Toziette (Henry Bowers)(English version)

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Jane sat up violently in her bed, out of breath, it was by far the worst dream she had had so far. It wasn't the bloodiest, nor the most violent, but it was the most realistic, the fact that Patrick didn't attack her in her bed, but after school gave the aggression something more scary, she already knew that the boy could attack her anywhere, but she had almost forgotten that he wouldn't necessarily attack her at night in her room.

She was used to the pain after this kind of dream, she still had a kind of phantom feeling from the beatings she received, but the pain in her wrist didn't go away, and the feeling in her nose was strange. Everything was too realistic.

Breathe Tozier, don't fall asleep before I drop you off!

She tried to turn on her bedside lamp, but nothing seemed out of place. She couldn't find her bedside table to the right of her bed.

"Jane?"

The room was too dark for her to see anything but long dark hair above her.
She raised both arms in front of her face.

"Please Patrick! I told you everything... Leave me alone."

She felt the tears rising, she couldn't bear not knowing if she was awake or not, she couldn't bear not being able to sleep properly, she couldn't bear her situation anymore.
The light suddenly came on, dazzling Jane. She didn't recognize any of the furniture lit by the old, yellow-tinged bulb of the bedside lamp.
In front of the wall switch, that's why she couldn't find it, was Richie looking worried.
When she recognized her brother and the hospital room she was in, she burst into tears, he rushed to her and took her in his arms.

"It's over Jane, it's ok, you're safe"

She hugged him back, and realized that the feeling in her arm was caused by a splint.

"I'm so glad you woke up." He pulled away from her a little to look her in the eyes. "The doctors said there was no risk, but you should see your face..."

"Richie...what happened?"

She had a sore throat, and speaking brought tears to her eyes, her brother must have noticed since he served her a glass of water before answering her:

"Patrick caught you. It was pretty violent, that's all we know. Criss brought you in, you were barely breathing." He sketched a smile, it seemed forced, as if to reassure her. "The parents freaked out, you should have seen mum's face when they called..."

He was also worried, but he would never admit that. For a moment, when he heard that someone had beaten her up, he thought it was his fault, that Henry had reacted really badly to what he had said to him. He had not been relieved to learn that it was Patrick, and that Henry had intervened to arrest him, -Victor had remained at the hospital to answer questions from the staff and had been able to tell everything to the Tozier family- but he still, selfishly, felt a weight less on his conscience.

He hugged her tighter and told her everything that had happened while she slept. Their mother had entered the room in the middle of the story, and had tears in her eyes when she saw her daughter awake.
Jane was fine now.
Everything could only be fine now.

Jane spent almost 4 days in the hospital, under the strict gaze of the nurses who made sure that she did her rehabilitation well.

Following her confrontation with Patrick, Jane had her nose and a rib broken, in addition to numerous bruises, caused by the assault, and a sprained right wrist, caused by her fall on the bridge. The doctors had been surprised to see on the x-rays that this was not the first rib she had broken, but they hadn't told her parents after Jane asked them.