Good news and bad news, everyone.
First, the good. I managed to finish another chapter of Jaws of Madness, despite life's attempts to stop me.
Now for the bad... my precious laptop exploded. Fortunately, it's repairable, but it's probably going to take months before I can get it functional again. In the meantime, a good 90% of my personal life is now crippled and I had to look for alternate methods to type this out while using an old derelict computer (which keeps breaking down too) I had to upload and it's been a total nightmare. Not to mention, I can't get a functional spellcheck system working either so I apologize for any errors my brain misses. And this is without getting into non-computer related bad stuff that keeps happening. Almost enough to make one feel like the universe is out to get them.
I would be taking a break from writing period if it wasn't for the fact that I'll probably lose what few readers I seem to have left. It's a little hard to write a multi-chapter when nobody leaves reviews/comments. Which is why everyone reading this should be thanking krachwarn and alice.
So in summary, my next weekly uploads might be a bit behind shedule for some time. And hopefully my quality is stiff up to proper standards.
Enjoy.
Maddie was reasonably sure she'd broken a number of traffic and driving laws in her haste, but nothing short of an actual cop forcing her off the road was going to stop her. She had somewhere to be, and Maddie was going to get there as quick as possible, laws be damned.
The vehicle came to a halt with a screech of tires against the pavement. Maddie dove out, not bothering to check and see if she actually landed inside the lines of the parking space. She wasn't in the middle of the road, and that was good enough.
Maddie dashed into the building and, after a quick question to the receptionist, continued on to the elevators. She clicked the button but nothing happened. She knew it took time but it was moving far too slowly for her tastes. Mashing the button several more times did nothing to improve her patience either.
"Screw it." Maddie kicked the wall in frustration before moving away. It was taking too long to arrive, time for an alternative.
Spotting the nearby sign, Maddie followed it to another door which she threw open to find the stairwell. The woman ascended the stairs two at a time in full sprint until she reached her goal of the third floor.
Winded, but not tired, Maddie continued on her quest to find the room that held her target. She was about to give up and ask one of the staff until she saw the number the receptionist had told her.
Maddie didn't hesitate to shove the door open. It didn't occur to her until now that Ben may not have been alone, but it didn't matter. The room was empty, save for the unconscious figure of Ben laying in the bed.
Helen hadn't exactly been very descriptive when she called Maddie earlier. All Maddie had gotten from the call was that Ben was being taken to the hospital, but Helen had avoided giving any details other than the fact he was alive but hurt badly.
"Ben?" Maddie crossed the room in the blink of an eye to reach her boy... ex-boyfriend's bedside. He was breathing, there was that at least, but he was unresponsive. Whatever happened, the man was still out cold.
Maddie allowed a little of her worry to fade as she took in the fact that he was alive, hurt, but alive. Now able to calm down some, she examined Ben's injuries. The most glaring were the bandages wrapped around his head. Having not seen beneath them, it was impossible to tell the extent of the injury. He wasn't in the ICU, so that particular one couldn't have been that bad. Next up were Ben's hands, both wrapped so completely in bandages that Maddie was unable to see even an inch of skin. Other than these two, he was physically unharmed, on the outside at least.
Now that Maddie knew he was somewhat safe, she needed to go find one of the doctors and ask about...
Maddie nearly jumped from her skin when the door was thrown open, slamming against the wall with a resounding bang. She was still trying to figure out where the newcomer went when she heard the familiar voice from Ben's other side.
"Ben!" Ryn hissed in obvious worry as she too took in Ben's state. The mermaid's eyes immedetely went to the machines connected to Ben. She growled and made a move toward them, perhaps in an attempt to tear them away from Ben, but she stopped herself after a single step. Likely remembering they were there to help and wern't a threat.
Ryn's hands went to the bandages but she limited herself to brushing the pads of her fingertips over them. The mermaid hadn't been in Britol Cove long enough to be familiar with their purpose, but she was hesitant to cause furthur harm to Ben in her ignorance.
Seeing Ryn getting handsy with Ben reminded Maddie of everything that happened. She was about to tell her to stop touching him, but Ryn didn't give her the chance.
"Who do this?" Ryn looked up from Ben after speaking. Maddie had thought it was worry or fear in the mermaid's eyes, but that wasn't even close.
It was pure rage.
"I don't..."
"Who hurt Ben?" Ryn demanded, voice degenerating into an almost feral snarl.
Unlike Ben, Maddie had never seen Ryn's more predatory nature, not in person at least. She'd always been graced with the more human half of the mermaid. There was little human-like in Ryn's posture, she looked almost ready to pounce upon Maddie if given the slightest reason to.
Ryn was more than ready to tear somebody limb from limb with her bare hands, the only thing stopping her was the mermaid not knowing whose limbs to rip off.
Maddie was unable to speak while under the full scrutiny of that stare. She liked to think she was no coward, but something about the mermaid's eyes, once so full of wonder and awe, being replaced with anger and malice had Maddie's knees going weak. She couldn't speak, her lips fumbling for words that wouldn't come.
Right now, Maddie imagined this was how the rabbit felt when cornered by the wolf.
"Ryn, we don't know what happened." Helen arrived shortly after the mermaid. "He's hurt, that's all we know."
"Ben... going to be okay?" Ryn's voice shook, not unlike when Donna lay on her deathbed. She turned to face Helen but, much to Maddie's annoyance, her hand remained atop Ben's.
"His hands are beaten up pretty badly." Helen moved to stand at the foot of Ben's hospital bed. "Some nasty cuts, bruising, a couple hairline fractures and minor blood loss, but all of that's nothing. The real issue is his head."
"Head?" Ryn had removed her own hands from Ben's the moment Helen mentioned Ben's injuries there. She shifted her touch to his arm instead. Maddie had to resist the urge to tell her to stop touching him so much.
"It's a severe head injury. Nothing broken, but..." Helen hesitated. "According to the doctor's... he's in a coma."
Maddie had been silent thus far, but her heart sank with each word that was spoken. She knew Ben had been found by Helen on the floor of his place, but how could this have possibly happened? Maybe Ryn had something with her theory of Ben having been attacked.
Could the merpeople have returned? Maddie rather doubted that one. If they had come back, for whatever reason, Ben would have been more severely wounded or outright killed. Ben's wounds were too minor to be from such an altercation.
Xander? No, for all his temper and recent volatility, he never once brought harm to Ben, or any human for that matter. You couldn't say the same for how he felt about the merpeople. To the best of Maddie's knowledge, he'd gotten over some of that, but one never knew for sure.
"What is... coma?" Of course Ryn wouldn't know what a coma was.
"It's like being asleep." Maddie was the one to answer, though she made a concious effort not to look at Ryn directly. "But... worse."
"We wake him." Ryn didn't give Maddie a chance to continue before she was gently shaking Ben by the shoulders like the man was taking a nap. "Ben? Wake up."
"It doesn't work that way, Ryn." Helen circled around to Ryn's side of the bed to stop her. "You can't wake him up like that."
Ryn hissed quietly to herself but otherwise didn't struggle. Maddie did notice her hand return to Ben's arm.
"He will have to wake on his own." Maddie leaned heavily against the bed, mind still trying to process that this was indeed happening, and there wasn't a single damn thing she could do.
"Ben will wake, yes?" Ryn sounded so hopeful, as much as Maddie didn't want to see the mermaid right now, she didn't know if she had it in her to crush the girl with the truth. "Soon?"
"It may not be soon." Helen admitted, apparently deciding for a much softer approach. Probably for the best, Maddie's personal feelings would have colored her own explanation. "But don't worry, Ben's a fighter. I'm sure he will be up in no time. All we can do is wait and be here for him."
"Ryn wait." Ryn grabbed a nearby stool and dragged it over to Ben's bedside. She threw herself down with a sense of finality that dared the world to try and dislodge her.
"You know..." Helen leaned down closer to Ryn to whisper. "I'm no doctor, but I've heard that coma patients can hear you, even if don't show it."
"Ryn is here." Ryn instantly forgot all the world to lean over Ben and speak to him. That hand of hers finding it's way to his shoulder now. Ryn had a poor sense of personal space, Maddie knew that, but she would have thought she would have figured it out by now. "Maddie and Helen, too. You wake now."
No response, not that Maddie was surprised, but Ryn seemed genuinely disappointed her attempt to awaken the man failed.
"Ryn is sorry." Ryn's entire posture slumped, voice going so low that Maddie's ears strained to hear it. Almost like she was just now discovering she was powerless to help. Suddenly, her head shot up to look at Helen. "Ben hear me?"
"I wish I could say for certain." Helen's interest was piqued now. "But yeah, that's what they say."
"Could I..." Ryn stopped, face changing from hopeful to being unsure. "Sing him awake?"
"Absolutely not!" Maddie didn't yell, but she was close. The words coming out much louder than she intended in the mostly noiseless room. Maddie had been quiet up until now, listening and letting things sink in, but hearing Ryn suggest such a thing forced Maddie's outrage to boil over. "That song of yours is what got him into this mess in the first place!"
"Maddie..." Helen warned but Maddie wasn't listening.
"You'll just make things worse." Ryn looked every bit like a kicked puppy as Maddie's words tore into her like a thousand blades. The mermaid's gaze fell to the floor, her body visibly shrinking beneath the verbal assault. "He might never wake up, and it's your singing that did it."
Ryn wasn't trying to be malicious, she was just wanted to help, but Maddie couldn't make herself see that clearly. Her anger at Ryn was overriding her sense of rationality.
"It might be best if you just..."
"That's enough." Helen, for quite possibly the first time since Maddie met the woman, raised her voice. It was enough to snap Maddie out of her tirade.
Ryn still sat on that stool, but she held her head in one of her hands to cover her face, the other still on Ben. Only now, said hand was gripping the bed-sheet so tightly her knuckles were turning white. The mermaid's body trembled in what Maddie assumed must be another bout of instinctual rage she'd accidentally coaxed out.
Maddie was so sure of that, right up until she heard the faint sniffling coming from Ryn's direction.
"It's alright, Ryn." Helen put an arm around the mermaid to comfort her. An act Maddie had done once upon a time after Donna's death. "She doesn't mean it."
Whether Maddie meant the words or not didn't matter, it was all still true. Ryn's song had broken Ben's mind into god knows how many pieces, and now his body was broken to match.
Destruction followed in Ryn's wake like a terrible wave ever since the moment Ryn arrived in Bristol Cove. Ben's body was but the latest addition to the pile. The deaths of Sean, Donna, and Decker, Maddie's father being wounded and fired from his job as sheriff. All could be traced back to Ryn. She brought nothing but pain and suffering to the people of Bristol Cove.
"I need some air." Maddie couldn't take it anymore. Loathe as she was to leave an unconscious Ben with Ryn, Maddie needed to step outside for a minute lest her temper get the better of her again.
Maddie spared only a single glance over her shoulder as she left the room, and Ryn and Ben, behind.
I did say in a previous chapter this story was going to be darker than my other Siren works, so don't expect too much in the way of sunshine and rainbows here, folks. Characters are going to suffer before I'm done with them. Some more than others.
And no, this isn't the last we will see of Maddie, Ryn, and Helen here.
There is an overall theme/idea I'm trying to get at here, but it may not be obvious until we reach closer to the end of the story. See if you all can figure it out.
See you all next week, hopefully.