Mother

Ella stared at him with curiosity while he awkwardly averted his gaze.

"I actually have been there this whole time." He muttered.

"Excuse me?" Ella looked at him with hollow eyes.

"Well, there wasn't much to do so I couldn't leave the hospital. I just went in and out of different rooms, and it's not like anyone could see me anyway."

"But, I can. Why is that?" Ella asked curiously. The boy hesitated before answering, with pained eyes.

"Who knows..." He answered then stood up and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" She asked, just then the door opened and a woman came in. She has black messy hair and blue eyes.

Ella knew that it was her mother but she still felt like a stranger to her. She sat there in silence as her mother ran straight through the boy, not reacting to him, and to her daughter's side. She had worried eyes and looked like she hadn't slept in days. "Mother..."

"Ella, are you ok?!" She exclaimed holding her daughter's hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine... aren't visiting hours over?" Ella asked looking over to see the boy walking out of the room.

"Yes, but they gave me a few minutes." She said. "Sorry, I rushed over here as soon as work ended. You seem distracted, are you sure you're ok? I heard you fell last night. Is your head ok?" The mother bombarded her with questions.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm fine, nothing happened." Ella tried to reassure her.

"But... no it's fine. If you feel nauseous or dizzy at my time tell me or your doctor immediately ok?" She said then took something out of her bag. It was a photo album. She took it and handed it to Ella.

"I know that the amnesia is doing a number on you, and you're already so weak, I don't want to stress your body. But I don't want you to live life without knowing anything about your family." Her mother said with loving eyes.

Ella took the album and opened it up to a random page. There she saw a picture of a little girl playing with her parents. They almost seemed like a real family.

At that moment a nurse came in indicating the end of her visiting time. "I'll see you tomorrow." The mother kissed her on her forehead and then smiled at her before leaving.

Ella stared at the door before looking back at the album. She then realised there were some pages ripped out at the start of the book. She thought it was suspicious but after meeting a ghost and receiving an album from an unexpected visit she felt too tired. At least those were excuses not to think anymore.

Rolling over in her bed, she knew she still had a wall between her and her mother that she couldn't break no matter how hard she tried. Slowly she drifted into a deep sleep thinking about the ghost boy and the ripped pages from her photo album.