The Pack.

Chapter 4

When i came to, my head was splitting. Waiting for my senses to come back to me i looked around franticly. I was fairly suprised i was in a hospital room instead of somebody's trunk. The smell of antiseptic hung in the air making me gag. I hated hospitals.

I sighed in releif. I guess someone had found me just laying there. I wondered if it was Mom. She probably would have gone balistic. For the man's sake he better hope the cops got him before my mother did.

I managed to get myself into somewhat of an upright position. Looking around more closely, i noticed that my mother was asleep in the chair next to my bed. There were cards and flowers on a cheap dresser on the other side. There was a small TV in the corner of the room. The whole room was beige. Beige walls, beige floor, beige ceiling. The color only worsened my discomfort of being here.

I shifted my weight around and winced in pain. My mother woke with a start and looked around franticly. When her eyes rested upon me, she calmed down.

"Oh thank god you're OK, sweetie!" She jumped out of her chair and ran up to grab my hand. "When i saw you just lying there..." A tear rolled down her cheak which she quickly wiped away. Mom was always a tough person. Ever since my father left us she acted like a closed book to almost everyone she knew. She was what she called "a steel-coated marshmallow". Whenever she smiled you could see the small wrinkles next to her eyes became more pronounced. Her red hair matched mine but her eyes were much paler. I always thought they got even paler when she thought about Dad or something painful. That was how they looked now.

"I'm OK, Mom." But i knew that was a lie. My right wrist was in a cast and i felt like someone beat me with a baseball bat. Looking down at myslef i was black and blue all over.

Mom knew it wasn't true either. But she smiled anyway.

"I was right outside the front door when i heard you scream. When i finally got the damn door unlocked i saw you there." She shivered. "Your clumsiness is going to give me a heart attack some day you know that?" She gave a little laugh.

My clumsiness? She thought i fell down the stairs on my own. Sure i was a clutz but i knew i saw a man and i knew he pushed me, i didn't fall. It was no accident.

But should i tell her? That man was clearly not there to rob us and i just got in the way. Mom would have noticed something missing. He obviously wasn't there to kill me, there were more effective ways than pushing me down the stairs. He might have tried to kidnapp me. If Mom was right, she ran in moments after she heard me scream and fall. He wouldn't have had time to take me out of the house without being seen.

Then what was he there for? He was hired, i thought. Why else would he have been looking at that paper? It might have been my picture. Definitely not a map since he started towards the wrong room. How did he know what floor boards not to step on? But then again, who hires someone just to push a person down a set of stairs?

Mom must've seen my look of confusion. "The doctor said you had concussion. Well, that among other things..." I had tuned out after that. A concussion? I didn't just imagine everything that happened... did I?

"Well, i'm going to go talk to your doctor." She picked up her purse and starting walking out of the room. She stopped at the door, "Don't go anywhere." Then she walked out.

Like i could actually get out of this damned bed. I sighed and decided not to tell her about the man who was in the house. It didn't make any sense. The last thing i remember was him crouched right in front of me, waving. Mom ran in and would have seen him. Maybe i did just imagine a guy there.

I grabed a glass of water that was on a small end table next to my bed. I gulped the thing down in seconds i was so thirsty.

I put the empty glass back down and my hand brushed against a vase. I looked more closely at it. It was easily the biggest set of flowers in the room. It was full of white roses. Roses? Who would send me roses? I looked at the other vases in the room and they all held regular flowers. The flowers you sent to a friend to cheer them up in the hospital. Roses had more meaning behind them.

Shifting my weight, i postioned myself so i could reach the flowers more easily. I gently parted the roses to see if there was a card saying who it was from. There was. I grabbed the tiny card nestled in between the stems. Turning it over in my hands i looked more closely at it.

It was expensive paper, pale pink with a swirly gold border, fairly thick too. It was about the size of my cellphone.

I don't know what i was expecting when i opened it. But it definitely wasn't what it actually said in tiny golden print.

It said, "Sorry"