Chapter 2

The second chapter.

Ellie really did have too many soft toys; most were second hand. Bought to keep my sister quiet while mum browsed through Op shops. I picked up handfuls of Rabbits and Bears. Arranging them neatly on her bed. Stacy in the middle.

By the time I was done, it was about tea time. I had a TV dinner and did a bit of the homework I had been neglecting since all of this started. To be fair, if you are to have a reason not to do your homework. I’m sure your sister being in the hospital is a good one.

That night, I didn’t wake up. For the first time since the accident. In the morning, I checked Ellie’s room and Stacy wasn’t where I’d left her. The red writing on the wall caught my attention.

It now read ‘DON’T LEAVE’. I wasn’t sure whether half asleep me had just thought there was one word on the wall. Or if it had been added to. I don’t know if it’s possible, but Stacy had an even sadder expression on her face.

“Look, you need to stay in Ellie’s room when I put you in there! It’s freaking me out!” I put the doll in my school bag. I didn’t believe she was the one writing on the wall, but I was taking her to see Ellie this afternoon. So, I wasn’t going to leave her here.

Why I didn’t connect the dots, was probably a mixture of stress and logic. Logically, dolls don’t move on their own. Logically they don’t write messages on walls at night. Then again if we are using logic, it shouldn’t have been possible for Ellie to smack her head into every single stair.

School was, well school. No one talked to me today, the nature of teenagers is to talk about something, and then forget about it the next day. My sister’s accident was no longer trending. Forgotten by basically everyone except me.

I handed in my homework, sat in the library at lunch to try and catch up on work. Concentrating wasn’t easy, but if everyone else was going to act as if things were normal. I needed to try as well.

Back to the hospital again. No changes in Ellie’s condition. When I walked in with the box of donuts. Mum was asleep in her chair beside Ellie’s bed. She didn’t even wake up when I put the box down and let the smell of artificial pastry fill the room.

I picked up a chocolate one. My heart sank when Ellie didn’t stir. It was silly, childish, to think that if I held her favourite flavour in my hand it would make her wake up. I couldn’t help it though. There had been a small part of me that had thought it would work.

“Hannah…” Mum was waking up. I put the donut back in the box, suddenly not hungry in the slightest. It almost didn’t seem fair to have these here. When you couldn’t enjoy them with me.

“Take those out of here. Ellie’s system is fragile the smallest change in her environment could have…” I shut mum’s voice out. If Mum was worried that a box of donuts would tip Ellie over the edge. She wasn’t doing any better, and neither was Ellie.

“All right I’ll take them out. Do you need anything?” I jumped as a perfectly manicured hand gripped my shoulder from behind the sterile plastic curtain. The same nurse from yesterday appeared to be the owner of the hand.

“Afternoon princess, oh. Are those donuts?” I held the flimsy pink box loosely in one hand. Mum hadn’t even registered that the nurse was in the room. I think she’d even forgotten the conversation we just had. Her eyes had returned to Ellie. Watching every breath, she took with an intensity that almost willed my sister’s breathing to become stronger.

“She’ll be all right darling, she just cares a lot about your sister. Why don’t you give her some space?” somehow while she was smiling at me the nurse managed to push me out of my sister’s room.

“Hey!” I tried to get her to let go of me, but her grip was tight on my shoulder. Years of caring for patients must make a person extremely strong. At least in this nurses case.

“Relax love, nurse Avery will take care of your mother… And Ellie as well of course” something was… almost aggressive in Nurse Avery’s eyes as she smiled at me and closed the door in my face. Still, it had been such a stressful week. That perhaps I was seeing things.

“Okay then I guess you won’t get to sit with Ellie today Stacy” I hadn’t even gotten to talk to my sister. Pushed out of the room by the nurse before I could have time to see her properly.

I turned to leave since apparently, I wasn’t wanted here, and stopped. I turned and looked at the closed door and frowned.

Did she take my Donuts?

You know that feeling where something just doesn’t seem right. Where your stomach curls in knots and you can’t seem to draw in enough air?

That was how I felt as I left the hospital, but it didn’t really register in my mind that I was feeling something worth investigating. That maybe I shouldn’t leave my mother alone tonight.

I left, and I barely thought twice about the strange nurse or my mother’s odd behaviour, more obsessive than worried. As a teen, and not one who was known for being able to easily read people. What reason did I have for worrying?

That night, I slept deeply, except for a nagging burning in my left hand. It was red and blistering when I turned the lamp on. I blamed it on stress, on an allergy. Half-asleep and in denial that something was wrong.

I checked the hallway where the writing on the wall was. I hadn’t had the time or energy to scrub it off yet. Again words had been added, and Stacy was lying beside them. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but I couldn’t be afraid right now. Not of a little woollen doll.

The message read ‘DON’T LEAVE YOUR’.