[Warning : implied child abuse]
Little ten-years old Valari woke up on a hospital bed. She wasn't entirely sure what happened (she remembered a car ; did she ran into it?), but she knew that if she was there then someone must have called her parents. And they would soon arrive and bring her back home and…
She tried to get up but moving hurt ; she wouldn't be able to escape on her own. Would she even be able to try again later?
It took a few minutes before a nurse stepped into the room to see the girl was awake. They started speaking but reading their lips was quite difficult, especially when they kept moving around the bed to quickly check everything. From what she could decipher, they probably were simply asking if she was ok. Valari nodded slowly. The nurse kept doing their thing until they stopped right next to the little girl and lowered themselves to be at eye-level with her. On the adult's lips she could read a sentence they knew very well :
"Can you hear me?"
She shook her head. The nurse nodded and started signing ; Valari's face lit up and she rose her hands to respond despite the pain moving her body caused.
After she signed the word "parent", the nurse informed her that, yes, her parents knew she was here, but the police were currently asking them a few questions. When the little girl gave a quizzical look, the adult signed something about old injuries predating the accident.
Valari's blood ran cold. What would happen now? What would her parents do when they would reunite with her? When they'd find out why she tried to run away? Would the police be any help or would their involvement make her mum and dad angry?
The nurse told her to wait then left the room to come back a few minutes later with a yellow lizard-like monster.
"This lady said she wants to apologise to you", the human adult signed.
The monster stood there, starring at the floor and fidgeting with her hands. The nurse turned to her, then she nodded slowly, like they were explaining something to her.
The lizard produced a pencil and a notepad from her pockets and walked up to Valari. She wrote something in the notepad and presented it to the child. The latter could decipher the words "my fault" and "sorry" but the rest looked too much like chicken scratch. The little girl's eyes went back and forth between the notepad and the monster. Maybe this was her chance?
She took the pencil as firmly as she could manage in her state and wrote down "please take me to Ebott", to which the other replied by a prolonged confused look. Valari turned the small notebook to a new page to explain :
"You're a monster. You know Ebott. I want to go there. Get adopted by monsters like Frisk. That's why I was running away."
The lizard's eyes went wide behind her glasses. Her mouth was visibly moving, however Valari wasn't sure whether she was actually saying something or not. Eventually, she took her pencil back and wrote down "can't kidnap you". At least that's what it looked like.
The human took the pencil again to add "it's not kidnapping if I ask you to". The monster started chewing on her own claws. Valari turned to a new page and wrote down her home address followed by "HELP" in capital letters.
The lizard's gaze rapidly went back and forth between the child and the nurse ; the latter soon led the former to the exit.
The little girl was left alone for a few more minutes. She hoped her call for help wouldn't turn out to be in vain, because if it was, her parents certainly wouldn't like it when they'd find out. No, she corrected herself, if they did. The monster had taken the notebook, and therefore the only proof of their conversation, with her, so mum and dad wouldn't actually find out, would they?
Soon, a police officer entered, led by the same nurse from before. The later signed she would be translating everything. Valari froze for a second. She couldn't just lie to a police officer, could she? But if she told the truth, what would her parents do to her?
She replied to the questions only in short sentences without giving any detail. She never mentioned her plan to go to Ebott. All the while, her heart was beating so hard she wondered how it didn't burst right out of her chest.
Her life was either about to get better or much worse, and she hated not knowing for sure which one it would be.