The Taking

Chapter 16

Charlotte's POV (The day after Vincent bit her.)

Why am I so cold? My neck feels like a wood plank and I have a tsunami headache crashing through my skull.

"Charlotte? Baby. You're awake?" Mom's quivering voice made me turn my eye balls to the side. Neck pains remember? We make eye contact and she gasps like a woman who just found out she won the million-dollar lotto. "Trent, your sister is awake!"

She kneels by my bedside and holds on to my forearm. Her eyes are bloodshot and her face is painstakingly pale like a paper sheet. She looked twice as horrible as yesterday, I kid you not.

"Mom?" My throat is so dry it's hard to speak.

"My baby girl." She cries into my arm.

Regarding the room, I realize we were at the hospital. How'd I get here? The last thing I remember was chasing Vincent into the woods. My brain flashes outlandish images of Vincent turning to a werewolf.

I must have fallen on my head before having nightmares. It explains the headache.

"Mom?" I reach for her hand, but the IV needle on the back of my palm prevents me from moving my arm any further. I look at it and feel squeamish.

I freaking. Hate. Needles.

Trent sits on the other side of the bed and covers the taped area, hiding the IV from my sight. Like mom, he looks forlorn and deep eye bags mark under his eyes.

"Don't look if you know you're not going to like it. How are you sis?" His voice expressed concern, but his rigid posture meant he had a lot more serious things to say, but was restraining himself for mom's sake.

"I--

Before I could tell him how sore I felt, mom interjects. "Charlotte, what in the world made you think of going outside?! With what happened to-

She chokes on her breath and paused for a second to hold in her emotions.

The door opens and a nurse walks in and mom stops talking.

"You're awake!" The nurse walks over to monitor and checks my vital status. She takes down a few notes and introduces herself. "My name's Marlene, I'm your nurse for this afternoon. Are you in pain honey? Would you like me to give you some pain meds? The doctor said if you woke up in pain I could administer a small dosage to make you feel at ease. That animal bite was pretty deep. I'm sorry darling, but you're going to have a scare there."

My mouth drops and I kink my neck to see the wound, but forget I had stiff neck. I groan when the sudden pain hits me.

Trent curses under his breath. "Sometimes I feel like you're the younger sibling." He gets to his feet and helps me adjust the pillow so that I don't hurt my neck again. I watch him as he does this and I feel so well taken care of by my little brother, it almost makes me emotional.

If Celeste were here she would think some alien took over our little brother's body and replaced him with this caring stranger.

I stubbornly attempt to swat his hand and tell him I didn't need help, but he groaned in annoyance. "Charlotte, please..."

My stomach twists.

Charlotte please...

Vincent said the same thing last night before jumping off the porch.

The recognition made me somewhat nauseated, likely due to my headache and shock.

Last night was real. Did I really see Vincent turn into a wolf? It sounds so crazy. Or maybe I'm already going crazy!