It Takes Time

Chapter 11

Beep...

Beep...

Beep...

The steady beeps of the heart monitor resonated through Marin's ears as he slowly came too. As soon as he tried to move though, he felt a sharp pain in his back. The memories of what had happened before he passed out were flooding through his mind. Miles. "Adrienne..." He opened his eyes and started to sit up.

"Marin!" Alyn exclaimed as he saw his best friend start to wake up. He hesitated to hug him though, fearing that if he did, he would only hurt his friend more, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. "I'm so glad you're awake. I thought you'd never wake up." He looked as if he were on the verge of tears.

Marin looked around the room. "Adrienne..." He was scared. He needed to find her now before it was too late. As he scanned the room and didn't see her, he turned to Alyn. "Did you find her?"

Alyn gulped. He didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but he couldn't just leave Marin in the dark about what happened. He needed to know. "Marin... You've been asleep for 14 months. We... We never found her. I'm sorry... We looked for months straight, but she we never found her. We never even had much of a lead." 

Alyn feared to make eye contact with Marin. "Chat and Ladybeetle disappeared. We haven't seen them since she went missing that day. The cops were starting to suspect that they took her, but I knew that wasn't right. Adrienne's mom didn't let them drop the case for the longest time. She herself actually went with them multiple times. It was crazy. But eventually they did drop it. Just a few months ago, they did."

"Nothing has been the same." Alyn smiled sadly. "Not without you two at school. They even cancelled Prom. Clovis hasn't made fun of anyone since then. He hasn't really said anything. Nina's lost without her best friend. Your parents... It's just so bad, Marin." 

Marin was stunned silent. He didn't know how to react. "I need to leave. Sign me out of here right now!" Marin yelled, frantically trying to remove all the machines that were attached to him. 

"Marin! Calm down, I'll get a nurse to do that." Alyn grabbed Marin's hands, stopping him from continuing in his actions. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you need to calm down. Deep breaths." Alyn glanced up at the heart monitor which was now beeping at a rapid pace. 

It only took seconds for nurses to start coming in and checking his vitals. Marin started thrashing against them. "I wanna leave! Let me leave! Adrienne!" Marin yelled and screamed, trying to push the nurses away from him. Eventually, one of them came in with a small needle and injected it into Marin's arm. 

The one who did this turned to face Alyn. "This won't knock him unconscious, but it will keep him calmed for a few hours. Can you call the parents and have them check in with the doctors?" She asked politely.

Alyn nodded and pulled out his phone. He scrolled through his contacts, finding Marin's mom, and pressed the green call button. He held the phone to his ear as he walked away from the bed towards the window, where it was quieter.

"Hello? Alyn? What do you need?" The voice on the other end asked in a clearly tired tone. It was five in the morning. 

"You need to come to the hospital ASAP. He's awake." Alyn whispered into the phone as he watched Marin start to calm down. He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket, making his way back over to the bed as the nurses filed out of the room.

"I need to find her..." Marin's eyes were relaxed, as was his body, due to the effects of the drug that the nurse put in him. He wasn't tired, but he looked the part.