8:48p.m.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Bill awoke the next morning. His surroundings unfamiliar to him. He sat up, only to be restricted by his brother who had twisted himself around him. Frantically he searched for a clock. As soon as he knew the time he’d be ok. He found one. On the wall by the nurse’s station, 5:48. Clearly he’d been moved up to the ward while he slept. Maria was gone. She must have left when they moved him. The ward was still dark but the light from the blinded window was a deep navy blue in colour that didn’t show any signs of getting lighter. They had to get out of here. As soon as earthly possible. He didn’t want the authorities poking their noses in on his life. He was managing alright (just about) without their interference. Nothing hurt very much so the teenager pulled the IV needles from his hands  and rolled his wrists a few times to get them moving again. Tom stirred from Bill’s movement but fell back to sleep almost immediately. Bill swung his legs over the side – so far so good – but he fell to the floor with a yell. He tried to stand but only ended up falling again. A light went on in the ward and a nurse came running.

“Mr Kaulitz, what are you doing?” she said sharply when she found him on the floor. Bill winced as she helped him back into bed.

“When can I leave?” he asked. “I want to go home, let me go!” and he tried to struggle but she was stronger than she looked and he was unable to shake her off.

“Not yet that’s for certain, Doctor...Winters will be back later today to assess you.” She paused to look at his records on the end of his bed. Bill sighed in annoyance and sat back on his pillows. The nurse fussed about his bedclothes before disappearing back to her station.

By now the sky had lightened slightly to a dark grey and lights were being switched on throughout the hospital. Bill lay quiet and watched the horizon go from blue to grey, his mind ticking overtime. He thought about how he could escape mostly. But that shock of blonde hair kept creeping up on him. Again. He pushed the file into an imaginary filing cabinet in the back of his mind to deal with later. He had to concentrate on escaping the hospital. Bill appreciated why he was there and that Maria had no other choice – he didn’t blame her one iota. Still, he was terrified of them finding out what he was. The busybody nurse had said that the good doctor Winters would be coming back to see him later. She had covered for him before, maybe she could let him go. Even if it was against her better judgment.

True to the nurse’s word, doctor Winters came to see him a few hours later. With Tom sitting at the end of Bills Bed, Bill sat up against the many pillows that had been put behind him for support; she arrived to find their pair in deep conversation. Well as deep a conversation as Tom could manage. A smile hung on Bill lips she noted. Not that it reached his eyes, but still this was the first time she’d seen him smile in anyway shape or form. Having been a psych nurse in the past, she could see these things in people and it often landed her in trouble. Like now for instance, she knew that Bill and Maria were not who they said they were and that Bill was a lot younger than he said he was. Fifteen in fact. She’d been digging for his ‘missing’ files and found them in an obsolete folder on the hospital’s system. Apparently Bill was dead, and he was supposed to have only been thirteen when he died. But nope, here he was maybe not well, but most certainly alive. Something wasn’t right about this kid. Clearly someone had thought him dead because they’d informed the authorities that he was so. But why if he is still alive? And she couldn’t find Tom’s existence at all – which was even weirder. Ruth longed to know what was going on but she had one too many black marks against her name and she didn’t dare poke around any further for fear of losing her job. So she had to let it rest for now. Right now, she was keeping him in for no reason. There wasn’t really anything they could do for cracked ribs, except tell him to rest. The thing that worried her more than the fact that the kid was meant to be dead, was what would happen to him when he went home? No it worried her, it worried her a lot. And as she told him that he could go home, she wondered if she was making the right decision. Maybe when those thickhead policemen came round again, she could tell them. Or maybe she should just leave well alone. No doubt she’d see him again soon. Sighing Ruth returned to her office to do some auditing that needed finishing. If those two thickhead policemen did come round again, she could just mention what she’d found and let them take it further. But in the meantime, she didn’t suppose it would hurt to just do a little more digging, no one would know! So she tapped into the hospital system and began her searches once more.