Dark As Night

The First Hunt

I was sick of my little sister. I mean actually sick. She had put dirt from the compost bin in my tea instead of at breakfast that morning so now I was stuck in my bed with a temperature and a bowl of soup. I could still taste the rotten vegetables and grass between my teeth as I stared up at the ceiling. She was always like this though. For a child of five she was vile. The day before she had pushed me in front of dad's lawnmower and the weekend before that she had turned the hot tap on full blast when I was running my bath so that I burnt myself pretty badly before I pulled myself up and out of the water.

She was always trying to hurt me. Even when she was just one year old she had pushed her birthday candle into my face when I was helping her blow it out; a psycho from birth! Still, mum loved her the most. Sweet, innocent Anna could do no wrong with mum. It was always 'Grenelda! Why did you push poor little Anna?' or 'Grenelda! Clean up that mess! You're eleven years old now, have more control over those big old  feet of yours!' She even got a nice, popular name and I was stuck with such an ugly one. My classmates never let me live that down. I hated my sister so much that I hit the cold metal rim of the bed with my fist. I bit my lip hard as my hand turned pink and even harder when the door to my room opened to display the sickly little girl I so called my sister.

"Hello, Gwenny." That's what she called me, but it was really just to annoy. I knew she could say my name and it was pathetic.

"Mummy told me to give you this. It's stuff to make you better." I looked at the bottle that she placed on my bed.

The liquid was a brown colour and the bottle said COUGH MEDICINE on it. That's what my mum is like. She thinks its always just a plain old cough and would never believe me if I told her the truth. On the other hand, if Anna caught a little cold then it would be straight down to the doctors.

I looked at the bottle and smelt the liquid inside. It was just normal medicine. Even though I told myself this over and over again, I couldn't resist a lump forming in my throat and a horrible feeling creeping into my mind. I looked up to quiz the kid on the contents of the bottle but Anna was already gone.

"Well," I said to myself, "She can push me around but she can't poison me!" Stupid now when I look back at my ignorance, considering why I was in bed anyway. Really, if only I knew how wrong I was...

And with that, I took a sip.

Darkness, ambulance, flashing lights, screams, voices, metal clanging, silence... My mind and emotions were an blend of hellish chaos.

My eyes slowly fluttered open with painful muscles. I was in a white place. That's all I knew at the time, my vision was so blurred I could only make out brief shapes. Was this heaven? No, a figure was walking towards me.

"Don't worry Grenelda, everything will be okay. You seem to have been 'poisoned' somehow with a very strong painkiller. It's amazing that you survived in fact, a drug of this effect would usually cause intense trauma to the heart and circulatory system, much like a, erm, caffeine energy drink, yet on an impossible scale. You're recovering well but I just need you to answer a couple of questions." The woman sat down on the end of my bed. I could not make out her facial features but she appeared to have dull white hair to match the painfully dull white room.

"Where's my mum? Where am I?" I cried.

"She has had to go home on urgent matter. I'm sure that she'll be back sooner that you know, dear. Now can you please concentrate." What could be more urgent to mum than her own daughter in hospital? The thought haunted me until I was once again greeted by the woman's shrill voice.

"Do you know how this happened or where you may have been in contact with any strong solutions? Did mummy have a place where she kept her medicine?" I could not see clearly enough but I felt her eyes staring me up and down a thousand times, each one piercing my conscience for answers.