Chapter Twenty-One
SOMEONE GAVE ME MILK AND COOKIES! I am a happy camper. And that is good. Campers ought to be happy. Although I am not camping, I'm at home wondering why it's so dang hot!
You know what else makes me happy? Reviews do. And I have so many. I have nearly eighty! The one funny thing is no one EVER comments on Chapter Four. What did chapter four do to you? Would you rather Whitney show up out of nowhere? Bam! Whitney arrived! When? I don't know. There's a camera? Says who? It's for rats? Really, why? Who put it there? Chapter Four tells you!
Sorry. Milk and cookies make me fight for equal rights to all chapters. But that is okay. For those of my readers whom are feelings pangs of guilt, go eat cookies. It'll make you feel alright again. And if you still feel guilt, go comment on Chapter Four and tell it how much you love it. It'll thank you.
For those of you who read my rant-fest last chapter, this is the chapter that will give you a little scroll-thing in order to reach it I think. This makes me giddy with excitement. Or maybe that's the knowledge that school is starting soon making me giddy with terror. Either way, butterflies!
Jasper's point of view:
If my life was one of those children's books that describe the story through sound effects (man those things get old in my opinion), this is how it would go in those moments in the hospital:
Click-a click, said the heels going down the hallway, scraping at the tile as though it angered them.
Cree-eek, said the chair as the policeman adjusted his weight.
Beep; beep said Maggie's heartbeat, rising up and down on the EKG as she slept.
Whoosh, whoosh said their breathing, in and out to four different rhythms.
Mumble, mumble, said voices up and down the hall, talking about something or someone.
Silence said Whitney, Henry, and Jasper as they sat frozen stiff in their hospital chairs.
Snowflakes danced down past the windows, covering the world in a blanket of white. Each one zoomed by, leaving before I could try to look at it. I unfocused my eyes a little, allowing every snowflake to float by without me trying to look at it, and only then could I stand watching as each unique crystal shape fell down, spiraling into the endless blackness. My mind trained itself onto the beeping of Maggie's heart, if the beep sounded a fraction of a second too early or late, I began to panic.
I had to envy Henry, sitting with Whitney's hand clasped in his. He was worrying, but he had the person he loved right with him. Maggie was distant, farther away then everyone and anyone, because my mind was here, awake and unharmed, while hers was asleep and broken into an unidentified number of pieces from pure emotional trauma that I couldn't begin to see or heal for her.
Henry startled my by putting on hand on my shoulder and drumming his fingers in a specific pattern over and over running over my shoulder blade.
"What are you doing?" I said. It sounded sharper than I had intended after the silence. "Sorry."
"I was trying something I learned that would anchor you to the world. You looked like you were escaping to somewhere else, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a good place. What are you thinking about?"
"I'm afraid. Look at a snowflake: it's so individual and delicate and beautiful. It's perfect and then down it drops into the darkness, never to be seen again, gone forever and never coming back. It frightens me, Henry." I looked up at him, searching his eyes for understanding and found it.
"Maggie is going to be fine, Jasper," Henry said, not ceasing his drumming on my shoulder. "She can speak and move a little, it'll just take time for her to be well again."
"We don't know how much damage they might have done to her mind, Henry," Whitney said, catching onto what I was thinking about.
"Oh," Henry said, making a thoughtful face and ceasing his drumming for a split second only. "Well, she's Maggie. She's a fighter, Jasper. If any part has broken, we'll put it back bit by little bit."
I smiled a little. "How long has she slept," I wondered, looking at Maggie.
"Maybe two hours," Henry said. "The doctor told me it would last three or four. It'll be around lunch then, we can maybe try her on some soup."
I stood up, abruptly tired of sitting, and walked over to Maggie. I knew it was way too early to expect her up, but I wanted to check on her. She seemed small, much too small, and very, very fragile. I traced the side of her face very carefully with one finger and accidently bumped one of her many bruises. He let out a cry of pain in her sleep, and my heart squeezed up, choking me. I glanced out the window and saw something that made my blood run cold. A man, dressed all in heavy black clothing, was climbing up the tree near our window. In his hand was a gun.
"Uh, guys," I whispered. "Someone…is trying to get in…with a gun. Both of you get down. Can you send out the alert, Henry?"
"Sure thing, Jasper," Henry said, and began to speak very quietly into a device. I crouched down out of view of the gunman, and could see his shadow beginning to spill over us. I quickly removed Maggie's IV and stood up, scooping her up in my arms as I bent back down. I quickly disconnected the EKG monitor pads from Maggie, ignoring the angry noise it made. Maggie stirred a little, and I prayed I wasn't hurting her by doing this. I didn't really have a choice.
"Whitney, can you get the door open?" Henry hissed, closing down his alert system. Whitney crawled to the door and carefully opened it. The policeman was gone.
"I don't know when they'll be here," Henry hissed. "We got to get out of here." He quickly crawled out of the room and into the hallway. I followed, unable to crawl while holding Maggie. The room seemed to stretch out to twice its length. I could feel my heart pounding all the way up into my throat, and could hear it in my ears. Once out of the room, we stood up. I could feel myself shaking.
"Where should we go?" I hissed. "Our room would be too obvious,
"Somewhere with a lock on the door, and with another room connected so that we can get out of the line of fire," Henry said. We started to head down the hall but were interrupted by several police officers running down the hallway. I pulled Maggie close to me, praying that they were safe police officers. They ran into our room, guns drawn.
"You there," one of them shouted, opening the window. "In the tree, don't move! Remain put."
"You four need to hide," said another. He pulled out a set of keys and unlocked a small cupboard full of supplies. "Hide in that alcove and keep quiet. Don't say anything."
I sat down in the alcove with Henry and Whitney, and we heard the policeman lock the door behind us before walking away. I held Maggie on my lap. She began to stir some more, making small noises. I covered her mouth with my hand. Her eyes snapped open, and she looked around, frightened. I uncovered her mouth and held one finger to my lips. Right after that, shots rang out and I barely bit back a cry of surprise and fear. One shot came in right through the door. I could feel Maggie shaking and I knew in that moment I would die before letting them hurt her again.
Someone walked up to our doorway, and I tightened my hold on Maggie. Whitney and Henry locked hands. The footsteps paused at our door for a second before moving on. I let out a shaky breath and glanced at Henry. My legs were cramped and painful from sitting in such a small space for so long, but I didn't dare stand up. Henry handed me some sort of doctors' jacket, which I spread over Maggie. She was shivering as she was only wearing a thin hospital gown.
Silence pressed upon our eardrums for several seconds before there was a click as someone stuck something into our door handle as though pick locking it. The handle jostled back and forth before the door swung wide open, revealing someone dressed in all black, holding a gun. Henry jumped up and kicked him in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground and drop his gun, which skittered next to me. Maggie grabbed the gun quickly. The man laughed when he saw her.
"Well, hello there, Margaret. Do you remember me?"
Mags trembled, but kept the gun trained on him. I put my hand on her shoulder in support.
"And you three. I had such a horrid time spying on you in the cold and the snow. But you fell for it, the line was never tapped!"
"Be quiet!" Henry hissed with his voice more venomous than I had ever heard it.
Footsteps were coming down the hall, and a policeman poked his head into the room. He went over to the intruder and pulled him up by the collar. He reached over to Maggie. "Can I have the gun, sweetheart?"
Maggie hesitated. "Mags," I said quietly. "Give him the gun." Maggie handed the gun over to him carefully. The intruder broke free from his grasp and bent down, yanking Maggie upright before I could react. He pulled her close to him in a second and put his mouth against her ear for a while; whispering something, before shoving her back down. I caught Maggie and could feel her trembling.
One of the doctors found us and lead the four of us back to Maggie's room, hooking her back up to all the machinery. He left, saying he would get Maggie's normal doctor. Maggie was still shaking.
"Maggie?" I said softly. "Maggie, what did he say?" She shook her head, clutching her side. "Are your ribs okay?" I realised she was clutching the wrong side.
Maggie's doctor came in. "Museum. They found blood in the cupboard, and he had a knife. Is anyone hurt?"
I looked at Maggie, who was still clutching her side. "He was threatening Maggie," I told him.
The doctor pulled her hands away from her side. The wound was a small, shallow, deliberate doctor let out a sigh of relief. "It's not serious." He looked into Maggie's eyes. "Did he say something to you?"
"Now you're marked for death," Maggie whispered.