Chapter Fourteen

~ Maka ~

As morning awoke in the outside world, I was already sitting there, pressing my wrists against my eyes. Both trying to shield myself from my surroundings but yet trying to reopen my wounds.

My room sat empty, with the occasional nurse checking in every few minutes to make sure that everything was okay. And every time I desired to ask whether she meant mentally or physically.

I saw my dad sitting on a chair outside my room. Hanging his head into his hands, gripping at his hair with every frustrated second that passed. The anticipation for a drink in his hand practically consuming him.

My boredom was driving me crazy as I sat in silence. Forcing me to grip at my head and prevent myself from screaming as loud as I possibly could. Although I wanted to, I really, really wanted to.

The sun beamed through the open blinds, casting shadows and lights to stream across my bed, like the both were trying to consume me into either heaven or hell.

As I placed my palm against the sheets, the same consumption took place on the back of my hand. Watching before me as my hand turned beneath the suns heating possession.

I smiled widely. Feeling my cheeks stretch and pull at the dust that sat against my cheekbones. But since the last time I felt myself smile, I didn't think it was possible anymore.

"Pretty," I mumbled.

Suddenly, there was a light knock on the door.

"Maka?"

The small ginger bobbed nurse stood apprehensive in the doorway. Her green eyes staring towards me with a huge amount of concern and sympathy.

Subconsciously, I wrapped my arms around myself, gripping hold of my shoulders as if to keep myself locked away from both her as well as any other in this hospital.

She attempted a smile. "Can I come in?"

My throat was swollen. "Yeah..."

She ensured to close the door behind her. Once against parting my dad from my fragile presence, and blocking site of him altogether, which caused a huge weight to be lifted from my shoulders.

The bed pressed down as she sat at the end of my feet. Pressuring lightly as her tiny body sat before me, taking up hardly any space whatsoever.

"You okay?" She placed her hand against my ankle. "I heard about you from the other end of the hospital."

I giggled awkwardly. "News travels fast..."

Her grip on my ankle softened, like she too could hardly handle the pressure of our surroundings. Like she had to be gentle, because nothing else was.

"I also heard about your dad," she sighed.

She turned to face the window overlooking the reception, pointing towards the drunkard leaning forward in his seat.

I hissed, "he's nothing."

Her hand lowered almost immediately, watching the anger flare in my eyes as I averted my gaze away from him. The sympathy in her eyes must have somewhat transformed in fear.

"I want him to leave," I snapped. "I don't need him here!"

Her voice tried to calm me, reaching her hands out towards me as if to grasp my anger with her bare hands.

"I can't make him leave..." She breathed deeply. "But is there anything else I can do?"

~ Death the Kid ~

As I walked down the hospital corridor, a small nurse with green eyes and a ginger bob quickly walked past me, carrying a tower of plain paper in her two freckled hands.

I gripped hold of the I-pod in my hands, holding it as firm as I could to ensure that I wouldn't lose it. After spending nights downloading the most perfect songs, it would ruin everything if it were lost.

My hands shook nervously with the terrifying thought of being rejected by her. The thought of her not wanting to see me, not wanting anything to do with my existence.

As I walked towards the reception, a red bearded man came into view. His elbows balanced against his ripped jeans and his head hanging loosely in his shaking palms.

His appearance caused my heart to race wildly, like something completely terrible had happened to him. Which then reminded me, of where I was.

The woman at the reception sat on the phone, talking quickly to a patient on the other end of the line. Writing their information down as they passed it to her telepathically.

She then had it in her possession, the patient couldn't possibly take it away from her knowledge. That woman could rule with it, do whatever she wanted with those pieces of unheard information. But as she placed the phone back down - she decided not to.

She smiled up at me. "How can I help you, sir?"

I hesitated to walk closer, feeling my heart stumble in my chest as I couldn't speak as well as move.

"Uh..." I hesitated. "Maka Albarn..."

The man beside me twitched to face me, holding his palm against his cheek.

"Is she... here?"

"Who the hell are you?" The man spoke.

My throat fell tight, so I was unable to mutter a single word to the broken man to my left. I felt so powerless.

The woman smiled once again. "Just in the room behind you."

"Thank you," I smiled back. "So much."

The man gripped hold of my wrist. "I don't think so."

I turned to face him, feeling my veins burn with the sheer seed of my anger. Trying my hardest to fight against it rather than obeying to it.

"I'm a friend," I snatched my wrist from him.

Before he could grab me again I began my walk towards her room. Only to be stopped as he quickly rose from his seat.

"Bullshit," he snickered. "She hasn't got friends."

"Sir!" The receptionist exclaimed. "I'll have to ask you to leave."

Slowly, I turned to face him, staring deep into his emerald green eyes, eagerly praying for some kind of non resemblance between both him, and Maka.

I gritted my teeth. "You're her dad?"

He held his arms out beside him. "The one and only."

It burned deep into the tip of my fists, raging with the pain of not being able to control it. But I couldn't find the will to care as I stormed towards him.

"You wasn't there!"

Two doctors were quick to grab hold of me.

He raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Where the hell was you?" I tried to pull my arms from their grasps. "When she was bleeding out on the bathroom floor!"
He shook his head slowly, running his fingers through his knotted her and trying to drown himself away in his breath.

"Answer me!"

"I was at the pub!" He yelled back. "I was at the bloody pub."

Their grip on my arms tightened as I tried my utter hardest to pull myself away. Feeling my body burning up with every second I couldn't unleash this pent up anger on the man before me.

She was in the room behind me. And all I had to do was walk through the door to see her.

But as I stood there, struggling. It was like everything was slipping out of reach just before me. Besides, she would probably hate me more if I hurt her dad.

"What does it matter to you anyway?" He hissed. "You're just a kid!"

"That kid..."

I turned around to face the ginger bobbed nurse, standing with her arms folded across her chest, stack of papers missing from her grasp.

Her eyebrows narrowed. "He saved your daughter, Mr Albarn."

The man before me hesitated. "W-what?"

I hung my head to the ground, feeling everything drain itself from my veins. My anger vanishing from my body altogether, preparing itself for the next time it would return.

The doctors dropped there hold on my arms, letting me use the strength in my legs once again, in order to hold myself up, and fend for myself once more.

Slowly, I turned to face the nurse, watching as she watched me with gleaming eyes of sympathy and concern, a look that I could tell she only used for certain people.

"Can you..." I stammered.

She stepped closer, keeping her arms laced around her chest as if she too were trying to hold herself together.

I handed the I-pod towards her, watching as the earphones fell from my palm and hung between my fingers. Rocking hastily against my skin.

"Make sure she gets this." I tried to smile.

"Don't worry," she smiled. "I will."

After she took it in her hand I turned away, not hesitating to bury my hands deep within my jeans pockets and walk the hospital corridor back to the exit.

My feet hung heavily behind me, waiting to collapse to the ground I struggled to walk against. Watching everything around me drift into slow motion as I lifted my head - but I didn't know why.

The door stung cold against my palm as I pushed it open, feeling the cold air grace itself against my skin as if it were trying its hardest to push me back inside to the blue eyed girl.

"Wait!"

Quickly I span around to face the ginger nurse run towards me, her freckled face lighting up as she stopped in front of me with a wide, glimmering smile.

"She told me to give you this..."

Quickly, she opened her hands and pushed them out towards me, waiting for me to grasp what it was she wanted me to have.

Then as I saw the little paper crane resting lifeless in her palms - my heart skipped a beat.