Missing - Part 4
Chapter Four - Dreaming
"Abby, Abby, mums not waking up!" My little brother Eric has just run into my room. I look at the clock and its greennumbers flick and tell me its five minutes to midnight.
"Quick Abby, she won't get up!" He shouts again
"Its okay Eric" I try to reassure him. He's only eight, he's never seen mum like this before. I usually get there first, to save him from seeing her like this. You see, I'm used to it. I'm the one who rubs mums back when she's sick, the one who picks her up from the floor when she's drunk. Eric still thinks she's the best mum in the world. And she can be, when she's not manic. She paints with us, and cooks. But he never sees the side of her that I do. The one that tries to overdose herself, or cut herself with a knife. Sometimes I have to sleep with her, so I know that she'll wake up in the morning. I get out of bed, tell Eric to stay in my room, and go and see mum. She's asleep on the kitchen floor. She's got blood running from her nose. She often gets nose bleeds. I shake her shoulders and her eyes flicker open.
"Come on mum, let's get you to bed" I tell her
"Abby, I'm sorry, I love you Abby" She starts to cry. I get her to her feet, patch up her nose with a tissue, and put her to bed. I'm going to have to sleep with her tonight.
I walk back to my room. Eric is in my bed, crying.
"Hey, Eric, mums fine, she fell over and banged her nose, just like you did last week. Do you remember?"
Eric gets his knee out of the bed and looks down at the big plaster on it.
"Yeah, I remember. Is she really ok?"
"Yeah, she's fine, I'm gonna stay with her tonight. You can stay here ok?"
"Ok, I love you Abby"
"I love you too Eric"
Abby jolted out of sleep. She had already woken up three times in the night dreaming of Maggie. She smiled to herself when she thought of the time when Maggie started running through the ER looking for her. She had been so embarrassed and had at first not admitted that Maggie was her mum. The smile slowly faded when she remembered Maggie was no longer alive. All those years of struggle were over. But that did not make it easy to live with. Abby wished she could just have five more minutes with Maggie, just to tell her that she didn't blame her for anything anymore, and to tell her that she was happy. She was happy with Luka, with her job, everything had been going right. But Abby land was not allowed to be happy for long. Now Maggie was dead, Eric was AWOL, and she was trapped. Her head was constantly fuzzy from the drugs they kept giving her. At least they had not hurt her….yet. Now Maggie had been killed, Abby knew it was only a matter of time. She heard footsteps coming towards her door and Harry walked in.
"Ok, you wanna make a phone call?"
"Who to?" Abby asked
"Someone who can help you get out of this mess by finding your brother" Harry grinned
"Luka, I want to call Luka" Abby replied
"Alright" Harry grabbed Abby by the arm and dragged her out of the room to the phone. Abby picked up the receiver and dialled her home number, praying that Luka would be there.
Luka lay on the couch. He hadn't slept for 2 days, not since Abby disappeared. He had felt pain before in his life, when his wife and children had been killed. But this was a different kind of pain. This was Abby. They had always had a spark, a connection. They had romanced before, and Luka grimaced when he thought of how it had ended that time. "You're not that special, you're not that pretty" Or something along those lines, Luka couldn't remember. All he knew was that he must have been mad to say those words to Abby. She was the most special thing in his life, the most special thing in his world. He groaned as the phone started to ring, knowing that it would be someone from the hospital, phoning to get an update. If only he could tell them something.
"Hi, you have reached the Lockhart-Kovac residence. Please leave a message after the tone and we'll get back to you"
"Luka…..it's Abby. Please pick up"
Luka shot off the couch and ran to the phone.
"Abby"