Chapter Eight

Pietro

Pietro groaned as he blinked his eyes open. He was met with blinding light and deafening sounds. Something was definitely wrong. He couldn't remember what had happened, and he most certainly didn't know where he was. "He's awake," he heard someone say. Why is everything so loud? he wondered. "Get the doctor." Doctor? Was he in a hospital. He couldn't think straight. Everything was fuzzy, and his body felt like lead.

"Pietro?" a woman asked. She had an accent, but he couldn't quite place where it was from. He glanced over at her, the motion nearly making him throw up. Everything was moving too fast. "My name's Dr. Rezei. Can you hear me?" Pietro nodded slightly. He was afraid that if he were to move too much in any one direction, the rest of his body would follow. "Can you talk yet?"

Pietro tried to speak, but no words came. They were replaced with a strangled noise that didn't make any sense to him. "That's a no," Dr. Rezei said. "Just give it time, okay? You've been asleep for a long time." Pietro frowned. When had he fallen asleep? All he remembered was getting up for school…

He glanced down at his arm and noticed some sort of needle taped down onto his wrist. He was definitely in a hospital. But why was he asleep in a hospital. Where were Django and Marya? Where was Wanda? "Your mother went to get some water, she'll be back soon," the doctor explained. Pietro frowned at that. Marya wasn't his mother. He and Wanda just lived with her and Django.

"Wanda?" he managed to choke out, though the sound was barely comprehensible.

Dr. Rezei hesitated to answer. "She's with a family friend. Magnus I believe they said his name was?" Pietro nodded. That was good, that meant she was with their father. That meant everything would be okay. Their father wouldn't let anything bad happen to them, at least he didn't think so.

A familiar woman came into the room then. "Oh thank God," she breathed as she rushed to Pietro's bedside. Marya had never been as afraid as she had been in the time Pietro was unconscious. She didn't know if she would ever see him awake again.

"How long did I sleep?" Pietro asked, though it sounded more along the lines of, "How log slip?"

"Three days," the doctor answered. Pietro blinked. Three days was a really long time. He wondered why Marya let him sleep that late. She never let him sleep that long before. "I'll give you two a few minutes," she smiled politely before slipping out of the room.

"Do you remember what happened?" Marya asked gently. She was always gentle around Pietro. The boy shook his head. "Your witch of a sister almost killed you." Pietro cringed at that. He knew he wasn't the nicest person toward Wanda, but that was different. He was her brother. He was supposed to pick on her and tease her, but he was the only one allowed to. Nobody could mess with Wanda except for him, not even Marya.

"Not a witch," Pietro argued. He didn't like that the woman was talking so badly about Wanda. He thought Marya loved her. Sure she was harder on her than she was on Pietro, but he figured that was normal parent stuff. Django was always harder on Pietro anyway. "Not her fault."

"Then whose fault was it?" Marya demanded. She knew it was wrong to so readily turn on Wanda, but she didn't care. Someone had to take Pietro's side, especially since she knew Magnus never would. He may have claimed to have changed, but Marya had seen how he had looked at his son. That look would never leave her memory.

"No one's," Pietro answered. "It was an accident…"

"An accident?" Marya laughed sharply as a panic response more than anything else. Her mind was taken back to the day in Transia. "There's something not right about that girl, Marya." "Pietro, she could have killed you. She almost killed you…"

"But she didn't…" Pietro pointed out. It wasn't fair that his sister was being blamed for something she couldn't control. It wasn't her fault. He hoped Father would understand. Father always understood. His eyelids were getting heavy, and he didn't understand why. He had just woken up after sleeping for three days. He shouldn't have been tired. One thing was becoming clear though: he did not like hospitals.

"Get some rest," Marya sighed, noticing his eyelids drooping. "I'll be here when you wake up."

"Wanda?" Pietro asked with a yawn.

"Won't be seeing you for a long time," Marya answered. She had told Magnus to handle it behind Django's back. There was a sense of guilt, though. She had never gone behind her husband's back before. She had agreed to let Magnus talk to both twins and handle the situation as he saw fit. Marya refused to be the bad guy in the situation. It wasn't her fault Wanda was a demon sent straight from hell.

She expected Pietro to argue, to lash out, but the boy had already succumbed to a drug-induced slumber. That was the only positive thing in the situation, she thought. Pietro would be so drugged and sedated he couldn't fight back. The situation wasn't fair on anyone, but Marya knew it would be hardest on the boy. Pietro loved his sister, and he would do anything for her. And they were going to take her away from him. The fates truly were cruel.