All the Little Truths (English Prep 3)

“I’m not leaving.”

She came over and wiped my face free of something. “Do you really want Madeline to wake up and see you looking like that?” I glanced down to my blood-stained uniform and crusty hands. Her voice was hushed. “You look like a crime scene, Eric. Go shower. Then you can come right back. I’m not leaving her, okay?”

“You’re staying?” I confirmed.

She nodded. “I’m going to stay and check in with her. It’s not my shift, but I can pull some strings. I’m going to check on her mom too. I don’t even know if anyone has filled her in.”

My brow furrowed as my father began pulling me by the arm.

“Where is her dad?”

She glanced at my dad, confused, then back to me. “He’s dead, Eric.”

“Oh, shit,” Ollie muttered.

“So…”

My father spoke this time. “The second gunshot was him shooting himself. He shot himself after he shot Madeline.”

Oh, damn.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Madeline

I was freezing. So incredibly cold. My eyes stayed closed as I pulled the blanket up higher, but I was still cold. My eyes fluttered; the room was dark. Not pitch black, but it wasn’t the normal glow of my bedroom light that I was used to. When I adjusted my eyes a few more times, I scanned the room and started to sit up before I felt a pain in my side.

A low whimper left me as I looked down and saw a white cotton blanket that I didn’t recognize. I had on a blue…shirt? Gown?

I was in a hospital gown, and there was something hanging out of the side of my rib. My fingers found a tube that led to somewhere below.

Panic started to surface, a nearby monitor beeping loudly. The door swung open, and when I saw Heather’s face, I was even more confused.

Was I dreaming?

“Madeline?” I swung my attention over to a chair tucked away in the corner of the room.

“Mom? What’s wrong with your head?” My mom had a bandage wrapped around her forehead, sending her blonde locks in several different directions.

Then it hit me.

Eric fighting.

My dad.

Yelling.

The gun.

“Oh my God!” I gasped before I yelled out in pain.

“Lie back, sweetie.” Heather was dressed in scrubs, looking her always-cheerful self. “Your lung collapsed, so you need to take it easy, okay?”

I lay back slowly, trying to take in everything that was being thrown around in my head. I couldn’t remember what was real and what I’d dreamt. Too many nightmares had occurred in my head over the last few months that I wasn’t sure what was reality anymore.

“What happened?” I whispered, bouncing my gaze back and forth from my mom to Heather who was looking at monitors and writing something down.

“What do you remember?” my mom asked, coming to stand by the side of my bed. Her hand rested on mine, but it wasn’t comforting. She was shaking.