CASTAWAY ⚓ R.C, J.M

F O U R

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POGUE DETECTIVES

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Harley woke up with a start, her entire body felt heavy and her lungs felt compressed. She had dreamt she was drowning and now she was, amongst the sea of covers. A glimmering darkness consumed her as she lay shaking trying to push away the feeling. It felt like she was frozen to the bone, as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

The deeper she felt she was sinking, the louder her gasps and choking became. It was like the sea had wrapped an icy, numbing hand around her throat, whilst rolling waves pummeled and spun her body.

The bed sheets folded and tangled themselves around her legs. The pulling and tugging sent her overboard and crashing to the floor with John B's bedside lamp. Blue, ceramic clay exploded against the floor sending tiny fragments everywhere. Harley hit the ground hard enough to fully wake herself, her head barely missing the wooden edge of the table.

Footsteps pounded down the short hallway, before John B's bedroom door flew open.

"Harley!" Mr Routledge didn't waste a second before carefully kneeling beside her and checking her over.

John B and JJ stood in the doorway wide eyed, shocked and concerned at what they were seeing.

Once Harley made sense of her surroundings and nodded at Mr Routledge to assure him she was okay, she noticed the boys and flushed. During the past week of nightmares, caused by PTSD, only the same two nurses had seen her reactions and been their to calm her down. The first two days had been worse because she was unsettled by the unfamiliar hospital room. Now, she felt embarrassed because not only had she fallen on the floor, she had smashed John B's lamp in the process.

She dropped her head in her hands wanting to cry and pulled up her knees to her chest. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay." Mr Routledge smoothed her hair down and rubbed her back. He felt for the girl. "John B didn't like that lamp much anyway. You've done him a favour. Right son?"

Mr Routledge chuckled to ease her tension and anxiety by showing he wasn't upset, then looked to his son.

John B tripped over himself once he caught on. "Right!" He winced at his delivery and altered it. "Right. I hated that lamp."

"It's easily replaceable. Now he can get something more... decoratively appealing," JJ chimed in. He wrapped his arm over John B and patted his chest.

"I'm sorry. I'm a clumsy person." Harley paused trying to work out if that was true, only for her mind to come up blank. "Actually, I don't know that. I don't know anything!"

Everybody could sense Harley's rising frustration and kind of faltered. Her eyes had flamed up with impending anger, but her body language screamed lost and confused. John B was a little weary, whereas JJ was too preoccupied with how attractive Harley's burning eyes were.

Mr Routledge tried to comfort her. "The doctors said it's normal for you to feel frustrated and annoyed whilst you adjust to your new environment."

"What's the point of adjusting if I'm just going to be gone by Monday?" Harley didn't know how to express herself, so she squeezed a shard of clay in her palm intending to hurl it somewhere.

"Careful. Careful," Mr Routledge warned. He pried the piece from her hand and set it down.

"Who's going to want to adopt a girl who knows nothing?" Harley's head dropped to her hands again, whilst she held back tears. "I just want to go home."