January 15, 1967 - New York - Hospital
When I woke up the next morning, it was almost unreal. I felt on edge, even only half awake. It was a feeling I'd loved to get rid of, but sleep called for me, and my mind kept whirling, trying to conjure up a plan of action if I was attacked. At one point, I'd given up trying to think of anything, and shrugged it off, thinking that the police would keep me safe. But...then a few minutes ticked by, and I was hopeless as to thinking of something that the police could do. If these guys were slipping through one of the Watchmen's fingers, then the police wouldn't be able to handle it at all.
At noon, I was put at ease by seeing Donna. She'd come in, all shy and beautiful, and happy to see me. She looked much better than she did the day before. Turned out she had went home and slept off her anger towards me, but I could see, after a while, that she was mad at herself. She still blamed herself. It tore me up to see her like that, and so much so that I told her I was tired just to get her to leave. We'd talked for hours, and it was almost time to visiting hours to be over. Other than Donna, I wasn't expecting anyone, but, to my surprise, there was a knock on my door. The noise startled me and I almost screamed, but instead I just gasped. Cautiously, I had called out, "Yes? You may come in."
When the door opened, I was surprised and embarrassed to see Donna's father in the doorway. "I just wanted to check up on you kiddo," he said in his warm fatherly voice. It made me smile to address me so kindly.
"Thanks," I said. "The doctors said that I can leave soon. I plan on getting out of here fast, and getting back to school as soon as possible. I miss doing something during the day."
Donna's father chuckled at that. "I see you're still as anxious as ever," he said. But his words, while meaning to be a joke, brought back up the worry I had forgotten when I'd first saw him. What if someone tries to get me? Donna's father noticed this, and fell quiet for a moment. "Ya know..." he said, getting my attention, "you may not feel safe, dear, but I can assure that you are. I took the liberty of switching my positions to here at the hospital so that way I could keep an eye on you."
I let out a humorless chuckle. "Did Donna talk you into it?"
Donna's father shrugged and then nodded. "Yeah...She worried about you. She thinks what happened was her fault." Her father looked down. "But she can't be blamed, and neither can you. You're both not at fault." He gave me serious eyes that were filled with fatherly affection. Affection I knew little of. "I hope you know that." He stepped into the room, slowly at first, but then came over and sat at the side of my bed. "You may not be my daughter, Irene, but you're Donna's most precious friend, and she means everything to me and you mean everything to her. That means that you're someone that I'd die to protect. I just want you to know that." Donna's father took my hand and kissed it, suddenly uncomfortable. "Good night, Irene."
I smiled, ignoring the sting in my eyes as he left. "Good night." When he was gone, a few tears fell. They weren't tears of pain or sadness, but of happiness, because that was the nicest thing any adult had ever said to me.
~ x - X - x ~
Three days. I'd sat in the damn hospital for three days with nothing. I had started to begin to think that that Watchmen guy had just been punking me, but it was that afternoon, when I realized he wasn't. It started with my food. My soup hadn't smelled right, and so I'd taken a tiny little bit of it before going to the bathroom to choke it up. Later, though, was when the signs were too clear. I'd sworn I'd saw the guy from the alley almost every time I'd look out my litte window, but once I blinked, he be gone. It set me on edge. I still had no idea what to do if something happened. Would the Watchmen save me? Was I truly safe in this hospital? Not only that, but Donna's father hadn't stopped by. He had made it his job to come by at least once every few hours, but he didn't show up after I saw the man from the alley. At first, I'd figured that he was running late, and he would be there soon enough, but after three hours of being awake, and him being a no show, I was genuinely worried.
The doctors protested me walking just yet, but I hardly listened to them. I walked myself to the bathroom, and when Donna came by, I had her help me walk around. I'd tripped a couple of times, sure, but that was no big deal. I didn't tell Donna about her father not showing up. Instead, I sent her home after a few hours, telling her that she might want to get dinner started for her father. She was hesitant to go, but I had insisted.
It was around midnight when they struck. I was snuggled nicely up in the hospital bed when the covers were suddenly ripped off of me. I shot up in the bed, fully awake, only for a hand to smash my lips, smothering my screams for help. A deep, familiar voice hissed, "Shut up!" I stopped struggling against him instantly and tried to focus my eyes to the dark of the room. The window was open again, and the curtains blew casually behind the masked man. "They're here," he said. With that, he removed his hand from my mouth.
I nodded, anger bubbling. "Well, what the hell," I snapped. The masked man's head tilted sideways as if I was lighting the short wic of his patience. But that didn't stop me. I was too tired, and cloudy minded to understand what was going on other than this stranger in a mask had just ripped off my blanket. "I was sleeping," I continued. "If you want to wake me up-wake anyone up, just give them a shake. A shake. Don't act like you're going to attack them, it's just..." I sighed, rubbing at my eyes, ignoring the masked man who was ignoring me. "...less effort for everybody." I yawned.
"Stay awake. We're leaving," he said. I just nodded, perfectly okay with the thought of leaving the hospital, but then he grabbed my arm and yanked me off the bed. I let out an angry huff at his rough treatment, but before I could make another sound, my eyes caught site of the door's window. It was the man from the alley. He was right outside the door. In an act of cowardice, I ducked behind the masked man. He didn't even seem to notice me. He kept an eye on the man who stood right outside our door, instead. "He's here. You were too slow."
I was suddenly more awake, the danger of the situation making my pulse spike. I pointed at the door. "L-lock the door!" I hissed, backing away until I hit the wall. I glanced at the open window next to me and then back at masked man. "Do it!" I hissed.
"He has key," he growled. Those words made me feel more helpless than I already was. We both looked at each other, my face twisted with fear, his twisted with irritation. Then we both looked at the door as the man from the alley smiled through the window.
Author's Note: Man, it's been sooo long since I've updated. Like, the last time I double updated I'd maybe missed like a week or something, but that was months ago. I really don't have anything else to say besides school. Man, school just kills me. It kills my creativity. It takes all of my time. I hate it. Like, I used to think that the reason I'd stop writing was because I'd lost my drive to write, but no. No, it's because school's got me worried I'm not going to get my 4.0 and it's the only thing I can think about and it drives me insane. Like, I get on breaks with no homework, and I'm a writing machine. Le sigh... Well, I hope you're still enjoying this story even a little. I love writing it. It's fun, believe it or not. So have a gay day, and wish for more breaks!