The Chance to make a Change

Chapter 26: A different man

Summary: You wake up in the hospital. Does this mean that Albert is dead?
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What is that beeping? Were you still at home?

You woke up to the rhythmic beeping of a machine. A cold thin blanket was wrapped tightly around you, a really odd contrast to the soft blanket Albert used at home.

Home? Since when had your mind replaced your real home with the house Albert lived in?

The beeping of the machine made your head hurt. A hospital?

The realization came sooner than you would have thought, but judging by the feel of how heavy your limbs were, the little tubes attached to your arm, this wasn't home any longer. Or well, not Albert's house any longer.

But did this mean Albert had been caught? Had Finney escaped? Had the police captured Albert and called you an ambulance? That must be it, right? It couldn't be that Albert had taken you here, you thought. Despite his confession of not being able to live without you, you knew that bringing you here would be a huge risk to him.

How long had you been out of it? The vague memory of Albert lashing out at you and the painful tumble down the stairs emerged, but after that, everything seemed to be black.

"How broken Albert looks," you heard an unfamiliar voice. A woman. A nurse?

Wait? Albert? What did she know about Albert, you thought in alarm, and decided to remain silent and pretend you were still asleep so you could listen in on their conversation. You vaguely became aware of something heavy around your left foot. Was it in a cast? Was your foot broken? And why did it hurt so much to breathe?

"Yeah, I know," a different woman. "He doesn't deserve all this. He's one of our community's pillars, he is."

Surely she wasn't talking about the same Albert you knew?

Then the first voice continued, her tone one of concern. "You're right. I know him from Jessica's birthday party. He's got such good party tricks. The kids love him."

You squeezed your eyes. So that answered that then. Albert did attend parties as a magician. Those poor kids, you thought. Being entertained by a killer. "But you should have seen him. Such a nice guy, all in shambles. And no wonder, the poor guy. They hurt his niece."

Nice guy, huh? There was sarcasm there in your thoughts. His niece? Did he have another relative you weren't aware of? If only your head would hurt less, then perhaps you could think properly.

A different voice, also a woman. "He's grieving."

"Said it was another kid who's done it, but," the first woman continued. "Always knew Max was trouble. Have you heard how much he's been drinking recently? And he is a drug addict. Wouldn't be surprised if he did this to his own daughter. Reminds me of my best friend Miranda while at school. Now her father was an addict too and he beat her around the place some."

Finally, you stirred and your eyes opened. You felt like you missed half of the information needed to understand the conversation, but your head hurt and so did your arm, back and legs, and your throat was dry. You wished to have a drink and to sit up.

"Completely different from his brother," the second voice concurred. "I know Albert helps old Mrs. Rose by doing her gardening. Sometimes walks her dog too. And he helps Mrs. Rose with her grocery shopping. Like, if anything is the matter and you need help, you can count on him to come helping," she said. "Such a sociable person. We need more men like him."

The hell you do, you thought angrily. One Albert is enough. Now the nauseousness returned, but you thought it had nothing to do with your injuries.

"I wish I could get to know him better," the first voice said again. At this point, you decided to block out their conversation as much as possible.