Chapter 8

"Hello... Renae..." A deep voice echoed in the dark sending shivers down my spine.

"Who's there?" Her voice was scared, even though she herself was angry.

"I'm hurt, you still don't remember me. Do you?" The voice grew deeper with every word. Her heart was pounding which only stood to confuse her more "I was the only one there for you, for years, especially when Tyler DIED. When your dad LEFT you. When your mother ABUSED you. You never saw me, but I WAS there." The voice was deep but growing silent.

"What?" She asked looking around in every direction seeing nothing.

"Clearly you don't care to remember." Sarcasm rang in her ears. "Consider me, the darkness in your life."

"How are you even talking?" She was finally able to scream.

"Because I'm apart of you." Out of the pitch black, a faint light began to shine on what appeared to be a demon "Don't be scared of me. This appearance is just how you currently view me, or how most would see me. What I really look like, your mortal mind wouldn't be able to grasp." He smirked, showing off his blood drenched teeth.

"No... NO!" She screamed as loud as she could manage. "You're not apart of me! There's no way!"

"Quite the contrary. Once your true memories are fulfilled you'll understand everything in due time. If you want to get rid of me faster still, you're going to have to finally listen to me and get rid of me the same way Tyler did... Just kill yourself and let the pain stop. The only thing that will die is your physical body, you don't need it holding you back anymore. I can feel it throbbing in your chest. I can feel every ounce of pain you've ever had. The emptiness in your gut. It's so sad. You shouldn't have to feel that." He walked closer to Renae.

"I don't think so! I'm not Tyler, I'm not like him. Knowing I have people now, people who do care about me. I can't do to them what Tyler did to me. I won't, I'll never do that so you can stop!" Renaes voice forced him to stop moving closer to her.

"They don't care about you. The only one who did was Tyler and he didn't even care enough about you to spare you the pain of living on without him. Just join him and you wont truly be alone anymore."

"No, I have my dad, my aunt and uncle and teachers. I know there's more that life has to offer."

"They don't really care about you. Your mother had to beg your aunt and uncle to take you away from her. Your dad didn't want you, he had a seperate room ready for you but you wanted to live with him. You really think teachers care about their students? They care about their paycheck, not you. If your father really cared about you, he would have come and got you the second he was exonerated and released. oh, but he never did, did he?" His chuckle grew into laughter.

"No, you're lying. I'd rather not hurt my family the way he did." She shook her head in an attempt to ignore.

"What do you mean? His family isn't hurt? They're not mad at him, they love him more for what he did. They took advantage of him, they didn't care about him, they didn't care until he was gone."

"No, you weren't there. You didn't see the way they hurt. The way I... Just because someone doesn't know what they have until it's too late doesn't mean they didn't love him. Same goes for him, he just didn't have the strength to keep going. I loved him, they loved him."

"No, they didn't, your family is doing the same to you. When was the last time you saw your sister? She just left you like your brother and father. They all abandoned you. They all did. They may as well hate you." He was getting angrier with each word he spoke.

"Hatred is not in a family. My family may be broken but I still hold love for each and every one of them. Even... my mother, no matter how little it may be. I don't understand it but I know it's there. My mother chose her addiction over me, that may be fact but that's her addiction talking, not her. My dad didn't leave, he was dragged away. It took him longer then expected to come back but he came back. He has his own reasons for doing what he did and it may take me a while to understand them but I get it. He was scared, as we all were. We all do stuff when were scared. I've turned my life around in a few short weeks with the help of those I do have and I'm done with you" Renae stood her ground and watched as the demon faded into the darkness.

---

Renae jerked awake, not knowing what was happening, she grabbed the nurses arm that was in front of her placing her medicine on the table next to her.

"I'm so sorry." Renae let go of her arm.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She placed the medicine down on the table and backed up.

"You didn't, I just had a very messed up dream... what time is it?" Renae looked out the window and saw the sun shining.

"It's eight o'clock. The night staff said you had a restless night so I was trying to let you sleep as long as I could before they stopped serving breakfast. Go ahead and take your pain meds and I'll bring in your breakfast." She handed Renae a cup of water.

"Thank you. I'm really sorry for grabbing your arm. I appreciate you being so kind about it." She sat up and grabbed her medicine off the table and swallowed it with some water.

"It's apart of the job hun. I'll be right back with your breakfast." She smiled before walking out.

-

"That's a big breakfast." Renae said as the nurse brought in a tray of food.

"Well, I figured your dad would end up showing up any minute and he'd end up stealing some like all the other meals you tried. He doesn't do a good enough job of making sure he has enough to eat. I'm pretty sure he lost weight since you first came here." She placed the tray on the bed table and rolled it in front of Renae.

"Thank you. I know you said it's apart of the job but not every nurse is as kind as you are. You've been extremely considerate and nice since I first met you and I really appreciate it." Renae smiled to her getting in a comfortable sitting position.

"I consider it apart of the job. If you're nice to others, it'll come back to you. Although, it's nice hearing gratitude, so thank you for being such a wonderful patient, but boy do I hate waking you up. Talk about a jumpscare." She laughed as she started walking towards the doorway.

Renae shrugged her shoulders and began eating the eggs on the plate. She was able to eat the eggs, one strip of bacon and half of one of the pancakes before she felt full. She tilted her head up and looked at the black screen on her TV and shook her head. The disgust in the television turned her eyesight to the window. She was enjoying watching the clouds and occasional birds when footsteps broke her sight from the window. She looked to see Jarrod poking his head in the doorway.

"I thought you said you'd stay at the school till ten to noon? Didn't school just start like twenty or so minutes ago?" Renae glared at him.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay and see how your breakfast went. Also, I went in at five this morning so that's at least two and a half-ish hours. Mr. K was nice enough to kick me out when he came in anyways. He wants you back at school just as much as I do." He walked in the rest of the way and landed his eyes on the unfinished food on the tray "Are you going to finish that?" He pointed to the muffin on the side of the tray.

"No, I'm full. Have at it." She pushed the tray towards him and sat back against the bed. She just sat and watched as he gulped down the rest of the food.

"Did you even eat yet this morning before you came here?" She asked watching him eat the rest of the pancakes.

"Even if I wanted to, I didn't have enough time to, since I went in as soon as I woke up." He shrugged as he took a drink of some of the water.

"Finished already?" The nurse asked walking in the room, with Dr. Jones right behind her.

"Yeah, I ate maybe half of it before piggy over here showed up and scarfed the rest of it." Just as Renae finished speaking Jarrod let out a burp.

"Woah, excuse me." He laughed patting his chest.

"That's definitely my father." Renae shook her head and sighed.

"Excuse you indeed." Dr. Jones said before looking to Renae "Sad to see you go, but I'm glad you seem well enough to go home. I have your discharge paperwork; your dad can go over it while we check your vitals one last time and you can get dressed and head out. Okay?" He handed the paperwork to Jarrod and walked over to Renae.

Dr. Jones wrapped the blood pressure cuff around Renaes arm and waited for the machine. Afterward he grabbed her wrist and looked at his watch as he checked her pulse. Renae could feel a flutter with each touch his cold hands had left her.

"Your heart rate is just a touch high but that's fine, I'm sure you're just anxious to head out." The nurse smiled as she was taking out Renaes I.V.

"Yeah... I'm really excited to get out of here." Renae tried to hide her face from Dr. Jones and Jarrod. After Renae was disconnected from everything Dr. Jones helped her stand up "When can I take the bandages off?" She asked grabbing her bag of clothes.

"I don't see why you shouldn't be able to take them off now. I'll remove them after you get dressed okay?" He patted her shoulder and closed the door to the bathroom after she walked in.

Jarrod turned to Dr. Jones, making sure to keep his voice low and quiet "Getting a little cozy with my daughter, aren't you Adam?" Jarrod sized himself up with a hateful glare.

"Just doing my job Jarrod. Nothing to worry about. I have to be friendly with all my patients, something you should learn to do with someone who has followed all of your hopeful suggestions." Dr. Jones matched the tone of his voice and returned the glare.

"Just keep your hands to yourself when it comes to anything other then my daughters injuries." He folded the papers and tucked them in his back pocket.

"As I said. Nothing to worry about." Dr. Jones took one menacing step towards Jarrod.

"I think I'll just go ahead and check on a few other patients." The nurse squeaked as she walked out of the room.

"I should've had you bring me new clothes." Renae said as she opened the bathroom door and turned to see Jarrod and Dr. Jones exchanging glares.

"Oh, I guess I should have brought you some new clothes." Jarrod turned to see Renaes blood smeared clothes.

"It's okay. Let's just get these bandages off and we can go home so I can get changed." She smiled trying to lift the heavy air.

"Alright. Just sit down and we'll get those off of you." Dr. Jones smiled as he pointed to the stool. He walked up behind her as she sat down and began cutting off the bandages closer to her face so not to cut her hair. After the bandages were removed he looked at the stitches on the back of her head.

"You know what? I think I should take these out before you head home. They looked healed enough. Just make sure not to scrub too hard when you take a shower, it may be a little sore."