Part 8
*Amy’s P.o.v
She woke up in a hosptial room, surprised that things were the right size. “Ugh…My head…” Amy tried to sit up, but fell back onto the bed when she was stabbed with a searing pain in her right side. “What the?…How did I even get here?” Thanks to being doped up on pain meds, and the stress of the previous day, her memories were clouded. “Click!” the door opened to reveal a nurse, all dressed in white.
“How are you feeling today Ma’am?” the stranger asked.
“Uh, I don’t hurt nearly as much as I should, so I guess I’m fine.” Amy said as she inspected her throbing side.
“You have a visiter. He says he’s a relative. Do you want to see him?” asked the nurse.
“I…guess…”She wasn’t sure who to expect. It couldn’t be! Why would he even care to drive all the way to god knows where ever here was?!
It was him. Her father.
“Hey, look, the little bitch is up!” He said, acid lacing every slurred word. “Where the hell you’ve been kid?! I had work for you to do!”
“I-I’m sorry! It wasn’t my fault. You have no idea what I’ve been through.” she argued to no avail.
“Look, I don’t care if you’ve been through hell and back. Just get off your scrawny little @$$ and come on! Get up, we’re going home.” “Dad, If you didn’t realize, I CAN’T. I can barely even sit up. I’m Injured. Broken. Useless.” She knew that she was already in trouble, so why not dig the hole deeper. “Just go away. I need sleep.”
“Fine. I’ll be back.” And with that he stormed out of the room, behind the nurse. She was actually surprised that the nurse hadn’t done anything at all to stop her father’s yelling in the hospital.
She sighed tiredly and closed her eyes letting the dark nothingness known as sleep take her.
*Stan’s P.o.v
It had been a few days since he’d gotten Amy to the hospital. He’d been traveling between realms every night to go check on her(check on her as in look through the window like a creep for a while and leave). She seemed to be healing ok, but he didn't like the looks of the man who he saw beside her bed sometimes.
He was tempted to just take her and leave, but he was scared he would hurt her again. It was hitting him hard, the realization of just how fragile Amy was. He was a bit at war with himself, half wanting to take her away from that man, while the other half was cowering in the corner of his mind scared to death of even touching the tiny girl. Stan wished he could talk to her, but he knew if he tried to talk to Amy through her room's window, he'd end up disturbing others or even worse, discovered. It was actually kind of weird that no one had spotted him when he took his trips to see Amy. Weird, but he was thankful for it.
Stanley sighed, soon realizing his mistake when he saw Amy stir.
She slowly sat up, clutching her side and groggily looked around the room. Her eyes widened when they landed on the window. Stan gave a sheepish smile and mouthed 'Hi' timidly. Amy sat there looking terrified for a moment then stormed over to the window as best she could.
"What the heck are you doing here!?" Amy whispered in a nervous tone underlined with anger.
He decided to risk discovery to give some sort of explanation to the angry girl.
"Uh, just checking on you. Seem to be healing fair enough. I'm really sorry. It's my fault…" He whispered back as quietly as possible.
*Amy's P.o.v
"Yeah it's getting better…" She was kind of dazed. Maybe it was the pain-meds? Amy tried to convince herself that it was a nightmare, but the pain of her broken ribs screamed she was awake. That emotional-like-a-pregnant-lady of a giant was back.
'Lucky me…' She thought sarcastically.
"Stan, just how long have you been there?" Amy asked suddenly feeling paranoia creeping up on her.
"N-Not that long…" Stan lied.
She doubted that was true. He seemed to enjoy watching her sleep, as she previously found out when she was forced to stay with him. Wait… Did she still have to live with him? Maybe once she was healed enough, she could get away from him AND her father! Brilliant! Just as soon as-
"Amy, who is that man who 'visits' you sometimes?" Stan asked, pulling her from her escape plan thoughts. She was a bit caught off-gaurd by that question.
"That man is…My…Father…"Amy responded in a grim tone.
Part 9
*Stan's P.o.v
"Wait, what? Oh…Well, that does make sense, I guess." He said a bit taken-aback.
"What's he like?" He suddenly asked
"Oh, you know the typical drunken father. Cruel, Uncaring, Abusive. The works." She answered, acid dripping off her sarcastic retort.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know…How about your Mum? Do you have any siblings?" Stan prodded hesitantly.
"My Mom left when I was eight. I had a older sister, but she moved away a long time ago." Amy replied quietly with a saddened expression. She rubbed at her teary eyes and put on a hollow smile. "But, I'm over it. That was a long time ago. I've moved on."
"I can take you back when you feel you're healed enough. You don't have to deal with him anymore." He offered sincerely.
"That's gonna be a bit. Ribs don't have to have as much time to heal as something like a leg or arm. I broke quite a few though. It'll take a while to mend." Amy reasoned with the anxious giant.
*Amy's P.o.v
'Haha, yeah right. Go back my butt.' she thought to herself boldly. Through this whole conversation she'd been forming bits her escape plan. Stan liked to come at night, so she'd try and go for dawn when it was darkish, but he wouldn't be here in time to stop her. She'd also have to deal with the matter of her father…The hospital staff shouldn't be a problem.
Amy hated talking about her family. It always seemed to put her on the brink of tears. It really didn't make sense to her why it still hurt. It drove her absolutely crazy that it stung after all the passed years, it was like a deep wound that stayed eternally fresh in her mind.
"It's late. You should get going." Amy urged, wanting to get him away. Stan was too questioning tonight, and all she wanted was to sleep.
"Oh wow, it is, isn't it. Yeah, I guess I should." Stan agreed letting out a yawn and stretched a bit as he got up out of the street and made his way out of the town.
She sighed tiredly and limped away from the window and settled in the hospital bed letting sleep claim her.
The next few weeks went by in a similar manner. Stan pressuring her to go with him, her father yelling all through his 'visits', and the familiar dull pain in her side. The only thing changing was the pain, it had gone from a hellish hurt to a dull throbbing.
Amy couldn't worry about that now though. She gathered up all her things into her small backpack, now equipped with bandages, gauze, and pain pills which she'd collected on her rounds through the hospital. No clock was needed to know it was time to ditch this place. After struggling with the window for a few minuets, Amy made her way out on the fire-escape stairwell on the side of the building.
-An hour of walking later…-
She guessed that this was the down-town of the area. It reeked of death and alcohol, and there were shadowy figures lurking through the streets in the dark night. Amy suddenly wished she had snagged one of those sharp knives back at the hospital.'I'm starving! Maybe I can find some sucker to pit pocket…' She thought to herself. Pit-pocketing was one of her skills she'd developed over the years to survive. It's not like her father was going to provide for his child anytime soon. It had been just the opposite actually.
She was tired, and in need of a rest. Amy decided to settle down in a nice cardboard box she'd found in a street ally. At least it didn't smell too bad. With some more searching she found a old towel too. "Bonus! Sweet." She chimed to herself. Amy thought she was doing pretty good for her first official night on the street. But fate was not kind to this girl.
Soon after she had fallen asleep, a man, who was starving like herself, spotted the vulnerable teen sleeping in the ally. A sly grin spread across his face as he unsheathed a large jagged knife.
Amy woke at the sound of metal being scraped against stone. She looked out of her box to see a man approaching her with a murderous gleam in his eyes. She slowly hoisted on her bag, never taking her eyes of the possible attacker. Thankfully, the ally was not a dead end. Amy back-pedaled away from the stranger, and turned to sprint when he started to charge at her.
"Oh God, I can't ever get a break can I!?" She cursed her luck as she ran from her pursuer. "At least the person chasing me isn't a giant this time. Maybe I can out-run him!"
And with that she pored on the speed. Her broken bones didn't help her any. Her lungs burned and puffed with effort. Amy could feel fingers graze her back and she yelped and fell, tumbling face first into the dirt. 'Lovely.' She'd run into what seemed to be a nature-park. Somehow she always seemed to end up in a field of some sort in these run-for-your-life situations. Amy flipped over onto her back to face death head-on. It seemed like a honorable thing to do. Not like honor mattered much to a run-away though.
Then she stupidly spoke that cursed phrase, challenging fate. "I don't see how this could get any worse." As if on cue, she felt slight rhythmic tremors. She was too busy wallowing in pain from her stinging ribs to notice the armed man was almost upon her.
Amy howled in pain when she felt a knife dig it's way into her shoulder, pinning her down. The stranger emitted a crazed laugh, pulling out a small knife that seemed to be the counterpart to the dagger. He kneeled over her and ran the smaller knife over her neck, not enough to make a life threatening cut, but just enough to draw a small trail of blood. Amy failed to coke back a sob when he went back for seconds, cutting her stabbed arm.
