Some memories are better left forgotten

Talia wakes up in a hospital bed with her best friend literally dying next to her and with her family practically dying of worry, she tries to remember what exactly happened.

Alright…

 

Wake up.

 

…

 

You know, it's really not that hard.

 

Just open your eyes.

 

…

 

Yeah, that's right.

 

Slowly, slowly…

 

There you go.

 

Now... where the hell am I?

 

Ugh… It's too bright in here, I can't see a thing.

 

Okay, just give it a few seconds. Your eyes have to adjust to the light.

 

There. Now… Is this a… A hospital?

 

And what's this thing on my face? Looks like it's connected to the oxygen tank.

 

Alright, now look around you.

 

…

 

Alright. Focus. And don't mind the medical equipment surrounding you. Don't mind the doctors and nurses running around in panic. Don't mind you best friend bleeding heavily in the bed next to yours. Don't even try to remember what on Earth happened last night. Just try to focus on one thing.

 

You're alive.

 

 

---

 

The doctors preparing for surgery were desperately trying to stop the bleeding coming from the teenage boys chest. The wound was wide and deep. Like someone cut him open. Three out of four doctors weren't even thinking about what happened to him, but the main surgeon couldn't help but wonder - who or what could have possibly done this to him?

 

The two teenagers were found on the edge of the woods, near a road, wounded and exhausted, so it could have been a large animal. But from 25 years of experience, he knew that not even an adult bear could have made a wound this large and deep.

 

I suppose the police waiting outside with their families will do all of the questioning.

 

The man tried to shake his thoughts and focus on stopping the bleeding by pressing the sterilized cloth to the boy's chest. The dark haired boy was finally stabilizing and the wound was ready to be closed up. The other doctors rushed him to the operating room, as the elderly doctor took off his bloodied gloves and threw them in the trash can. He turned around and glanced at the girl laying on the other bed. He walked over and sat down next to her as he glanced over at her injuries. She was wounded as well, but in a much better condition than the boy. She only had a few bruises on her face, a long scratch across her left arm and a large gash on her right thigh. The boy, on the other hand, had a wound on his forehead, a scratch across his left leg going all the way from his upper thigh down to his ankle, and of course the aforementioned large wound on his chest.

 

The doctor was so deep in thought, he didn't even notice the girl slowly waking up until she tried moving her right arm to get his attention.

 

"Doctor?", she spoke out shakily.

 

"Are you alright? Do you feel any pain? Do you remember anything from last night?", the genuinely concerned man started questioning her.

 

"Doctor, please. Can I have a glass of water before I start answering any questions?"

 

"Of course, of course. But first… Can you just tell me do you remember your name?"

 

The redheaded girl paused before looking the elderly man straight in the eye and answered.

 

"I'm Talia Haynes."

 

---

 

Teri Haynes paced around the hospital waiting room while her 14-year-old son, Nate Haynes, sat quietly on his chair, not saying a word to his worried mother. This was very surprising itself, given that he was always a hyperactive boy who couldn't sit still for longer than five minutes, let alone go by without saying a single word. But there he was - sitting completely still, and in silence, for over an hour now. He looked rather cold and uncaring to the other people in the room, but his mother knew him better than that.

 

He was still in shock from what happened to his sister.

 

She couldn't blame him.

 

She was only pacing around the room to keep herself from shaking or crying.

 

She was terrified.

 

Teri stopped for a second just to pull out her blonde bangs to keep them out of her eyes.

 

"What is taking them so long?", she said to no one in particular. "The doctors said her wounds aren't that serious, so why aren't they finished yet?" She started pacing again, this time even faster than before.

 

"I knew I shouldn't have sent her on that trip. I had a bad feeling about it from the start, but I didn't say anything! 'Oh it's just a school trip for Halloween, nothing will happen to her. What could possibly go wrong?' Idiot."

 

"Mum, you're not an idiot," the blonde boy finally spoke up. What stopped his mother dead in her tracks, however, was the way his voice sounded. It wasn't the playful, happy-go-lucky tone she was used to. It was hoarse, filled with pain and sounded rather heart-breaking to his mother.

 

"Honey, she'll be alright, you heard the doctors," she said trying to reassure her son in something she herself wasn't certain in.

 

"Yeah, I heard them," he scoffed. "But I also saw her." He glanced up at his mother. His blue eyes stared into her green ones and they were filled with tears.

 

"And so did you. And that's why you're pacing," he added finally as he turned his head away.

 

Her eyes widened and in one moment she actually wanted to scold her son on his negativity.

 

But she didn't.

 

Because she knew he was right.

 

As much as she did want to believe the doctors when they said Talia was alright, her mother instincts wouldn't let her. Those wounds just looked so big in her eyes.

 

Her train of thought was interrupted when the doctor came out of her daughter's room.

 

"Doctor Johnson, is she okay?", she rushed up to him, worry obvious in her voice.

 

"She's fine, Mrs. Haynes. As a matter of fact, she just woke up. You can go in to see her now," the older man said with a reassuring smile on his face, as he held the door open for them.

 

---

 

The moment her family walked through the door, Talia took a quick moment to analyze them before saying anything. Her mother had her old, red house sweater and her torn jeans on. Her blonde hair with slightly grey roots was tied in a messy bun and this was the first time in a long while that she saw her mother without any make-up. Her usually lovely green eyes seemed sad and empty, and her cheeks had trails of dried tears across them.

 

Talia sighed brokenly and turned her gaze to her brother. Nate shyly put his hands in the pockets of his dark blue jeans when he noticed his sister looking at him. She scanned his appearance quickly. His usually combed hair was messy and sticking out in every direction. Aside from his usual jeans, he wore an orange hoodie over a white short-sleeved T-shirt. His face was very tired and overall worried, and his blue eyes looked as if he was about to burst into tears.

 

She finally closed her eyes shortly in defeat and then put on the best smile she could muster.

 

"Mom! Nate!"

 

"Oh, honey, are you okay?", her mother was barely holding back her tears.

 

Talia tried her best to comfort her family. She knew her mother better than anyone. She was the one who was strong all the time, always handling everything on her own, always trying to protect everyone and putting a huge burden on her own shoulders acting like it's nothing. But sometimes, she seemed like the weakest one. Always on the verge of tears. But the thing that made her strong was that she was good at hiding the pain.

 

"I'm fine, mom, really. Just please don't cry," she pleaded her mother, fearing the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks soon.

 

"You know you scared the life out of us, you idiot?", came the shaky voice of the blond boy, who was desperately trying to sound strong and mad.

 

The redhead glanced at her little brother. He was already crying uncontrollably.

God, he's so emotional.

 

Nate was the only person in their family that expressed his emotions very freely. Talia tried to bottle them up inside and seemed emotionless to anyone who didn't know her well, while Teri always acted strong, like nothing could get to her, and approached every problem as a joke. But not Nate. If he was angry, he'd yell at the top of his lungs. If he was sad, he could never control his tears. If he was happy, he'd laugh very loudly. Most people passing by in the moments of his laughter would look at him as if he escaped a mental institution. "He laughs with a full heart," his mother always said.

 

In his sister's opinion, even though she'd never admit it to him ("It would make him go softer than he already is," she says), Nate was the bravest and strongest one out of all three of them.

 

He opens himself up completely.

"Aw… Come here, you big cry-baby," Talia held out her arms to hug her brother. He crashed onto her shoulder and started sobbing loudly.

 

So he gives other people a chance to hurt him.

The redhead patted him on the head and held him tightly, feeling her own eyes quickly tearing up.

 

He keeps nothing hidden.

The boy clutched his sister's shoulder even tighter when he felt their mother sit down on the bed right next to him and hug them both.

 

And it makes him strong and weak at the same time.

"Sorry to break this family moment," an unknown voice came behind them as they heard the door open and close.

 

They all looked up in the direction of the door and saw two tall men in black suits walk into the room.

 

"We need to speak with your daughter in private, Mrs. Haynes," one of the men said.

 

"And who might you be?", the blonde woman stood up from the bed, crossing her arms over her chest, standing in front of her children as if to protect them, with a menacing look on her face.

"I'm agent Thorn, this is my partner agent Smith. We're from the FBI. We're here to investigate what happened to your daughter, and her friend Dane Carter last night," the man that spoke looked like he was in his mid-thirties. He had short brown hair and a small scar on his left cheek. The other man seemed younger and had slightly longer blond hair.

"Well, whatever you want to ask her you can ask in front of us," Teri pointed to herself and her son, being as stubborn as always.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm afraid we can't do that. All interrogations must be done in private," the younger man spoke up.

Teri and Nate were going to protest, but Talia cut them off.

"It's okay."

They glanced at her, slightly surprised.

"I need to tell them what happened... But, I'm not sure if I'm ready to tell you."

"What do you mean by that? You tell us everything!" the blond boy argued in his usual loud voice.

"I know," she laughed lightly, "but I think you've been through enough stress for one day."

"What..." her mother began, but was cut off again.

"We don't mean to be rude, but you'll have to leave now," agent Thorn said, his voice stern and serious.

Teri slouched her shoulders in defeat as her son took her hand and led her out of the room, closing the door behind them.

As soon as they walked out, agent Thorn turned to the redheaded girl and sat on the bed beside her.

"So, Talia... Tell us what happened yesterday."

"I'll tell you everything, but there's one thing you need to know first," she said with a serious tone. This got their attention.

"What happened last night... Was my fault," she paused, as agent Smith looked at her rather confused while agent Thorn was just intrigued.

"And also..." she continued, "Some of the things that happened were rather... unnatural. So you might not believe me."

The older man chuckled.

"Trust me, kid. I've seen almost every horrible thing on this planet. I doubt you'll be able to catch me off guard."

"Alright, then I hope you have a strong stomach," she said, and with that began her story.

Author's Note

If there are any grammar mistakes, I apologize. English is not my native language and those are probably typos.

Reviews

[Silent Wolf]

Honestly, I don't see any grammar errors. I've done more grammar errors than this! But you write very well, and I would love to see more of this. On this chapter, I can clearly see some details about each of the characters since it's plainly stated, but I've heard that other people like to read and figure out what the characters are like. I'm no exception, but I can go either way. I like to know what my character is going to be like before reading further, and this really lets me see what they will be like. I think that maybe if you continue this, maybe use a little more show-not-tell. Other than that, it's nearly perfect. I would say that the only grammatical errors would just be with punctuation. I didn't see any centering for some reason. Maybe it's just me. And this is also probably the longest review I've written, sorry. ^_^

[LadySoDivine]

Don't be sorry! Every review is highly appreciated. :D Thank you so much for giving me your opinion and for your suggestions, I'll keep them in mind when I continue writing. ^^

[Silent Wolf]

You're very welcome. ^_^

[Trigorin]

Check your spelling and grammar, and consider not centering everything - it makes it annoying to read. Overall, this isn't bad, but I'd just be sure that you're getting across the message you want to get across with the piece. As it stands, you seem a little unsure of your motive for writing this.

[LadySoDivine]

Thank you for your critique :) There are good reasons for everything you mentioned though.
Firstly, there may be some grammatical errors but that's only because English is not my native language. I already mentioned in the author's note that I apologize for any grammar mistakes.
Secondly, the only reason why it's centered is because I'm used to writing it like that. If anyone else is bothered by it, I'll change it. It's not a problem.
And finally, I am sure of my motive for writing this. There's a reason for every sentence and every detail in this chapter. This is only the beginning, maybe it will be more clear after new chapters are posted.
But thank you for your review anyway ^^