the man and tune out the words he says as sleep overtakes her. She was exhausted.
Hana wakes up to see a man in a white coat flashing a light in her eyes.
" Ah." She responds to the sudden light.
" Sorry miss. I had to check to see how your pupils are responding. Luckily your head injury is only a concussion and that what I was worry about due to the severity of the crash."
" How bad am I?" She croaked.
" Well. Besides the concussion. You have a minor fracture in your left wrist and a broken right leg. Your left side of your face is badly bruised and lacerated. I don't know how much it might affect your left vision until your face heals up. But overall you got off lightly considering a truck rammed into your side." The doctor said.
" Lucky me." She sarcastically said before another question came to her, " Did I hurt anyone else?"
" No the truck driver came out of this shaken but unscathed and no other cars were involved." He said as he got back to the subject of her situation. " Now as for locating your family, we would like to have a name to go by." He added.
She looks away from the doctor. There was no way she was giving herself up and facing her family after everything that she did.
" Mam. I don't have time for this. I need a name or else I will have to call social services." He said impatiently.
" Go ahead then." She said before she hears a door open and close. It was Father MacArthur.
He said as he walked in," Actually that won't be necessary. The Lee family has agreed to take her in. As soon as she's discharged of course."
The doctor said, " Very well." and nods before he leaves the room to do his other rounds.
" You still here?" She says to the priest.
" If this is here." He points to his bible on the chair by her bed. " I'm here. You were sleeping, so I didn't think you would mind if I used your bathroom."
Hana looks at the priest, " You didn't have to do that. I mean finding me a place to go."
" Look it's only an offer unless you wish to return to the palace. You don't have to take it. But I'm not letting you go back to the streets neither are the doctors. The police probably will drop all charges against you." He said.
" I can handle myself. Thank you very much" She said.
" Very well. But even if you leave here by yourself, where will you go? How would you even support yourself?" He asked her.
She grumbles in response as he does bring up a decent point.
" Why are helping me? I didn't ask you to do that." She asked.
" It's my job." He answers.
" You're a priest." She scoffs.
" In all my years as a chaplain, I know when a troubled youth such as yourself needs a place to figure out themselves. Who they are and who they want to become." He explains.
" Is that from the bible?" She asked about what he said.
" No. It's just common courtesy." He answered.
" If you're such a good priest, then why are you not in your own church?" Hana asks.
" This is my church." He says about the hospital. " I feel most belong here. Helping patients sort out themselves is what I am meant to do."
" I can never belong anywhere." She said.
" Everyone has a place where they belong. You will one day find yours."
" Yeah. Six feet under is more like it." She scoffs at herself. " Everyone hates me or wants me dead."
" You don't know that. God loves everyone. Don't think everyone has to hate you because of a misunderstanding. They will one day understand. But don't think that you should be dead. God put you here for a reason." He said sincerely.
" Then where was he when I needed him?! When I used to cry for him to save me every single night!" She screamed. " No matter how much I scream, no will come for me! I harmed the face of this city. I made everyone in the whole world hate me in one night! What makes you think that god could love someone like me!"
" Don't make yourself suffer anymore than you were. What you need is to..." He started but Hana yells, " You think you know me!? You don't know anything! You talk about suffering! You don't know the kind of sick person that I am! You can't help me! Nothing you say can change my mind nor anyone else's! So just take your bible and go!"
He hesitates, but she screams, " Leave!"
He says nothing to it and respectively leaves her room calmly without objection. He looks back at her sadly before closing her hospital room door.
Hana wanted to hug herself and curl up in a ball as all of these emotions run through her head. But it's very difficult to do that when you are handcuffed to the bed. All she can is look up at the ceiling as tears silently run down her face.
" Is this the person that I truly am beyond my mask?" She thought. " Am I just really an unlikeable person?"
Wow. This is the first time we get to see Hana truly emotional and she is full of anger like no one's business. Same thing with Aunt Cass to the press. I wanted to do something where everyone is just plain angry with how other people are taking to this the wrong way. Even for those who didn't mean to anger them like the priest.
At first I didn't want to do the priest, but I wanted to show that not all priests are bad. There are still some good Catholic priests out there who want to help and do. I'm a full blooded Catholic, but I support everyone's beliefs and choices. Including LGBT and women's rights. So don't think that all Catholics are evil. It's just the bad ones are more publicized and famous.
Please Review and See you later.