Thirty
Josh was sleeping or on the way to falling asleep when the cell door burst up, the metal clanging against the wall and a cold draught of air flooded in to the room. Josh sat up sharply, hitting his head on the ceiling. The wardens walked in accompanied by two policemen. The policemen walked towards Josh and Daniel and then pulled Daniel off his bed before handcuffing him. They led him out of the cell and Josh just watched in shock. He then went into panic overdrive. Daniel was being arrested again. Surely he hadn't hurt Jessie. When Josh was told to follow the wardens out the room, he really started panicking. How badly was Jessie hurt? Josh vaguely knew his way to the interview rooms so was surprised when they turned off the main corridor and into a smaller room which was used for anger management sessions. Josh then noticed there was another policeman in here.
"Hello again Josh," the policeman said. Josh recognised him as the one that had arrested him two and a half weeks ago. Had it really been that long? "Take a seat," he added. Josh sat down in the red squishy seat opposite the policeman. The wardens closed the door and left Josh with him. The policeman sat there for a moment before beginning to speak. "Earlier today we received a phone call from Elm Tree House. One of their children had been shot with an arrow. The culprit was currently being held in their office and the child was off to hospital." Josh's heart sunk. He guessed where it was going. "We arrived shortly after Mike and two of the children had left to go to the hospital, one of them being the injured one. We arrested the culprit who admitted to everything. He was Daniel's brother," the policeman told Josh. Josh started feeling sick. He just wanted to know if Jessie was alright. "We then went to the hospital to get the statement off the two children there who had both been present when it happened. Your sister was one of them." Josh bit his lip in nervous anticipation. "Now Daniel's brother had admitted she was the intended victim but luckily for her, a young boy who had been sat with her had pushed her out the way and was the one who was injured." Josh felt a rush of relief that Jessie was ok but then wondered who was hurt. "The young lad who was injured was Jessie's boyfriend, Rick Barber. Both of their stories matched with each other's and Daniel's brother's one. That's why Daniel has been arrested also. I'm assuming you want to know how your young friends are?" he asked. Josh nodded. "Your sister is currently in shock and sleeping at the hospital with Mike to wait for Rick. Rick's shoulder was the impact point of the arrow. It had ripped his muscle and broken his shoulder blade in two places. He has been splinted up but he may have restricted movement in his right arm where the muscle is torn. He is currently under anaesthetic. I'm sorry to bring you the bad news Josh," the policeman said as he stood up. Josh nodded solemnly.
"No thank you for telling me," he said. He stayed sat down as the policeman left. Josh was in shock. Rick had risked his life to save his sisters. He was never going to forget that. Josh was led back to his cell but Josh didn't notice. He was too distracted. He climbed back into his bed and lay there, unfeeling.
Meanwhile Jessie was laying across three chairs in the A&E waiting room. Mike was sat bolt upright next to her. She had refused to go back to Elm Tree without Rick which is why they were sat in the waiting room. It was empty apart from the receptionist, them and the occasional doctor and nurse who passed them. Mike wasn't sleeping, purely because every so often Jessie cried out in pain. He always just stroked her hair and made soothing noises and hoped it reached her in her sleep. He wished he could see what she was dreaming about but was also glad he couldn't. Whatever it was she was dreaming about it clearly wasn't a happy memory. Jessie cried out, louder this time. One of the doctor's looked over at them. He looked concerned. He finished his conversation about one of his patients and came over to Mike. "We could give her some sleeping tablets if you wanted. They would stop her dreams," he said looking down at the distraught teenager who was sleeping. Mike looked down at her too. Mike shook his head.
"No, we are fine but thank you," he said. The doctor nodded and walked off just before Jessie screamed so very loudly and sat bolt upright. Her eyes looked tired and her pupils were dilated. She had black circles under her eyes which were also fading red from where she'd been crying. Jessie took a few deep breaths to steady herself and turned to face Mike. He looked really worried about her. "Jessie are you ok?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I had a nightmare. I thought they had stopped. I used to have them every night since mum started hurting me but when she got sentenced and Josh went to the youth offenders, they stopped two days later. But it was the same one. The same one I always have. The one where she goes through with her threat to kill Josh and I have to watch. Someone has always been there when I had these dreams. Josh was always the one I ran to, and then when Josh wasn't at Elm tree it was Rick, who let me stay the night on Josh's bed. But now they are both not here," Jessie said through tears, distraught. She brought her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them tightly, so tightly it look as if, if Jessie let them go she would fall apart. Mike pulled her arms down slowly.
"I'm here Jessie. Tell me," he said quietly. He was pretending he hadn't heard the bit about her sneaking out of her room and into Josh and Rick's in the middle of the night. She shook her head so Mike did the only thing he could and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug.
A/N: Poor Jessie. Everything seems to happen to her at once. Let me know what you thought, Indigo :)