Rhydian was momentarily stunned by how he could be so oblivious to the serious state of Maddy's health. 'How the hell did I manage to forget about what's just happened?' was the first thing to cross Rhydian's mind. However, straight after this, he felt himself fill with panic as he wondered, 'WHAT THE HELL DO I DO?!'
Rhydian had always been told not to move an injured person in case they'd hurt their back or neck, but he didn't know what else to do. Dark clouds had filled the sky above them, making him unable to see properly due to the lack of light, and rain had begun to pour, hard and quick, from the air above. The only thing that Rhydian did feel sure of at the moment was that the rain could only make Maddy worse, although he did like the way masked the tears now streaming down his face, so he cradled her in his arms and lifted her, lightly and swiftly, from the ground, and headed for the house.
After having ran as fast and smoothly as he could with Maddy's delicate body in his arms, he entered the house and called out. 'MR SMITH? MRS SMITH? PLEASE! HELP! MADDY'S HURT!' No reply came. With the house's emptiness as his incentive, he used his own initiative and ran upstairs. When he found Maddy's room he gently placed her on the bed, and then pulled the collar of her blood-soaked shirt down to allow him to survey the damage to her chest. Rhydian found three great slashes, oozing with blood. This caused his mind to go into meltdown as he saw what his return had done. Just at that moment, Rhydian saw Maddy's eyelashes begin to flutter again with consciousness. 'Mads?'
'Rhydian?' She slurred the words, her eyes now tightly closed. 'Mam? Dad?'
'Maddy? Maddy it's me.' He felt the need to rush his speech to get everything in before she left reality again. 'Your Mum and Dad aren't here, where are they? I need their numbers to call them.' He was shaking now.
Maddy was drifting back to sleep now, but she managed to softly whisper the word, 'Mobile.'
Rhydian looked to Maddy's bedside table now and found her mobile lying on it. He snatched the heavy piece of plastic up, went to the contacts list, and pressed, 'Call Mum.'
Rhydian held the device to his ear as it rang. Suddenly, half-way through a ring, a mature, female, voice answered. 'Y'alright Pet? We're just on her way home no-'
Maddy's Mum, Emma, was startled as she was cut off by a voice that not only wasn't her daughter's, as the caller ID on her phone told her it would be, but it was also a voice that she thought (and in truth, hoped) that she'd never hear again. 'Mrs Smith! Please don't hang up!' Rhydian's voice had lost all of its usual cool tone as now he was pleading through tears. 'Listen! You need to hurry! Maddy's hurt! Ceri attacked her! An-'
Emma hanged up. She needed to hear no more. She ordered Maddy's Dad, Daniel, to put his foot down as they were nearing the house in the car. Both Dan and Emma leapt out on arrival, leaving the engine running and the doors wide open, hurrying into the house. One behind the other, they ran up the stairs, leaving muddy footprints behind them. They entered Maddy's room.
Only gasps were to be heard as the Smiths saw their daughter's chest bloody, and her hand in that of the one person whom they despised most of all in the world.