Chapter 3

The reporters left after about one hour. They had asked Ponyboy and Johnny a lot of questions. About the night of the murder. About what had happened before that. When they were done with that, they had started to ask Pony, Soda and Darry about their home life. After that the police had started asking the exact same questions. They just wanted more details. It had confused Johnny with all the questions because the voices came from different areas of the room. The reporters, the brothers and the police were all talking to him. Luckily the doctor had stepped in and told everyone it was time for them to leave and give Johnny some rest.

The brothers had left to get something to eat and would come back later before they went home to sleep. Dally had come by but left again with the brothers, leaving Johnny alone in his hospital room.

He lay on his side and listened to the machines beeping away. There were not as many beeping sounds anymore. The doctor must have taken a few of them off after he had woken up but they had not said anything new about his condition.

He wondered what would happen to him. What if he'd never get his vision back? And what about the murder? Would he really be sent to jail like Dally said? Or would he get off on self-defense? He also wondered about Ponyboy. The police and reporters had really pressed him and his brothers, asking a lot of questions. Too many. Johnny felt like he might have ruined the brothers' life. Maybe the State would split them up now. But then again. Ponyboy had not done anything. Johnny had. He was the one that had killed the Soc, and Cherry would testify that it was self-defense. Well, at least that was what Dally had said.

Johnny sighed. He sure had messed up.

The door made a creaking noise and then the sound of it getting closed with a gentle push.

"Pony?" Johnny asked. No one answered.

"Dally? D-Darry? Soda?" Johnny felt nervous all of the sudden as no one replied his questions. For a second he wondered if he was hearing things but he could feel someone staring at him. Someone was in the room.

"Who... who's there? Is someone there?" Johnny rolled onto his back and sat up. His breathing became heavy as he nervously listened for any movement in the room. Clutching the sheets, he turned his head from side to side, trying to make out any shadows that had not been there before.

"Hello?"

He then noticed a large black mass at the end of the room. It was moving closer to him but he couldn't hear any steps. His heart pounded in his chest as the figure got closer and closer, and as he was about to scream a hand grabbed him by the throat, pushing him back against the bed.

"Make a sound and I'll make sure you'll regret it!" a male voice hissed as the grip at his throat tightened. Johnny made a small half strangled sound and tried to suck in air but a strong scent of cologne made it even harder.

"W-who are you?" Johnny coughed.

The intruder leaned in. His breath smelled strongly of alcohol.

"Did I say you could speak?"

Fingers dug into Johnny's skin and the voice was low and threatening.

"You think you're safe here? I got in with no problem whatsoever," the voice said. Johnny's hand fumbled down the side of the bed, searching for the alarm button but the shadow grabbed his wrist with his free hand and pinned his arm to the mattress.

"Not so fast," he hissed, his face so close to Johnny's he could feel every breath.

"Pl-please let me go!" Johnny cried as he tried to fight back with his free hand. But it was no use. The attacker was too strong.

"Shut up! You shouldn't have come back. When you get outta here -" he laughed. "When you get outta here you're dead. I'll find you and I'll kill you." His breath got a bit more distant. "No matter what happens tomorrow you're dead." He let go of Johnny. The weight of his body next to him vanished and everything went quiet.

Johnny's eyes filled up with tears and he coughed, trying to catch his breath. The scent of cologne still stuck to his nostrils. He covered his mouth as he started to sob. Terrified the man was still in the room, he tried to stay calm.

"Johnny?"

Johnny flinched at the voice but recognized it as Sodapop's.

He tried to speak but his voice kept breaking. "I-is he gone?" he sobbed "Did he leave?"

"Did who leave?" Soda asked. His footsteps got closer and Johnny could make out the silhouette of Soda. "God, what happened to you?" He sounded worried.

"What? What happened?" It was Dally's voice. Someone stepped up to Johnny and a hand moved his head upwards and another on his arm that had been pinned to the bed.

"What the hell happened, Johnny?" Dally almost yelled.

"T-there was a guy in here," Johnny stuttered. "He… he…"

The hands vanished from him and footsteps exit the room.

"Dally!" Soda yelled.

OooOooOooO

Where the hell is he? Dally thought to himself as he ran down the hallway. As he turned the corner, he ran into a nurse and almost knocked her over.

"Watch it!" she snapped. "No running in the hallway!"

"Did someone come by here? Someone that came from Johnny's room?" Dally demanded.

She looked at him, her expression confused. "Johnny who? What room number?"

"Look here, lady!" he hissed. "It's late and there ain't a whole lot of visitors other than us who visited Johnny Cade. Now I ask you again! Did anyone come by here?"

She sighed. "There was a young man heading for the stairway just a moment ago."

Dally pushed by her and ran toward the stairs, not at all considering saying thank you to the nurse.

Hearing footsteps going down the stairs, Dally leaned over the banister and saw someone a few stories down.

"HEY!" he yelled "Hey, you! I wanna talk to you!"

The person started to run without answering. Swearing, Dally sped up.

"Stupid son of a bitch! Get back here!"

Hearing the door slam shut at the end of the staircase, he ran as fast as he could downwards and tore the door open. He was on the parking lot behind the hospital. A car sped by. A Mustang. Dally didn't see how many people where in the car but the speed it had indicated they wanted to get out of there fast.

"Shit!" he said, trying to catch his breath. "SHIT!"

OooOOoOooO

Darry sat beside Johnny on the bed, examining the newly formed bruises on his throat and wrist.

"Whoever he was, he sure had a good hold of you," he sighed. "What did he say?"

Johnny didn't answer. He just sat there, his eyes cast downwards.

"Johnny, please," Soda pleaded, having his arm around Ponyboy, who looked pretty shaken up by the whole thing.

"He… he said he would kill me," he said, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Any idea who it was?" Pony said. "I mean. We could tell the cops? If we know who it is?"

"It was a Soc."

"You sure, buddy?" Soda asked..

"Yeah I'm sure," Johnny replied. "Cause he said... he said no matter what happened tomorrow, I was dead." Johnny's voice started to tremble as he spoke.

Darry looked nervously at his brothers. The rumble was tomorrow evening, so it had to be a Soc for him to know that. And if it wasn't a Soc it had to be another greaser, but the thought of that was ridiculous thought Darry. He got to his feet, carefully letting go of Johnny.

"I'm gonna go talk to the doctor," he said as his gaze went from one boy to the other. "I gotta know when and if we can take Johnny home." Darry started for the door but turned one last time to look at Johnny. "Don't worry, buddy. We aren't leaving you here alone."