Guardian

Chapter 34

I woke up in the hospital in a panic, the blinding white light remenicent of the horrible white I had become acustomed to. Suddenly, I felt a calming embrance, and heard Dark's voice as he attempted to soothe me from the shadows.

"Shh, it's okay, Jason," he whispered, "I'm right here."

I sighed and laid back down on the hospital bed, "Dark...what happened? Are you...are you alright?"

I could feel how tense he was, but I didn't know if it was because he was worried about me or if he was hurt.

"It doesn't matter what happened," he replied bluntly, "all that matters is that we're safe now."

Then, the door opened and a nurse rushed in. My eyes widened when two other women came in behind her.

"Jason, we thought we heard you scream," Ms. Holly asked with a worried expression on her face.

I was then tackled in a hug by a fretful Mrs. Keistone.

"Oh, Jason," she cried, "I was so worried about you! When we found your backpack in the woods, and we couldn't find you, we thought you were dead! Then yesterday I get a call that you were found during a fire in the middle of nowhere across the country!"

She released me from the death grip and I was forced to look her in the eyes. I saw the bags under her eyes, her frazzled hair, and the over all ware of stress that my disappearence had caused her.

"I-I'm sorry..." I mumbled.

Mrs. Keistone sighed and shook her head, a small smile on her face. As she hugged me again, I looked over her shoulder and saw Ms. Holly standing to the side. She smiled at me and mouthed something like, 'we'll talk later'.

Dark stayed with me while I recovered in the hospital. When we were alone, I would try to ask Dark more about what had happened, but he didn't tell me very much. Then I tried asking him what was going to happen next, and he would just say that we would see what happens.

A few days later, I was cleared from the hospital. Mrs. Keistone handed me my cleaned jacket and walked with me down to the lobby.

"Is Mr. Keistone getting the car?" I asked.

She looked down at me with a mix of sadness and excitement. "No," she replied, "you're not coming back to the orphanage."

"W-what?" I asked, throughly confused.

"Don't worry," she said, "they'll drive to the orphange in a few days when you're feeling better so you can pack everything."

"W-w-who's 'they'?" I exclaimed.

Ms. Holly entered the lobby with a tall man in a business suit.

"Ms. Holly and her fiance are going to adopt you!" Mrs. Keistone squealed.

"Surprise," Dark added from my shadow.

"You knew?!" I hissed under my breath.

Ms. Holly suddenly hugged me, making me flinch, "I'm so sorry about what happened, Jason. I really care about you, a-and I think you're an amazing person."

She whispered to me, "I would love to have you in our new family."

"M-Ms. Holly..." I sighed and hugged her back. If Dark knew, then it must be a part of some plan. I guess this will be okay, she is really nice...

The man joined us as Ms. Holly pulled away. He knelt down to my level and patted my shoulder with a kind smile on his face. "Hey there, Jason," he greeted with an accent I couldn't place at the moment, "nice to finally meet ya. Holly's been telling me a lot about you. The name's Max Kovar."