THE THIRTEENTH DAY - BOOK 1

Prayers and Tears

Cassidy drove straight to the Freetown hospital from Phoebe's place. She  stepped into the familiar hospital through its revolving glass door. She had been there a few times from when she or any of her family members or friends got sick or hurt. But she had ever been there to visit Matt, out of all her friends he was the one that hardly got sick, and he was usually the one cracking up all the sick people back to health. He was one of those people that seemed like they would be young forever and outlive everyone, the one that would attend all his friends funerals and make inappropriate jokes in his speech.

The hospital smelled strongly of disinfectants, medicine and felt like death was looming over it. Like most people she had never liked the smell nor the sight of hospitals, but she particularly hated hospitals because they reminded her of her murdered friend, Avril.

She walked to the reception where a middle-aged woman was sat behind the desk. She had dirty blonde hair that was stuffed into a white scarf. She was carelessly flipping through pages of a magazine and masticating a piece of gum in a mannerless manner that made Cassie wondered how she got hired to be the first person that everyone walking into the hospital will have to interact with. Cassie cleared her throat to get the woman's attention. She looked up and placed the magazine down at the sound of Cassie's voice.

"How may I help you?" the woman asked in a raspy, almost manly voice as she eyed Cassie.

"I'm here to see my friend Matt, Matt Rivers, he was brought in this afternoon, he was involved in a car crash," her voice broke. The receptionist scrolled through her computer and shook her head sadly. 

"Oh I remember him, that kid was in a really terrible condition when he was rushed in, I hope he makes it" she said, chewing even more obnoxiously. "Anyways he's in surgery so you'll have to wait over there," she pointed to the waiting area to her right. It was then that Cassie noticed Matts mother who looked lifeless as she sat alone, waiting in clear agony. She was sat in the front row on a white metal chair that had small holes piercing through. The waiting area was quite empty. There were a few other people, only about six, there was a pregnant lady and five other people scattered randomly around the waiting area.

"Thank you," Cassie said to the receptionist and walked toward Matt's mother. "Mrs. Rivers?" she said once she was close enough.

Matts mother shook slightly as though she was being awaken from a trance, or woken up from a bad dream. It was evident in her puffy red eyes that she had been crying for a long time, she looked much like Cassie did when she cried from the breakup. Her usual beautiful black silky hair was dishevelled, she could easily be mistaken for a homeless person by the look of her face. Matt was her only child, and the thought of losing an only child could drive any parent crazy. It didn't help that Matt and his mother didn't have the best relationship, it would crush her if she lost him without making things right. She forced a smile and stood up to hug Cassie. If only she knew that Cassie might have been the cause of her sons accident, she'd be stabbing her instead. Cassie looked down at Mrs. River's feet and noticed that she had mismatched her shoes. She was probably in a rush when she got the call about her son and wasn't paying attention to what she was putting on.

"You came," she said with a melancholic smile.

"Of course I did, Matt's one of my best friend's, " Cassie replied still in Mrs. Rivers tight grasp.

"Thank you so much," she said finally letting Cassie go, she looked over Cassie's shoulders and scrunched up her face in confusion. "Where are your other friends? You kids are always stuck together like glue," She said.

As if on cue they all came rushing through the revolving door like crazy people. Jesse spotted Cassie and Matt's mum and motioned the rest of the group to where they were standing.