THE GRAVEDIGGER'S HANDBOOK → ISAAC LAHEY

[xxvii] The End of All Things

December 10

7:24 A.M.

Memorial Hospital

  Phoebe's hands gripped her coffee cup tightly as she adjusted her hospital gown and newspaper that was sitting on her lap. She brought the cup up to her lip and began to sip slowly, making sure not to take in too much too quickly. She hummed to herself as her eyes skimmed the pages of the local newspaper that was brought to her every other morning.

There was one interesting side article that caught her attention. It was an update on the Sheriff's station after the explosion- There had been one the previous week as well. Thankfully, the only officer who actually passed from the bomb was the officer that she'd taken the gun from. By the time she was reading it that morning, they'd already began to renovate and rebuild the building, and all charges against the kids were dropped due to lack of evidence.

A few minutes after skimming, a rap on her door sounded and she immediately grew ten times happier seeing the familiar silhouette through the window.

"Come in!" She called, placing her cup and folded paper on the tray beside the bed.

Isaac trotted in sporting a mile-wide grin, shutting the door behind him. This had become a usual routine. Everyday, somebody would come to visit her and check on her progress. Isaac was usually the only one to visit every single day regardless, though Joy sure made a valiant effort to do so as well.

Isaac came bearing gifts; Her homework from the previous day, and a leftover box from her favorite restaurant that he'd visited that morning filled with pancakes and bacon. Phoebe took these easily, leaning over to peck Isaac quickly on the lips before sitting back and grinning like an idiot.

"So, anything new?" She questioned, cocking her head to the side.

Isaac nodded and reached down to his bag again, "Actually, yeah. Allison was finally able to retrieve the second beastiary from your car- Which we have yet to get back from the towing company.. But we'll figure it out. Anyways, we read over it and, well, there's some good news."

"Let me guess." She lolled her head back, staring at the ceiling. "Seeing as it's been 20 days since I was hospitalized, and I haven't died, aren't dying, nor have I changed in any way.. The bite didn't affect me?"

Isaac froze and blinked at her mid-page flipping, shutting him up. He cleared his throat and shut the book, placing it on the table. "Yeah. You'd be right. As always."

"Words to live by." She smiled, eyes creasing cutely at the corners. "And nothing from Donovan, huh?"

"Nuh-uh." Isaac shook his head, handing Phoebe her favorite pen from his bag. "I think he's definitely laying low now because of what happened to his dad."

"Interesting." She merely commented, sprawling out their homework material out on the table. "Anyways. Let's start."

They began to ask questions back and forth on the passages they were given, highlighting when needed, annotating everywhere. Within a few minutes the chatter between them faded to an extremely comfortable silence until Isaac broke it.

"Hey.." He called, tapping his pencil against his plump lips in thought, "Say somebody went to the front desk and figured out what day you would be released.. What would you say?"

Without even batting an eyelash she answered as she continued to write on her assignments, "I dunno. I guess I would ask why."

"What if.." He trailed off again, reaching up to stop her hand from writing gently. "What if someone wanted to take you to.. A very special dance, per say, and your release date was coincidentally the day before the dance?"