That Broken Girl ⇒ Kian Lawley

5

Both the men pulled their badges out and I took them into my hands to inspect them, making sure that the designation of rank engraved on their badges matched what they told me and verified that there was a reasonable five digit number before handing their possessions back to them, letting the muscular man continue what he was saying.

"We work in the Special Victims Unit," he finalized.

My entire voice sprinted away the second he had said 'special' because that was the unit my mother was transferred to, and there's no way her coworkers are here for a casual chat, especially since she just started her job there the other day.

"Your mother is Lesley McDonough, is that correct?" The short one asked, and I nodded stiffly, my left hand trembling by my side as I shifted my weight to the opposite foot yet again.

"May you come with us, please?"

Slipping on my torn apart, ratty Converse and nightwear, I followed the officers out to their squad car without any further questions. I'd follow anyone if they mentioned my mother, as sad as that sounds because she's my world and I need to make sure she's okay, even if I die in the process.

"What's uh," I had to clear my throat in order to continue speaking, seeing as my voice completely gave out, "Going on?" I finally spit out after a few seconds of coughing up mucus buried in my throat.

It was a minuscule detail, but I did happen to notice the pudgy officer glancing at his more built partner that was driving and the look they exchanged, the guilty glimmer in their eyes, it made my heart drop to my feet and sent my stomach into a whirl of knots.

As the built officer's palms clenched around the steering wheel, he leaned his body to the right a bit, almost unnoticeably, until we pulled into the parking lot of the hospital downtown. While I didn't want to believe that my mother is potentially in there, I had to pinch my eyes shut and cover them with my sweat ridden hands just to keep me from having a mental breakdown in the back of their car.

The silence was deafening, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears and every time I gulped, I could hear it so distinctively that I was afraid of everyone in the parking lot hearing. There was a person smoking behind her van regardless of the no smoking signs placed everywhere around the campus and there was a man in a wheelchair being pushed around by his caretaker.

After taking in my surroundings, the two policemen were staring at me with an unreadable expression in their eyes, it seemed as though they were putting on a mask in front of me and I had a bit of comprehension about why they would do that, though I'm very indenial about the reasons why.

The sliding doors of the hospital opened laggingly and I stepped inside, the air became thick with uncertainty while I trailed behind the people who brought me here. We approached two sets of elevators, one had a sign above it that said 'ICU' while the other one went to the normal floors like the pediatric unit.

It felt like someone slammed their foot down on my heart when the stubby finger of pudgy hit the up arrow on the Intenisve Care Unit elevator. There was no denying that my mother was in a room on that floor, it was fairly evident by now like all the steps that got me here have clicked together to complete the puzzle.

The doors creaked shut and being in this small, confined space with the mood I'm in made me feel like all four walls were closing in on me. Even though I'm surrounded by everyone in the hospital, I feel so alone and wished more than anything that someone was here with me to coddle me and tell me everything was going to be okay.

Chipped paint fluttered to the ground as gracefully as a feather when the metal entryways departed from each other and the doors were shaking in their tracks, they wanted to break free from the depressing enviroment as well as I did at this moment, but I knew I had to stay to make sure my mother was okay.