CHAPTER 12 – UNCERTAINTY

|PRESENT DAY, HYPERION HEIGHTS|

Henry pondered around in confusion. It didn't seem possible that someone would have the intention to shoot Roni, it just didn't make too much sense. And whilst Weaver seemed to claim it was just a deranged thief trying to steal some of her goods, it just didn't seem to fit. Especially the fact that their weapon of choice was a bow and arrow.

He hadn't seen Lucy since it happened, and whilst he hated to admit it he was pretty concerned. Because despite him knowing that there was nothing to be worried about, everything seemed off. Nothing was right.

After about an hour of waiting in a hospital room, one of the doctors confronted him.

"Mr. Mills, is it?"

"Yes."

The doctor gave him a look of assurance, despite the fact that he sensed some sort of confusion in him.

"You'll be glad to hear that your friend is in a stable condition. It was lucky that you called the ambulance so soon, because this way we were able to stop all of the blood loss, and none of the bones in her shoulder were shattered."

Despite the confusion, Henry was generally quite relieved that she wasn't going to suffer any serious consequences. After all, it could've been much worse.

But there was still something off-putting about it.

"Hey, excuse me sir but, could I ask you something?" The doctor turned around in response to his question. "Of course."

"Did the police tell you any information about how this all happened? I know Detective Weaver said it was just a thief but.. I was just wondering."

The doctor began to look a little anxious. "Well, no they haven't said anything else that we can confirm."

"But, you would still tell me if there's something we didn't know wouldn't you?", Henry attempted to fight back.

The doctor paused for a moment, before speaking in a quieter voice. "Well, as long as it doesn't freak you out.."

"Tell me what you know."

|PRESENT DAY, ?|

Robin woke up. At first, she ended up pretty confused about what was going on. She hadn't seemed to process that she wasn't asleep at home, back with her mother a few years ago. Despite spending the past few weeks in Seattle, she still wasn't used to this. But by the time that she'd processed what was around her, she realised that this definitely was not Seattle.

Looking around, she seemed to see nothing but tall, leafless trees. They almost seemed completely dead, as the colour from them was pale and plain, as if they were completely lifeless. The sky was also dark, more blackened than indigo. Frankly, the entire place just looked deserted.

And that's when she remembered what happened.

"Lucy!" She frantically looked around to find her, hoping that she hadn't gone missing but she didn't seem to get any luck. "Lucy, are you there?" Despite shouting at the top of her lungs and despite running around every corner of every pathway she could find – she didn't see her.

But that was when she heard someone, a voice from further behind her. Although she couldn't distinguish what they were saying, she followed it.

"I thought you'd be somewhere around here."

She looked to her side and stopped running. In front of her was a man, just a bit shorter and younger-looking than her, who seemed to be smiling.

"What the hell is this place?", she didn't have time to ask any other questions. Upon further observation, she begun to get a strange feeling around this person and she wasn't sure what to think of it. It was dark and unsettling, but it didn't make her afraid. It just made her feel.. suspicious.

"Well, hello to you too then.", he said in a smug tone. "My name's Michael, welcome to the end."

|PRESENT DAY, HYPERION HEIGHTS|

The doctor asked Henry to follow him down to an empty hallway in order for him to say what he needed to say. It initially didn't make much sense why they were walking so far away from the waiting room, but as they got closer it became more and more apparent that they were in fact going as far away from anyone as possible.

"So, what's the deal?"

"Well, first of all I think it's important to mention..", the doctor paused as he spoke, "that I've been given strict rules not to tell you any of this.", he managed to spill out. This, in itself didn't exactly help with Henry's fear of the entire situation.

"Okay, so then why are you telling me?"

"The arrow that shot your friend seemed to contain some sort of substance. It wasn't poisionous and it hasn't seemed to have done any damage, but lets just say it did raise a minor concern for us.". Henry listened closely. "So, my colleague and I went to go and take a look and.."

"And...?"

"We couldn't identify the substance, but it was definitely something we had not come across before. Ever."

Henry's stomach suddenly began to ache. An unidentifiable substance? There was no way that this could have been some sort of normal robbery.

"Okay, so why can't you tell me any of this?"

The doctor sighed. "Because when we told the managers, they told us to ignore it and to never mention it again. They didn't give me any reason why, they just told us we didn't have the right to."

Didn't have the right to?

That was when they could hear footsteps. Someone was running towards them. And when Henry turned his head, it wasn't exactly who he expected.

"Jesus, the nurses said you'd be down here, what's going on?"

It was Jacinda.

"Nothing", he replied, "what is it?"

"Have you seen Lucy? I haven't found her anywhere.."

|PRESENT DAY, ?|

Lucy found herself waking up with a crowd of people around her, speaking quietly as she opened her eyes. They seemed to all be mumbling about something, something negative. But when she tried to isolate their words all she got was some sort of blur.

"H-Hello?"

Someone held out their hand, pulling her up before speaking to her. He wasn't exactly distinguishable amongst the crowd, but something about him made him seem nicer than the rest of them. Almost familiar.

"Hi there, you must've taken quite a hit. Do you remember what happened to you?"

Lucy shuddered. She wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. She'd always been taught that in these situations, the best thing to do was to try and find her mother and to try and find safety. She wasn't supposed to tell people about who she was, even if her life depended on it. But what was the use in that now? What was the use in everything her mother or her teachers had ever taught her in her life, when she knew that she was a long, long way from home?

So, she decided to say it.

"My name's Lucy."
"Lucy.. that's a nice name. My name's Robin. Robin Hood."

[a/n: hECK YEAH im getting on to the part which i've actually wanted to write for quite a while.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry if my writing seems a bit off in this.. as you can tell I'm not extremely experienced when it comes to descriptive language lmao.

Seeing as there's nothing else to say, I guess I'll see you soon? .-. ]