NEW CHAPTER
Chapter 25
Things seemed to blur together, as time stopped. I remembered the sound of sirens filling my ears. I remember Cole gathering me in his arms and whispering sweet nothing's to me. I remember being carted off into the Intensive Care unit, waiting for news about my savior. I still couldn't wrap my mind around it all. It just seemed so cereal to me.
"Still no news?" Cole asked as he sat down next to me. He was munching on a bag of potato chips from the vending machine.
"No." My voice faltered a little, "Not a word."
"It'll be ok."
"Will it." I snapped at him. "You saw how fast that car came, how could you possibly know things are going to be ok?"
Even in our current predicament, Cole found it in him to crack a smile at me. "It's because I have hope."
"Well, I find it hard to have hope now days." I hissed.
"I know." He replied, munching on his chips again, "Just don't lose sight of what's right, ok?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" I sighed, running a hand through my tangled hair.
"In time you'll know." He winked and looked ahead.
Curse you Cole and your ominous sayings!
"Ms. Williams?" My name was suddenly called, "Would you please..." The doctor waved me over. I gave a confused glance at Cole who simply shrugged at me. So, I stood and slowly walked over to him.
"Yes?"
"It's concerning the girl that you have brought into our care..." He said.
"What about it?" I responded rudely.
"Your friend doesn't have any records that she's a citizen here." He whispered.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's as if she never even exists. She has no name, no family, and no health care." He explained, showing me her charts. "She's having a hard time fighting against the damage from the wreck but without any information we can't keep her here long."
"So what are you saying?" I growled.
"If we don't have any information about a patient we cannot provide any treatment to her. If she's illegally here it is against our rules to help."
"What will happen then."
"We can keep her here for 24 hours but if no family comes and claims her we will have no choice but to disband her." The doctor said in a daze.
"What if I pay for her?" I suddenly said.
"Well, that can work but you have to understand..." He tried to place a hand on my shoulder.
"I don't want to understand! I want to help her!" I screamed.
"Alright, alright." He whispered in a rush because my outburst had caused some unwanted attention.
"How much will it take?"
"Excuse me?" The doctor said astounded.
I rolled my eyes placing my hands on my hips. "Ok, calm your jets I didn't mean I was going to pay you off. I meant how much does her operation take?"
The doctor looked away awkwardly, mumbling to himself. "A wreck this bad usually needs at minimum fifteen thousand or so."
"F-Fifteen thousand!" I stuttered, nearly audible. "That's..."
"A lot, I know. Your lucky though Ms. Williams some patients cost way more. That's why I'd advise you--"
"No! I'll do it. I'll get the money but give me more than twenty-four hours, please. I promise I'll have your money but I need a little extra time." I begged.
He sighed, running a hand over his chin subtle, "I'll try my best, no guarantees though."
"Thank you so--"
"I warn you though, Julia. I'm not the only one who sees these documents. You need to have the money in before someone else sees that she has no records. I fear that if someone else, such as a higher authority, found these we'd have a big mess on our heads." The doctor warned.
"How long do I have?"
"Two...maybe three days tops."
My heart sunk in the pit of my stomach. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out, so Instead I nodded my head lamely. The doctor nodded back and walked off. Once he had left my gaze flittered to Cole and then to the hospital room right across from where I stood. Shaking my head with worry I walked over to the room and closed the door behind me.
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"Why did you come back? Where did you come from? Who are you?" These questions swirled inside my head non-stop for the rest of the day. I was currently sitting in the arm chair to the left of the girl. She didn't look so good. Her skin was pale and her cheeks held no life. She was the epitome of death. Never had I seen a person so ill. Not even the people I had...murdered. Not even then.
"I know you can hear me. So, why won't you answer?" I whispered to her, hoping she'd say something, with no avail. Her heart monitor was still the same as it had been for the past few hours; steady.
I chuckled as a thought came to mind, "You remember that day in the woods when I saved you..." I said absentmindedly. "Do you remember how you told me to keep killing? Well, I did. I listened to you. Now look at me, I'm at the top of my game! The only thing is...I'm not happy." I spoke solemnly, stealing glances at her corpse.
"Can I tell you something?" Then I laughed, "Of course I can tell you something you have no choice but to listen." I scoffed. "Oh gosh I'm talking to a person in a coma, I must be going insane." My voice muffled as I pressed my hands on my face. I stayed in that same position, just thinking things over and then I began, "I'm going to tell you a story. No, I need to tell you a story. I have to tell somebody about this. This is a story about a girl, who not only has killed, but has loved as well. Our story begins twenty years ago, when a baby girl was left out in the rain..."
The night was quiet as the couple snuck into the street and through the woods. The night sky shinning up above them, lighting their path. In the couples possession was a woven basket filled with the worlds most precious creation. She was sleeping soundlessly as the couple carted her off into the dark trees. The girl had no idea what was in store for her, so she sucked in another steady breath and sank deeper and deeper into a never ending dream.
On the other hand, the couple, held no peace. They needed to distance themselves away from the one thing that they had loved. The couple should have seen the signs, they should have known that they could not live happily. It was all foretold that one day, in the far future, a prophecy child would rise. It would be her reign that would destroy life around her. Lost in despair the couple tried for six months to fix the wrong that they had done. But it could not be rightened...
...time had already caught up to them.
So, it was, with a heavy heart, that the couple fled to the forest in search of a safe heaven. When they stumbled upon a house, in the darkest part of the forest, they knew what they had to do. Setting the child down on the front step they rang the door bell. Fleeing from sight they hid behind the trees. Not moments later did the door swing wide open. A tall built man stood in the frame, a frown etched onto his face. The woman shivered into her husband, fearing what they would do to her precious girl. But she did not move to stop him as he picked up the basket. Instead she dug her face into the shirt of her lover.
"Shhh, it's ok. Everything's going to be just fine." The man soothed his weeping wife. She was a gentle woman with long chestnut hair and soft eyes. Never, would this woman be able to forgive herself for what she had just done to her one and only daughter.
Suddenly, the door shut with a loud bang that ripped through the forest. Thunder swirled up above the couple and then it started to rain. "I want her back! I want my baby back!" The woman cried.
"I know, dear, I know." The man tried soothing his hysterical wife. "We need to go back. We need to leave her." He tried reasoning.
"She's my daughter, I need her!" The woman sobbed.
"She is my daughter too, but you know we can't keep her with us. You know what will happen if she stays. We are doing what is right, not for us, but for everyone else. You know this is the only way to ensure that she does not become like HIM." The man whispered. Another cry echoed out of the woman's mouth. Her husband slowly steered her away from the house and back through the woods. Not a peep was heard from the house again, for they could not hear the woman desperately crying out for her child, the rain had washed away her pleas.
The woman turned back around to face the house when her husband wasn't looking, she said, "I pray to God that we have done the right thing. I pray that she is treated well. That she grows into a beautiful young lady. I pray you'll be my eyes and watch her wherever she goes. I pray that you keep her safe." Lightening sounded from above and the woman turned back to her husband.
From that day forth the woman was never the same. As the years past and the emptiness she felt from the absence of her daughter strengthened, the woman's heart soon stopped beating and she became nothing but a shell of who she once was.
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The five year old girl smiled contently to herself as she played with her beautiful doll. In that moment she could not have been happier, everything was perfect in her life. She had a lovely house, a father who loved her, and a best friend.
A loud crash echoed through out the house, the girls doll dropped from her hand in an instant. Rushing down to where she had heard the noise, peering around the corner, she saw her father standing in his study.
"Daddy, what are you doing?" She asked. Her father swirled around anger flashing in his dark eyes. Never had the girl seen him this way before. Never had she been so afraid in her life as to what was to happen next. "Daddy..."
"I am not your father!" He bellowed, raising his hand to strike at the girl. "You are nothing to me, I don't love you! I will never love you! Nobody will ever love a disgusting creature such as yourself!"
"B-b-but..." The girl whimpered, tears pooling at the base of her lower lids.
"Shut the hell up. God, your excessive need to cry and pout is driving me insane! Do you not realize that I hate you." He stepped forward hand still raised. "I hate you, you hear me!"
"Daddy!" The girl cried, stumbling backwards.
"I should have killed you the day I found you on the door step. I should have killed you!" He advanced upon the girl. She screamed, pain ripping through her chest at her fathers words.
"I'll show you! I'll show you just how much I despise you!" He grabbed at her arms. The girl cried in agony as she fell backwards onto her backside. She could not comprehend what was happening. For as long as she could remember, in her short years that she had lived, she had always known her father to be a kind lovable man. The man standing in front of her was not that man. She could not understand how everything was so perfect just a few minutes ago.
A body flew in front of the girl, "Get away from her, dad." It warned.
Peering around the persons shoulder Julia saw it was her best friend, Cole, her brother. She and him had been as close as they can come. He had always watched out for his sister. But never did Julia think that he would stand up to their father, Alpha Tom. "Brother what's going on?"
"Son move out of my way." Alpha Tom seethed, "Let me deal with this pest."
The eight year old Cole stuck his arm out, sheilding Julia behind his back. "I won't let you."
"Step. Out. Of. My. Way." Tom advanced, "This battle is not with you son."
"Daddy stop, please!" Julia cried.
"Julia..." Cole turned to look at her.
"You see! She still think we're her family! She needs to learn Cole, she has to know!" Tom's drunken breath fanned Cole's face. "You are my son, she is not my daughter. I am tired of pretending that this thing is even remotely related to me." Tom spat.
"Father stop this." Cole said forcefully. For a young boy his age, Cole held much potential.
"Move!" Tom roared, Cole quivered a tad. Alpha Tom had just used his assertive voice and in any case anyone in the pack would have backed down at that tone, but not Cole.
"She's my friend." Cole retorted.
"What's going on?" The girl whimpered, rubbing at her teary eyes. "Cole? Brother?"
"He is not your brother!" Tom yelled.
"What?..."
"He's right, Julia. I'm not your brother." Cole said sadly.
"I don't understand." Julia sniffed.
"Your parents didn't want you! They left you here!" Tom sneered.
Julia shook her head fiercely, "No." A sob broke her throat.
"Yes." Tom smiled.
Julia had had enough. She turned on her heals and as fast as her five year old legs could carry her, she ran and ran and ran until she stumbled into the dark woods. Tears fled down the poor child's face, the only thing clouding her mind was the thought that she was an orphan. She held no place amoung everyone else in the house. She was alone and that is how she were to stay for the next years of her life.
Back in the pack house Alpha Tom stood proudly in front of his son, smiling from ear to ear. "I won't do it." Cole stood his ground.
"Oh, but you will." Tom smiled.
"I won't." Cole said with conviction.
"You must! It is the only way to make sure she knows her place." Tom roughly grabbed Coles arms.
"Dad, she's my friend."
"And that so called friendship has just ended. You will never speak to her again. You will never look at her again. You will treat her with no respect. You will make her feel like nothing, am I clear?" Tom pushed his son up against the wall. "I said, am I clear!"
"Yes!" Cole exclaimed as tears pricked at his eyes. His father, the Alpha, had complete control over him. Cole had no say when it came to his father's Alpha voice, he could not disrespect him.
"Good, now go run along with that Drusilla girl, she seemed lovely." Tom chuckled as he pushed his son out the door.
So, as the sun rose and fell the next day, Cole obayed his fathers orders. He never glanced at Julia or spoke to her. The guilt he felt when he saw the broken look cross her face crushed his heart, but being the obidiant son he was he pushed that guilt away and carried on with his life. In Cole's mind he was doing the right thing. He was helping his best friend.
As time went on the memory of that day in Alpha Toms office disappeared from both Julia and Cole's mind. As children their memories weren't the best so as Julia's tenth birthday came and went Cole had long forgotten about his friendship with Julia and Julia had long forgotten about him. In Julia's eyes she did not see the boy who once protected her but a mean ruthless bully who fed off her incapability to fit in.
Soon after Coles father had told him to ignore Julia, Cole started to torment her. I'm not sure in what time or what place the torment began but after a while it became a tradition and so on the whole pack treated her like dirt, and it was all because of that one fateful day.
"So you see, I had loved, once upon a time. Now, look at me. I only hate." Julia whispered to her savior. "Tom thinks I don't remember what happened that day, when he told Cole to stay away from me, but I do. It took not up until a week ago that I had a flashback of the memory but it explained to me why Cole had acted the way that he did. I don't justify the way he acted but everything finally clicked, everything finally made sense."
"I only wish..." Julia began.
The door to her right clicked, "Julia?" Coles's head popped in, "Can I come in?"
Julia composed her face into a blank stare and nodded. She could not let Cole see her shame. "I think you should go get something to eat." He advised as he kneeled down next to her.
"I'm fine." She said in a monotone voice.
"No, your not." Cole insisted. He gently took my hands from my lap and held them in his. "Go and get some food, Julianna."
Startled I gasped, "How did you--"
Cole shook his head in a manner indicating I'd find out later. Having no will to fight him I stood from my seat and made my way to the door. Stopping in my tracks I cracked open the door, "Thank you." I whispered to Cole. A look of gratitude passed his eyes, with a curt nod he turned back to the girl in the bed.
"Julia?" His voice stopped me from continuing out the door, "How do you know her?"
"She was there, with me, when I was taken by the rouges."
Lies.
He nodded and I took that as my que to go. Stepping out of the hospital room, I made my way down the hall and over to the vending machine. Reaching into my pockets I found I had no money...I had no hope. I looked around the corner for someone who could spare me a doller but no other person was walking in the hall way.
I was alone.
Something in me snapped right in this moment. Something in me awoken.
I turned and banged my palms on the glass window of the vending machine. I sunk down to my knees and rested my head on the case.
I am nothing.
My eyes closed and my fingers curled into my palms. My breathing hitched and caught in my throat while my eyes burned with unshed tears.
No one can love me.
An image of my parents faces flashed in my mind. A disappointed gaze and a muffled cry. My hands fell limply to my sides.
I give up.
I opened my eyes, seeing my reflection through the hard Incased glass.
I give in.
My face frowned, my lips quivered, and my eyes sunk.
I let go.
Tears streamed down my face, a heavy cry boomed out of my lips. I fell backwards on my feet clawing at my face, willing the tears to stop. They never did. I yelped in pain as my whole existence flashed before my eyes. Every wrong I had made was burned into my flesh. Every sin I made a black tattoo stained on my skin. Every breath I breathed a mistake.
I have no heart. No redemption. No love.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, bringing my clenched fist up to the glass, and in one swift movement I slammed my hand into the machine. Glass shards shattered all over me, leaving small markings on my damaged skin.
Doctors and nurses ran out from inside their patients room to see a broken down girl sobbing uncontrollably on the cold floor. I met non of their stares, instead I ducked my head into my chest, encircling my arms around my frail body, shielding myself from their pity filled eyes. Shying away from them all I scrambled up to my feet and sprinted to the nearest bathroom. Right as I was about to open up the bathroom door a piercing pair of eyes caught my own. My breath raggedly came in and out of my burning throat, soar from the ear splitting scream that had crawled up. Cole looked at me with such pain and sorrow in his eyes. They were so gentle and understanding, everything I knew him not to be. Feeling more tears swell up in my eyes, I turned away from him and scampered into the bathroom.
You are a killer. You have no soul.
"Are you happy, Julia? Are you happy with what you've become?" I spat out at my reflection, hate filling my eyes. "This is me, this is what you are, this is you, Julia Williams. You are a killer."