Kill Me Sweetly

Chapter 20

            Gray clouds danced in front of my eyes as I tried to pull myself toward consciousness. I managed to do it partway when I heard a cranky old lady voice say, “Well if you think you can manage to take care of her then she can stay in here but if everyone else gets sick it is on your head young lady.”

            Prying open my eyes I saw Sam nodding her head energetically replying, “Don’t worry I have everything taken care of Mrs. Hertz.” It took all my energy to slowly turn my head and see our headmaster, wearing a gray flannel night gown and pink fuzzy bunny slippers, looking down at me with a stink eye. With that image forever burned into my brain I let myself sink back into the darkness.

            Something cold was being wiped across my forehead and I felt a drop of water run into my hairline. I was too tired to open my eyes so I concentrated on sounds and heard someone shift their weight and then Natalie sighed. There was a soft knock on the door and Natalie got up to go answer it.

            The door was opened and someone else walked in and put something down on the table next to my bed. The smell of spaghetti drifted over to me and I felt my stomach clench in revulsion at the thought of eating anything. “I brought you some lunch since you skipped it,” Dylan’s voice drifted over to me as he spoke to Natalie, “So how is she?”

            There was a creak of a chair as Natalie sat back down and sighed, “Her fever is pretty much gone for now but she still hasn’t woken up yet. She’s been like this for the past day.” Whoa, I’ve been out of it for a day already? I tried to push myself to open my eyes but it was too much for me and I heard Dylan say something to Natalie but didn’t quite catch what was said before I fell back into my mind.

            “I hate that me and my mom get into so many fights but I can’t help it; I just wish she was around for me when I need her the most when I was growing up,” Sam’s voice drifted over me when I came too again. “I also can’t believe she sent me here, it’s like she doesn’t even want to have a kid anymore. Sometimes I just wish that my dad would drop down dead, you wouldn’t wish something as terrible as that on a person though you’re too nice,” she sighed and I heard a creak from her bed as she shifted her weight.

            Oh yeah, me, an assassin, of course wouldn’t want to wish death onto her abusive father. When I felt myself slipping again I was really glad even though I still wanted to hear what Sam had to say about her old life.

            I opened my eyes to a knife coming at me and screamed, lurching to the side to avoid it. A second later I felt two arms grab me by the shoulders along with Tim’s voice, “Josey just calm down, it’s only a dream.” I blinked away the images of shadows to Tim’s worried face as he sat back down in the chair that had seemed to taken up residence beside my bed.

            He seemed to understand that I was still hopeless to the idea of moving but unlike the others he realized that I knew what was going on around me. “Okay Josey let’s play a game, I’ll ask you a few questions and just blink once for yes or twice for no, sound like a deal,” he asked and looked at me expectantly. When I realized what he wanted from me I blinked my eyes once pleased that I could manage to do that.

            Tim smiled down at me and asked, “Are you feeling okay?” I obviously blinked my eyes twice at that and even rolled them to show how un-amused I was by the question. Rolling his own eyes back at me he asked, “Yeah I know but dare to dream. How about… Want to help me work out a problem?” He crossed his one leg over his other and stared down at me with a weird expression; I blinked once. What did he have to lose asking someone who couldn’t talk to anyone else? He must be really desperate and in need of answers.