BIRDIE'S POV
"I'm bored." I announced loudly.
"I'm not allowed to give you anything." Derek replied, "Sorry."
"I'm bored." I said again.
"Look, I'm sorry but," He began again.
"I heard you the first time!" I snapped. He was standing just inside today. Apparently someone passing by in the hall had become concerned when they heard me talking to myself and now Derek guarded me from inside the room. I'd tried to convince them that I was not insane, only trying to pass the time but either they refused to believe me or just weren't allowed to.
How long had I been there? Three, four days? It already felt like an eternity. I hated being so far away from Carter, and I hated everyone here for keeping us apart. I'd grown so used to seeing him every morning, night and day that this was near torture to me.
Please hurry, Carter. I pleaded in my thoughts, I can't stand it here. I can't stand being without you.
CASPAR'S POV
I strained against Manuel's iron grip as he forced me into the alleyway. Luc swirled around with a cruel smirk on his face. I only had a small window of time and opportunity in which to make my escape, and if I didn't take it then I was sure I would die here.
One of the first things you learn to do in the gangs is fight. If you can't fight, then you won't survive. The fights were never just street fights between unarmed boys; they were battles of strength and skill that usually ended with someone dying. If they didn't die, then they were injured beyond repair.
Wanting to avoid both of the afore-mentioned consequences, I struggled and twisted and used every trick in the book for getting away from someone but Manuel countered them all and Luc just watched me with an amused air about him.
"This bores me." Luc yawned, and lunged forwards. Before I had even realized what was happening, Luc's stiletto knife had plunged itself deep into my gut. I gasped and doubled over as far as I could with Manuel still holding my arms back.
"Boss said to take it slow." Manuel reminded Luc.
"I can do slow." Luc nodded and grinned with an evil glint in his eye while I started hacking blood onto the pavement. "Hold him still."
Luc took a step closer to me with the knife and grabbed my jaw in his hand, lifting my face to look at his. I coughed again, and he frowned but didn't bother to wipe my blood off of his face. His cold eyes surveyed me for a moment, and then he lifted the knife and began carving long, deep gashed into my face. My blood ran hot down my cheeks and neck. I was too weak to try and escape now. The loss of blood was making my head spin and nausea took over from the blood that I was swallowing and coughing back up at the same time. Soon enough, I became unconscious.
I wouldn't wake up until it was too late, and I'd been slashed nearly to bits.
CASPAR'S POV
I hated being stared at. My whole life I had gone out of my way to remain unnoticed, and I had become known for being invisible. Now I was impossible to miss. I stuck out like a penguin among geese.
"Betts." I said, directing my attention towards the petite brown-haired girl.
"Can I see her?" She asked.
"Up the stairs, first door on the third floor." I nodded towards the staircase and watched as Betts sprinted up it, eager to see her sister after having been apart for so long.
"Well?" I asked the rest of the boys in the room. "Have you got anything to say or are you just going to stare?"
"We thought it was just your face…" Bear finally spoke up, his eyes as big as saucers as he took me in.
"Are those…" Nelson gulped, "Their initials?" His eyes were fixed on the bright red L.M. and M.C. carved carefully below the right half of my collar bone. I nodded.
"Caspar…"
"We didn't know it was so bad…"
"Is that all of them?..."
Every boy who managed to say something would trail off and look away for just a moment before their gazes were fixed on me again. While I had their attention, I figured I would address a bigger issue at hand.
"We need a new ghost." I announced.
"What?" They asked, "You've always been the ghost. Why do we need a new one?"
"Just look at me. I can't hide these. My face will be known among the gangs soon enough, and they'll recognize me at a glance. I can't be the ghost anymore."
"But Caspar," Kelly started.
"Carter." I corrected him.
"We've always called you Caspar." He protested.
"And now you will call me Carter." I used an authoritative tone and stern look to remind him that I was in charge, and I would not be questioned.
My word was law.
CASPAR'S POV
I awoke amidst a disorganized chorus of various mechanical beeps and flashing lights on monist positioned around me. The bright white lights above my head blinded me at first and I winced away from them. After a few seconds of confusion, I realized where I was. A hospital!
"No!" I exclaimed and began to get up, but cried out in pain and fell back against the bleached linen on the thin hospital issue mattress.
Soon enough, three nurses rushed into the room and began hurrying about, fixing me or something.
"He's awake, he's awake!"
"Oh dear, the poor boy tried to get up!"
"Look at how many stitches he has torn, it'll take hours to fix these."
"Get Dr. Carmina in here, this is her patient."
One nurse nodded and left, while the other two fixed the amounts of medication in my IV drips and used bandages and things to stop the bleeding from the newly opened gashes all over his body.
"I have to go. I have to leave." I murmured and struggled to sit up in a pain and drug-induced state of delirium.
"Hold him down; I'll give him something to knock him out." The tallest nurse said, while the shorter once gently pushed my shoulders back down on the bed. Not long after she did, everything went black again.
