Fog Lines

Chapter 3: Jack.

I shifted in the uncomfortable plastic hospital chair and glanced around the room. "I hate hospitals. You never know what they're doing or what they're going to charge you for."

"I know Jack. You've said three times now," replies the pale girl who currently sat in a hospital bed.

I look up at her and sigh. The small dirty blonde girl sat strapped up to several different machines, monitoring her heart rate and blood pressure and whatever else they monitor. The dark bags under her eyes were more noticeable now that she was sickly pale and the bloody gauzes on her arms stood out against the white bed. I cast my gaze to the floor. Bear my ass. Whatever did this to her was definitely not a fucking bear. I mean look at what it did to Tom. It tore him apart.

"Hey, Jack?"

I keep my eyes locked on the tile below me and say, "Yeah?"

"Why are you here?"

"What do you mean?" I nervously ask.

"Like, I'm really glad you're here with me, but I thought they were only supposed to let family members in during visiting time. And I'm pretty sure 10 pm is not apart of the acceptable visiting time," she answers, sounding amused with herself. I laugh and look up at her.

"Does it look like I care?" I ask.

"No."

We both freeze at the entrance of a third voice. I look over slowly to see Dr. Suzanne, Madd's psychiatrist. Oh shit.

"Hi Suzanne," Madd says, looking towards the door.

"Hello, Madd. I'm glad that you're doing well. The doctor said that the wounds weren't that bad and that they should heal fairly quickly. And as for you Jack," I cringe at how she says my name. "It would be in your best interest if you left now."

"Yes, Ma'am," I say, promptly standing up.

I wave goodbye to Madd, who smiles in response and exit the room. Moving down the hall I notice that none of the nurses seem to care that I was there. God, what does Suzanne have against me? She hates me and I've never talked to her before. Granted Madd could've said something but I don't think she knows anything bad about me either. I'm outside of the hospital before I know it. I walk across the street and take a right, heading home.

What Madd described was definitely not a bear. A tan colored, half-wolf half-man thing? She fought that thing off with a knife and they still say she didn't see it properly? That thing almost killed her! I practically slammed the house door open in anger.

"Jackie, please don't break the door again."

I shut the door carefully and walk into the kitchen. My mom sat at the dining table in her work uniform. Dark blue scrubs with silver linings. She's reading a newspaper and drinking coffee from a plain white mug.

I take a seat across from her and mumble, "Sorry mom."

She takes a sip from her coffee mug and then says, "It's fine hun. The police didn't give you any trouble, did they?"

"No. The only talked to me for a few minutes. They spent most of their time interviewing Hannah, Maddison, and Mrs. Pinsky. They said it was probably a bear as they should be coming out of hibernation around this time and they'll be really hungry," I explain, repeating the words that the cop told me.

She looks at me and raises and an eyebrow. "A bear? Bears might be strong and known for clawing at things, but the wounds on those two girls resemble more of knife wounds. They're too sharp and clean to be from a bear."

"That's what I said!" I exclaim.

"Not so loud hun."

"Sorry."

"Well, I need to get going. It's gonna be easier to get in now that there's not a lot of news people around. You should go to bed, you do have school tomorrow." She stands up from the table and puts her mug in the sink.

"Okay. Bye, Mom."

"Bye hun." She went out the front door, shutting it behind her quietly

I hear her car start and pull out of the driveway. I sit in silence for a bit before standing up and heading to my room. I push open the light grey door and hit the light switch on the wall as I enter. Kicking my shoes off, I look around the room, taking roll of all of the paintings on my walls. I notice fairly quickly that there's a blank spot on the wall. The painting, which was of a cracked skull with blue, purple, and pink flowers coming out of it, sat on my bed with a small note on top. The area, which once had a hole punched in, is now fixed. My brother filled in the hole with spackle. Could he at least ask before he moves things? Seriously. I walk over to my bed and pick the note up off the painting and read it.

"Give that girl of yours my compliments. This is pretty good for a first try. You should take her out for spring break. Tho you should probably bring some other kids with ya. Mom might not allow you otherwise."

The bottom is signed Mike. Goddamnit Mike. I flip the paper over and see a second note. This one is from mom.

"I think that's a great idea! You can bring her, her brother and those other three. I let you borrow Richard too. Have a fun spring break!"

She's literally not giving me a choice. Fuck me. I sigh and move the painting onto my desk, next to my current painting. Mike will probably be home soon. He'll bug me if I don't feed the cats. I groan and head back out of my room. I loop through the kitchen and walk out onto the deck. I grab the cat food bowl and pull open the cat food container. I turn around to put it back and freeze. A tall looming figure sat at the lower edge of our yard. That is definitely not a bear.