The first thing he felt was pain. Everywhere. A dull roar over his whole body.
The second thing was that his room smelled strange. The bed didn't feel like his own, the smells were all . . . off.
He sensed, rather than heard, someone in the room. He was tempted to open his eyes but fear that it would make the pain worse made him pause.
"He's waking up." A soft but familiar female voice drifted to his ears.
"I hurt." He murmured.
There was a light chuckle. "I would imagine you do."
Declan slowly opened his eyes to find Lori's parents sitting by his bed. "Where am I?"
"At the hospital." Mrs Trager gently pushed a stray lock of hair off his face. "Do you remember what happened?"
"I drove home. Grabbed a bottle of water out of the frig and headed up to my room. I was reaching for the hall light when . . ." Declan paused. "I think someone hit me."
"We can talk about all that later." Nicole smiled softly. "Lori and the others are outside. They came as soon as school was over."
"How long have I been here?"
"A while. Why don't we get them so they can see you're awake and then you can get some rest. We'll talk later about everything."
Declan nodded. Mr Trager walked outside and left him alone with Mrs Trager. "Where's my father?"
"He couldn't be here. We'll talk about it later, okay?"
"Oh my gawd." Lori half ran in. "You are so the attention hog." She teased before softly kissing him on the cheek.
"Hey Trager." Declan laughed, sending a sharp pain through his side. "Bad move." He winced. "Hey Kyle. Amanda."
"Hi" Amanda smiled softly.
"You look terrible." Kyle said with his typical but innocent bluntness.
"I feel worse."
"I'm glad you are alive."
"Me too." Declan smiled. "Hey Josh."
"Dude."
"You worried I was going to kick it before you could have that rematch." Declan teased. He grinned as Josh laughed. "Made you smile."
Declan glanced around the room. "I don't know what happened but you guys all look like the world ended. It's making me feel like I should have died so you wouldn't be disappointed."
"It's not that." Lori gulped.
"Okay then chill. I'm okay. Whatever happened, I survived. That's good right."
"That's great." Amanda nodded.
"Very great." A balding doctor in scrubs interjected. "However, your friend needs to rest and recover, so visiting hours are over. We'll take good care of him and have him back to making mischief in a few days. I promise."
The doctor shooed them towards the door.
"Hey Doc, can I have a sec with Kyle? Please?"
The doctor nodded. "Make it snappy."
Declan waited until they were alone.
"Tell me straight. My dad's dead isn't it."
"Declan."
"I saw him, on the floor. I saw the blood before they knocked me out."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah. The guy was a total jerk but he was still my dad. I loved him even if he didn't love me. And no one should die like that."
"Don't tell Nicole and Steven I told you. They made us promise. Steven said it would upset you too much right now."
"It'll probably hit later."
"I should go."
"Kyle, wait. There's something else. Something you need to know."
Declan took a slow, deep breath. "Foss was there. After the other guy jumped me. I woke up, Foss was calling my name. I don't know why he came to the house. He carried me into the kitchen, made it look like I crawled in there by myself. He said it had to be that way. That they were cleaning up the mess. That we have to be careful because they would send other people to try again. That it wasn't enough to get rid of you, there can't be anyone that knows what you can do. He said he was going to find a way to stop them. That he'd be watching out for us. That he'd do everything he could to keep us from getting hurt. But to be careful and stick together. And then he tripped the alarm."
Kyle nodded. "I shouldn't have come back."
"No Kyle. I think they were going to do this anyway."
"Time's up, boys." A nurse came in the room.
Declan pulled Kyle down to whisper in his ear. "Be careful, Kyle. They get you and my dad died for nothing."
"I'll keep them safe." Kyle said solemnly.
Declan grinned. "So much for being normal."
"Yeah."