EYES LIKE RAZORS

(88) Father Hughes

"Your brother has finished his initial surgery and is in a stable conscious position," the nurse informs.

"Great, can we go see him?" Ada asks.

"Although he's awake, we still can't permit him to have any visitors."

"Bullshit," Madison says, "Madison," Polly warns.

"It's bullshit, if he's awake why can't we see him? Did he tell you not to let us?" Madison questions the nurse.

"N-no, it just might interfere with his surgery, we don't want to cause further damage," the nurse stammers.

"Further damage? I would've killed him a long time ago if I was going to." Madison retorts, "has he given you a name? Did he say who did this?"

The nurse shakes her head, eyes glancing nervously around the large group sat in the waiting area.

"Mads, you're making her anxious, sit down." Chloe whispers in her wife's ear.

"I just want to see my brother, and if he's awake and stable, I don't see why they're stopping us." Madison replies.

"I know you want to see him, I know you do. But you can't storm round a hospital looking for him. Let them do their jobs, you'll see him soon enough." Chloe responds, holding one of Madisons hands, whilst Ada and Polly spoke calmly to the nurse, dismissing her.

"Did you guys know about Dad?" John queries.

"Know what about Dad?" Madison replies, and simultaneously her aunt and sister both say yes.

"Will someone bloody tell me?" Madi says, her patience drastically decreasing as they all stood there looking at her.

"He died. He got shot twice in an alleyway whilst leaving his local pub," John tells her, watching her expression morph into one of happiness, "that's fucking brilliant."

-

It took a couple of days of Madisons pestering before the doctors allowed her to see Tommy, they took her to the depths of the hospital where there were no other patients nearby.

"He's in there, we'll wait outside." Thomas' main doctor tells her, gesturing to the singular door at the end of the hallway.

Madison saunters to the door, slowly pushing it open, and entering the room, her eyes landing on Tommy who was laying stationary in a hospital bed with a metal frame around his head, going beneath the covers.

"Fucking hell," Madison says, taking the seat beside the bed, running a hand through her hair as she took in the sight of Tommy frail and practically colourless, a large part of his head shaved with parts of his head stitched together.

"Tom, can you hear me?" Madi asks, "yeah," Tommy croaks in response, "don't pity me, Mads. You're the one person I can rely on not to make me feel small and childlike during this."

"I'm not pitying you, I'm planning a murder in my head," Madison replies, "who did this to you?"

"You can't," Tommy says, "you can't kill him."

"Yes I fucking can," Madison states.

"You're not killing him, that's an order." Tommy states.

"Why? Tom, you look like a pile of fucking bones, pretty ghastly. Whoever did this to you is going to have his head sawed off with a rusty razor blade." Madison responds.

Tommy let's out a slight chuckle, which turned into a coughing fit, "always so violent," he smiles.

"It's my special talent," Madi shrugs, "now give me a good enough reason why you're not telling me who did this."