Chapter 19

You can say whatever you want about hospitals, but you have to admit that they are one of the most depressing places in the world to be. For one thing, 90% of the people here aren't healthy while the other ten percent are making sure that they are healthy. An if they aren't, they join the 90% group. I guess the one good thing is that babies are born here.

Well most babies are born here.

And then there is the waiting room for the ER. Every single person here is either sobbing either hearts out or staring off into space with dead eyes, waiting for the doctor to tell them something that makes them believe in miracles or be miserable.

Jason's asleep in my lap while I'm fighting the urge to go to sleep. I push my glasses further up my face and drink more of the coffee that I got earlier. It's probably the only thing keeping me from dropping on the floor right now.

"Who are you here for?" one of the nurses asks, whispering to avoid waking up Jason.

"I don't know her name, but I want to see her since I was the one to call in the ambulance for her. She got in maybe an hour or so ago. She's covered in blood."

"I'm sorry, but only family members are allowed to see her in her condition right now," she replies.

"But I saw her in worse condition! Look, I'm involved somewhat in what happened and I want to make sure that she's alright," I say, trying not to raise my voice at her. It's so hard to keep a straight head when all I want to do is scream at the top of my lungs right now.

"Did you do this?" she asks in surprise, while I give her a deadpan look. Do I look like I'm capable of doing that to her? The worse damage I can probably do is yank some of her hair out but that's it. I'm not a fighter and I never will be.

"No. But I kinda think I know who did it, but I need to talk to her to make sure." She looks like she's about to deny me again so I add, "it's a police matter now. I have to talk to her to get more information out for the cops."

"Why didn't they just do that themselves?"

"They're too busy investigating the crime scene and they feel that I can relate more to her and it's not threatening since I'm not a figure of authority," I respond. I really hope she buys into the lie.

"Room 313, but leave the kid. We'll watch over him," she reassures. Since she's a nurse, I hand Jason over to her before walking towards the room that she directed me to.

I stand in front of the room for about five minutes, before I hear something behind me. "Braska? What are you doing here?"

I turn around and fight against the urge to run away. Zoey, dressed in a tank top and pajama shorts, stands right in front of me. However, she isn't glaring at me or pouring her drink at me. "Just here to visit someone," I mumble under my breath. She nods and stares at the wall behind me.

"Why are you standing outside of Raine's room?" she curiously asks. Whoa. Back the train up. Raine? As in one of Zoey's best friends? That Raine? No wonder she looked and sounded so familiar! Before I can respond, she continues. "Anyways, she's in bad condition and the doctors are still running tests on her," she says.

I stay silent. Zoey's expression mimics a defeated look, but that's impossible since Zoey doesn't have feelings. At least, she doesn't act like she has feelings. How can the girl who bullies me with no remorse have feelings? "I was right there. I was in the same room as her, sleeping while she was getting stabbed or shot or whatever the fuck the murderer did."

"Do you need a hug?" I hesitantly ask, opening my arms to her. Zoey looks at me with a blank face and I'm about to drop my arms before she throws herself at me and starts sobbing into my shoulder. The force of her makes me hit my back against the wall but I manage to stay upright and rub her shoulder as she continues crying her eyes out.

"I'm sorry Braska," she sniffles, and I nod. I don't know if she's apologizing for making my shoulder wet or for everything that she's done to me, but I don't bring it up knowing how sensitive she is right now.

Just then a doctor comes out of the room and looks at the both of us. "Are you members of Raine Hanson's family?" the doctor asks.

"Yeah, we're her sisters," Zoey says, making me look at her in shock. There's no way the doctor is going to believe that we were related!

Shockingly, he nods. "Alright, but only one person can visit at a time. The damage isn't as bad as we thought it would be. It looks like she was cut multiple times around her body and from the bruises all around her face and upper chest, she was punched multiple times. There isn't any nerve or brain damage though," he explains.

"How is that not bad damage?!" Zoey exclaims, looking horrified. I rub her arm to calm her down before retreating it back at the look she gives me. Guess she still doesn't like people touching her without her permission.

"It's not bad because there's no permanent damage," he explains. Even though Zoey looks horrified, I'm actually relieved. Unlike her, I saw how she looked like before she got here. I'd say it's a miracle if she got away with no permanent damage.

I went inside as Zoey continues talking to the doctor to see Raine lying down on the bed with her eyes closed. She's attached to a blood bad making me gag. I absolutely hate the sight of blood. Why I even watch shows with blood in it, I have no idea.

"Raine?" I whisper, hoping that I don't startle her. Her eyes rip open and she fixes her gaze towards me. "I know you think I did this but I swear it wasn't my fault."

"Like hell it isn't! Do you know what he told me while stabbing me multiple times? He said 'try anything on Nebraska ever again and I swear I'll rip your eyes out and make you watch me tear you limb from limb.' Do you realize that that might have been the last words I would ever hear?" When she put it like that...

"But I-"

"How does it feel standing there while I'm here? Came to finish the job?" she dryly asks, glaring at me with so much hate.

"I swear I didn't do this! There's been this crazy guy stalking me and something you did must have angered him because otherwise he would have left you alone!" I explain, rubbing my arm nervously.

"Oh, so this is my fault? That me getting stabbed so many times is because I did something!" she angrily yells at me, making me flinch back. Okay maybe that was not the right way to word it.

"No! That's not what I meant to say," I try to explain to her, but everything I say goes in one ear and out the other.

"You know what? Go rot in hell, and take that monster with you," she snarls at me, before waving her hand at me. I know that if I don't leave right then and there, she would either call the nurses to escort me out or rip the blood bag and throw it at me. Not wanting to go through any of the two possible outcomes, I turn around to walk away.

But just before walking out of the door, I stop. I came in here to find out how this creep looks like. If I don't, then who knows who could be next. Haley? Lucas? Levi? I turn back around and talk fast before she has the chance to swear at me some more. "Look, I know you're mad and all and you think that I have something to do with this-"

"You do!"

I keep going. "But I meant it when I said that this guy is a lunatic stalking me. I don't care if you believe me or not, but I have to know something. What does he look like?" I ask.

She gives me a weird look and cocks an eyebrow at me. "What do you mean what does he look like? Wouldn't you know?"

"Like I tried to tell you before, I don't know him!" I exclaim. I'm starting to get irritated with her thinking that I'm the reason that she's in the hospital. The only thing I did was call the hospital to bring her here. If I hadn't, she would have bled to death in my living room floor.

She rolls her eyes at me but at least she's kind of cooperating right now. "Whatever, fine. He's old, not like grandpa old but I guess late college student kind of old, like you know what I mean? Dark hair that almost covers his left eye, or was it right?...I don't know, he was stabbing me so I didn't exactly get a good picture since I was too busy drowning in my own blood." I flinch with each word she said.

But her description does sound really familiar.

"The one thing I did notice though were his eyes. It was the first thing I noticed when I opened the door for him. I was maybe staring at it for three seconds before he started cutting me." Does she have to keep bringing that up? I know it's part of the story and all but it makes me feel so bad.

Does she not realize how bad I already feel about this whole situation? The image of her soaked in blood standing on my doorstep will forever be burned in my memory. Luckily Jason wasn't there to witness him. That would have scarred him for life.

"What did his eyes look like?" I quietly ask.

"Blue. Kinda like the blue of an ocean before a storm, you know? Okay judging by the look on your face you didn't really understand what I'm trying to say. Basically it was a really piercing dark blue kind of color," she explains.

Bits and pieces of her description start to form a picture in my head. My eyes widened at the only person that came to mind. There's only one person I know with that eye color. But that can't be true right? He was so nice when I met him...

I smack myself mentally. Of course he was nice when I first met him! He's my stalker! Suddenly every puzzle piece in front of me start to fit together and I grit my teeth. I run out of the room not bothering to say goodbye or anything.

I fly past Zoey, who calls after me, but I ignore her and continue running. I stop to pick up Jason before continuing my run. Since my athletic skills aren't good, I stop running after three minutes. But even then, I continue on my way at a fast walk.

When I come to Haley's house, I start pounding on the door knowing that her mother works late and her dad is out of town. I continue knocking until she opens the door in her pajamas. Ignoring the shocked and surprised look on her face, I welcome myself in and place Jason on the couch, turning back to face her after she closes the door.

"We need to talk.

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So Nebraska finally realizes who her mystery stalker is? How do you think she'll react?

How do you think her stalker will react?

Tell me what you think about it :)