The Day My Life Ended

by Authora97

Chapter Twenty-Five (Revised)

It’s important to have a regular sleep schedule. A lack of sleep results in multiple health concerns and issues. Heart disease, weakened immune system, and other side effects. It’s listed as one of the top worst tortures. I can confirm that. You can become lethargic when your routine is irregulated.

This is another of the dozens of times I woke up from being in a semi-coma. It’s been a week. I’m never gonna sleep properly again.

My body ached. It’s been a while since my body hurt like this. Usually, I’m in bodies much older and with more training. This body was 15. She’s weak, frail, and not as prepared for these things as I’d prefer. There’s not a lot of time to train her the way I prefer to be trained.

People were talking in my room. It’s also hard to fully rest when I know conversations are happening nearby. My parents tend to talk about nonsense half the time. Every now and again they drop some real nuggets.

My head still hurts. I can’t hear the full sentences. Just little buzzwords- school, car, escape.

I tried sitting up. Basically immediately I went back down. Somebody gasped. A familiar voice. I squinted my eyes open.

Lilac was indeed at my bedside. She crawled into the bed again, cuddling me. I wrapped my arm around her. She already pressed herself close to me, I just needed to hold her.

“Mommy- Mommy- Mommy I was scared.” She sniffled. Her nose already sounded stuffy. Cold? No, those look very different. She’s just crying really hard. Hard as any seven year old can cry when they’re more scared than they’ve ever been before. “It’s all my fault! It’s all my fault! I’m sorry-”

“Hey.” My own words were drowsy from sleep. Usually I can just wake up and go, but with these pains my body needs more time. “Hey it’s okay. You didn’t do anything.”

“Yes I did!” She hiccuped, pushing her face in my side. Her tears immediately made my hospital dress wet. It clung like a sticky band aid. “I let them in the house!”

“Who?” There’s a couple different choices. The Mane 6 and Spike, the ones that started this whole mess. Or, the kidnappers behind it. Dominic had her in the end, yes, but he rarely did his own dirty work. He could have sent multiple people to take Lilac from our home.

“The ponies- Mommy I’m sorry.” She started crying again. Too overwhelmed to even speak beyond whimpers and sniffles.

I just held my daughter. It’s a very grounding experience. Rubbing her back, squeezing her shoulders, all of it.

The rest of the room came to focus. My parents were at the door. A pair of detectives were speaking to them in low voices. They didn't want me to hear anything.

Lilac cried again. I brushed my hand in her hair. It’s very difficult to hear anything over the crying. Still, it’d be cruel to force her to stop. She’s a different species from me. Her reality processes feelings in other ways. I can’t just tell her to stop crying.

The words were easier to pick up. They hadn’t even closed the door.

“-you won’t tell us anything!”

“Mrs Spencer, take a look at it from us. Your daughter has been hospitalized twice this week. Both times taken from your school grounds. We need to take certain precautions.”

“That’s our daughter. She’s not crazy, okay? Some lost people tried to drag her into their darkness. Away from the light of the lord! Her soul is in danger! And you two are questioning my husband and I about our safety measures?”

“Ma’am, please-”

“Go out there! You go out there and find the gang that did this! I know gang fights. Nathan. Nathan, tell them about the girls.”

“Some girls have been around our school. They aren’t official students.”

“They’re from a gang! A gang that brought my daughter into a gang war!”

Okay. That’s enough. I cleared my throat, loudly, trying to play it off as real. Maybe it even was.

That got their attention. The detectives peeked inside my room. They turned to my parents again. “We need to ask her a couple questions. That’s all.”

“She’s exhausted! Recovering from surgery! You don’t get to ask any of your questions!” Mom snapped.

“Mom, it’s fine.” I insisted. The hospital bed slowly shifted position into something upright. I could probably do it myself if I pushed myself. Except Lilac was in my arms, so I needed to keep her there. “I can talk.”

My mother shook her head. “No. You’re resting. You are resting until it clicks in your head to stay away from those people! Especially that little girl they left behind! She’s been here all night. How about you leave and take her with you! Leave my daughter alone!”

“Mom, really, it’s fine.” It’s very close to not being fine. She needs to shut the fuck up before I climb out of this bed- sniffling daughter be damned. “They can ask me stuff. It’s all fine. You can stay close if it’ll help.”

Mom shook her head again. “You aren’t capable of making those choices, sweetie. You need rest.” She narrowed her eyes on Lilac. “She woke you up.”

“She-” She does it all the time. Kids do that. I stopped being annoyed by it ages ago. “She’s scared, Mom. Let her calm down. Okay?”

Mom opened her mouth to argue again.

“If they get their questions out, they’ll leave.” I reminded her. “I watch cop shows, mom. I know how it works.”

“Ah, I know the type.” The first detective walked around my parents. He stepped into my room, closer to my bedside. “What’s your poison- the CSI’s, or Law and Orders?”

I smiled. “CSI. So what information do you need from me? DNA under my fingernails? Specks of dirt in my shoes? Oh! Oh! Comb my hair for traces?”

The detective laughed. My parents rolled their eyes- humiliated. “No, nothing like that. We just need to talk.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I’m Detective Wilde, this is my partner, Detective Halls.” He said. Detective Halls nodded his head at me, waving. I smiled back. “Ms Spencer, you were admitted to the hospital last night after getting shot. What happened?”

“I got shot, sir.”

“Yes, but can you identify your attacker?” Wilde asked.

My smile tightened. Is he one of Dominic’s? Wilde and Halls, Wilde and Halls...do I know those names? Yes, wait, I do. They work at a different police station. It’s the one Caroline and Anna originally assumed the girls were taken. They’re not coworkers with Dominic’s crew. That’s not to say they aren’t dirty at all.

“The way you were shot, the way the bullet went in, you definitely would have seen them.” Wilde replied.

“It was really scary. Sorry, detective, but I can’t remember it.” I replied.

“Don’t protect them!” My dad scolded me. “They don’t deserve your protection.”

My teeth started grinding together. Dominic Chamberlin deserved much worse than my protection. The ponies? They earned every ounce of goodwill I can muster. “I really don’t remember.”

The worst case is they are Dominic’s men. He knows I know it was him. His people definitely know too. But for my parents sake, the two people most likely to kick up a fuss about it, they want to know. My parents want it to be the ponies. Chamberlin doesn’t want me kicking up a fuss.

The best case is these men don’t work for Chamberlin, and they’ll be on a wild goose chase.

“What about the marks on your arm?” Halls asked. Lilac whimpered, curling tighter. I patted her shoulder. “Well they didn’t come from a bullet.”

“Fell in an oyster creek.” I excused immediately. “Nasty stuff, oyster creeks. Those shells are so sharp to keep predators away, did you know that? They can burrow beneath the sand but sometimes they’re all just-”

“We understand.” Halls cut me off. “Just- You ditched school to visit an oyster creek?”

“Oysters are a good lunch.” I replied. “The store was out. What was I supposed to do? Not have oysters for lunch? Come on. It was Wednesday, and Wednesday is oyster day. Shouldn’t detectives know this?”

“Not this again.” Dad grumbled. “Detectives, we’re sorry. Our daughter is very particular about some things. I don’t like that she got hurt, but if it’s over her silly routine then as her father, she should be learning a lesson about when it’s okay to skip a day.” He gave me a meaningful glare.

Haha. He thinks I can skip a day.

“One more question.” Wilde said. “Who’s this?”

Lilac ignored the question.

“A family friend.” I squeezed tighter to her. “She stays.”

“Ms Spencer, your parents can’t identify her as a student.” Wilde said. “We would appreciate the help.”

“Her mom left her with me.” A sort of truth, weirdly. Her dragon parents left her in my backyard years ago. She hatched for me. She’s my kid now. “I’d really like her to stay with me.”

“No.” Dad marched in. “No, I’m taking her to her parents. Who are they? Where do they live?”

“She stays.” I said again. Lilac sat up, hugging me. I patted her arms. “Look at her. She’s terrified. She can’t leave me right now.”

“She’ll get better.” Dad argued. “Let her go.”

“No.”

“She’s been asking for her mother.” Mom tried. “She needs to go back to her.”

“It’s- It’s fine. I can- her mom will be here. Okay? I’ll get her. Okay?”

“Now. Do it right now.” Dad ordered.

The detectives glanced at each other, awkward. Now I’m the one humiliated. “Detectives, is there anything else you-”

“No, no. You answer your father, young lady!” Mom snapped.

“I am! Gimme a second.”

“Don’t take that tone with me!”

“We’ll see ourselves out.” Wilde backed out the door. Halls already ran as fast as he could.

The other adults being gone meant my parents could fully unleash their beasts. They don’t scare me. Usually they did, 100% they did. This time? My daughter is at my side, and they want to change that. They won’t win.

“You apologize to your mother this instant!” Dad ordered.

“Mom, I’m sorry.”

“Like you mean it!”

I grit my teeth, then forced them to relax. “Mom, I’m sorry.”

“Good!” Mom huffed, crossing her arms. “Now send this girl home. The last thing she needs to see is your injuries. She’s probably making them worse.”

“I’ll go.”

I looked down at Lilac. “What’s that?”

Lilac sniffled. “I- I’m hurting you? I’m making you worse?”

“No, no.” I pushed myself up. It did hurt, but more like an ache than a true pain. I cupped Lilac’s face in my hands. “No, princess, no. It’s okay. You’re doing great. You aren’t making me worse.”

She sniffled, her body quickly being taken over by the tears. “I’m hurting you. I hurted you cause I didn’t do a good job!”

Lilac started crying. I pulled her to my chest, grabbing her legs to curl her into a ball in my lap. She cried again. Unstoppable sobs, trembling in my arms as grief overwhelmed her.

I glared at my parents. They did this to her. Can I call hospital security on them? The nurses might take Lilac too, so no. Not yet. “Don’t you have school stuff to do?”

Dad winced. A small wince, but still. A point for me.

“Nathan. You can’t.”

“Sarah, one of us needs to go.” Dad told her. “We need to get the boys too.”

“Then you pick them up.”

“We won’t be in time to open the school if I do.”

“We- It-” Mom glanced at me, then my dad, then Lilac, then Dad again. “We can’t leave them together. What will people say? Our daughter has a hostage.”

Say fucking what

“Come on. Let her rest. We can check on her at lunch.” Dad assured her. “Okay? She has her phone- Morgan, you have your phone?”

I pointed at my bag. It’s conveniently in a nearby chair.

“See? She has her phone. We can call her. She needs rest.”

“That girl-”

“Morgan is going to call her mother, and get her down here.” Dad said to Mom, and very unsubtly ordered me. “She’ll be gone when we come back.”

You keep that shit up, I’ll be gone too.

“Okay. Okay.” It was enough to calm Mom down. “Good. Morgan, good?”

My teeth couldn’t relax this time. “Good.”

“Good.” Mom let Dad guide her out of my room.

Now I could give Lilac my full attention. I sang her a soft song, keeping her squeezed in my arms. Lilac relaxed as I sang for longer and longer. She was still very sad, but I refused to let her go until she stopped crying.