Hey everyone!

School sucks. Big time. This is actually only half of Chapter 15, but I still feel guilty about my whole 'computer crashing' incident. So, here it is.

And last chapter, I only got two comments. I'm not the type of author who needs reviews to keep writing, but I was wondering where all of you went. Is it because you're angry with me? Oh dear, you are.

Well, I hope that you enjoy this chapter. You really deserve it.

Disclaimer: *sigh*

Chapter 15

I hate lots of things: sprouts, death metal, the incorrect pronunciation of 'library', life, not necessarily in that order. But I also really happen to hate hospitals, which is where I was at the present moment.

It was Thursday now, which meant that I'd missed a whole day of school, something that I wasn't exactly complaining about. I had only woken up around two hours previously and Mom had already pretty much flooded the hospital ward. I remember her bursting into my room, bawling her eyes out. It took about another half an hour for her to calm down and stop crying. Percy said that she didn't leave all night.

Percy.

I had only seen him once since I got put into the hospital, he came by after school was let out, and he seemed rather off. Perhaps he just didn't like hospitals – I could understand that – or maybe he found it awkward to sit in the same room as someone who had almost died. Whatever it was, I didn't really mind, because the fact that I had someone other than my mother come and see me was quite nice, even if he couldn't stop tapping his foot (which got somewhat irritating after the first five minutes).

"Gabby?"

I turned my head to the door where my mom was standing. I hadn't realised that she had come in. I smiled at her and absentmindedly straightened my hospital gown.

"Are you alright?" she asked me. I did a quick checklist in my head. Fingers? Check. Toes? Check. Face? Check. I seemed pretty alright by my standards.

"Yeah," I replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

That wasn't probably the best thing to say, especially since I was in hospital from a near-death experience with a creature that didn't even exist. Not that Mom knew about that part.

But her expression didn't change at my question. After a few seconds, she simply smiled and told me that I had been staring at the wall for two minutes after she had walked in and she was unable to snap me out of my little trance.

"Sorry. I was –" I trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"Thinking?" Mom replied for me. I nodded slightly.

"Yeah. Thinking."

Mom smiled softly and walked over to sit down in the chair beside my bed. I could see that her eyes were still bloodshot.

We sat in silence for a while, neither of us really knowing what to say. I didn't like seeing my mom like this and I felt slightly guilty for making her worry so much. I sighed and began twiddling my thumbs.

"I talked to the doctor," Mom said, looking nowhere in particular. "He said that you can go home in a few hours. He said that they'd normally keep you in for another night, but you're having a remarkably fast recovery."

I smiled. I glanced to my left, where my heart monitor was. It was switched off though; the doctor had decided that I was in a stable condition. I was very glad when he turned it off, because the blazing beeping was giving me one heck of a headache. As if there wasn't enough wrong with me already.

Why did they make heart monitors so annoying? The piercing BEEP every half second was something that I was sure no one liked. And the doctors and surgeons had to deal with the noise every second of the day. How did they even deal with it? And surely it wasn't good on the patients' ears either.

It was in that moment that I decided to invent a heart monitor with a less irritating noise. That would be a great invention.

"Doctor Howard said that the police are going to be here soon," Mom said. I turned to face her. "They want to do a quick questioning with us before you leave."

I didn't know what to say. I had never actually spoken to a real cop before. I imagined it to be like something off of one of those crime shows that I know people like to watch.

"Cool," I said, nodding my head in approval. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Mom's nostrils flared before she burst into tears.

"Cool?" she cried. "How is this cool?"

I just sat there looking at her, dumbfounded. I didn't know what I'd done.

"I got home from work early last night Gabby," Mom continued. "I thought that we could have a night in for ourselves for once. That would have been cool. What's not cool is waiting for your daughter to get home from school to surprise her, but her never showing up. What's not cool is ringing her phone over and over again because you're worried about her. What's not cool is watching it go dark outside and having no idea where she is.

"I didn't know where you were, Gabby. I even called Percy's mother because I thought that you might be with him and forgotten to tell me. But what was worse was her telling me that Percy hadn't come home from school either."

Mom's words came out choked and forced and she wiped her eyes. "I had picked up the phone ready to call the police, when there was a knock at the door. I prayed and prayed it was you, and that you had been studying late at school with Percy and your phone had died. And it was you. You were lying in Percy' arms half dead, and there was nothing I could do. Percy told me that you in an alleyway not even two blocks from our house.

"Gabby," she finished finally, letting out a long breath. "You don't know what it's like to watch your only daughter lay on the stretcher of an ambulance, covered in blood and barely breathing. You don't know what it's like to wonder if she's going to live. You don't know what it's like to see your baby hurt and knowing there's nothing you can do about it. You don't know what it's like, and hopefully you never will."

So there you have it.

I'll update as soon as possible, but I'm going to have to do some research for the next chapter. If anyone knows anything about a police questioning, PLEASE leave a comment or PM me, it would be a massive help.

Let me know what you thought of this chapter. I really appreciate your feedback.

Oh, I've been wandering…are you at school? Where in the world are you from? What are you studying?

Please let me know! I feel like I don't really know who you are and if I get enough replies, I'll answer every crazy question you guys can throw my way in honour of 12 000 reads!

I love you all. Especially you. Yes, you.

Kisses,
Daphne