Into The Wolf's Den

Chapter 2 - Madeline

Startling awake, I found myself in a cold room smelling heavily of disinfectant. The taste of iron in my mouth was making me feel nauseous. I looked around in surprise; white walls and speckled white flooring covered the room. A flimsy blue curtain was halfway pulled across the rod and a white scratchy blanket was laid on top of me.

Small strands of light came into the room through the window from off to the left, large metal bars were on the outside of the glass. Looking up I saw the harsh artificial lights flickering, I hated flickering lights, they reminded me f*****g horror movies.

I f*****g hate horror movies.

I was in a hospital. I must have passed out and Grandad must have called an ambulance out.

Groaning in pain, I sat up and looked down at my arm, an IV had been placed and a fluid bag hung next to the bed. Weakly, I tried to get out of bed, I wanted out of this place. My head spun, sending me back down.

Hospitals had no good memories for me and I couldn’t bear to be here a single second longer than I had to. I wanted to escape as quickly as possible, without seeming like a deranged person. Good luck with that, I thought to myself as I began trying to rip my IV out.

“I wouldn’t do that,” a voice warned me, sternly. I looked up and saw a doctor, who looked to be in his fifties, peering down at me from behind his glasses. Obeying his warning, I decided to lay back down and leave the IV alone. “Do you know your name?”

“Madeline McKenzie,” I replied solemnly, I could feel the dryness in my throat making me feel itchy.

The doctor nodded at my reply and wrote something down on his little clipboard. The doctor was dressed in his white doctor’s coat and a pair of scrubs.

He wasn’t a particularly interesting looking fellow; his skin was pale, mustn't get out much, and his hair had flecks of grey scattered across the brown. It was clipped short all over with large widow peaks, salt and peppered stubble was scattered all over his jaw and chin.

“Miss McKenzie,” the doctor started, his voice stern and almost cold, “I’m Dr. Carter. Do you remember what happened?”

I did remember but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to remember what had happened yesterday, I didn’t want to think about it. Fear slowly slid into my mind, why was I here? Did I have a mental break? Was I in the psych ward? The doctor was waiting for an answer, and considering I didn’t know my surroundings well I decided to keep it short and sweet.

How do you tell them that you passed out because your grandfather got diagnosed with stage four cancer?

“I was upset, I must have passed out.” Good one genius, my inner voice remarked.

The doctor nodded a few times, writing something on the chart before staring up at me. “It seems you had an anxiety attack.”

Well that’s embarrassing.

“You’ll be kept under observation for tonight to make sure you’re properly hydrated and you’ll be good to go tomorrow.” Nodding, I went to ask a question but the doctor turned on his heels and strode out of the room.

Once again, I was alone. I nervously began to fidget with my fingers when Grandad popped his head through the doorway, offering a small smile.

“Thank god you’re here.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

He pulled up a chair and sat beside me, sitting in silence for a long while, he just held my hand and we didn’t utter a single word. No one came into the room and he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. His presence, as always, keeping my anxieties in check.

The stench of the bleach used in this room defiled my nose, and I wrinkled it. I wondered how much they actually needed in order to clean a room this small.

Keeping my mind occupied was the trick, I hated hospitals, despised them even, and every time I needed to come to one it’s set my anxiety off. It brought back bad memories and I didn’t need them, I didn’t want those memories coming back. Years and years of therapy didn’t stop the nightmares about losing my parents.

Losing them in such a horrific way.

Night’s at home with grandad were a lot like this, our comfortable silence while we watched television. Eating dinner in the lounge room, laughter echoing out, occasionally we would peer at each other's books and write little notes, shoving them between the pages.

The dinner lady came by eventually and dropped off a tray of tasteless mush that made my appetite disappear as quickly as it had come. I was forced to eat it though, picking through it for as long as my stomach would allow. I turned to grandad, motioning to the slop in front of me.

“Man, I bet army food would be like a gourmet meal compared to this.”

The edge of his lips turned upwards, hinting at a smile tugging them. “You’ve never eaten army food,” he jested.

We settled back into our comfortable silence for a while longer. I hated the feel of the IV under my skin, the way the sticky bandage on top tugged at my skin, and the blanket made my skin feel so itchy that I began to unconsciously rub my legs against the bed.

It wasn’t long after the staff collected my dinner that Grandad was asked to leave so that I could rest. I didn’t want to rest though, I didn’t want to sit here cold and alone.

I asked for extra blankets so I wouldn’t be cold, they only gave me another flimsy one. With two itchy, scratchy, sterile white blankets and a hospital gown on I froze overnight. They kept the air conditioning on the whole time even when I asked if I could turn up the room temp.

Nobody gave me the time of day.

***

Laughter erupted from the house as we sat in the lounge room together. Presents scattered across the floor in front of us, everyone was here together.

They were okay.

I picked up a present and gently shook it, trying to figure out what it was. Dad grinned at me cheekily, his eyes begging me to rip it open and see what was inside. I did just that.

Ripping the wrapping paper apart, I found a small wooden box. I pulled the box out of the c*****e of paper and inspected it closely. It looked to be a handmade jewellery box, there was an engraving of a rose on the top. carvings of vines covered the rest.

Opening it gently I saw a small golden locket.

Squealing in delight I carefully took it out of the box and opened the locket. A picture of all of us from about six months ago; Grandma, Grandad, Mum, Dad and me! We all looked so happy and we were together!

“Thank you Dad!” I shouted happily, hastily I got up and threw my arms around him, hugging him close. “This is the best gift ever! Now I’ll have you all with me forever!”

Dad let me go and went back to cuddling up to Mum. Grandpa and Grandma held hands in their rocking chairs, looking at me with such joy written across their faces.

‘McKenzies stick together!’ was our family motto.

The amount of times I had heard that growing up; everytime we had an argument, everytime I told them that I hated them, I would hear it.

I passed Mum a present carefully, she smiled at me and opened it carefully. Inside was a rose, frozen forever in time, in resin. She turned to my dad and kissed him gently on the lips.

“Eww,” I groaned and everyone laughed.

“One day you’ll do that to your future husband,” Grandma said teasingly. I scrunched up my face and went back to trying to pass out presents.

By the end of it all, we were full of pudding and laughing at the bad jokes from the bon-bons. My family was here, together. We were all together.