Page 31 of Never Forget You
“I need to help. I need to do something. I can’t just go to the hospital, it isn’t right. This is all my fault.”
“No, you’re no use to me right now.” She shakes her head. I can’t see much aside from that. “I need you to be healthy, I need you to be looked after. I can’t be worrying about you as well as Ella. Please, do this for me.”
“But you will be alone,” I insist. “I can’t leave you on your own through all of this. It isn’t right.”
“My mom is coming. She will be here soon. She will take care of me and help me through this situation.”
Oh, well, I suppose there isn’t anything else for it, is there? If I’m not needed, then there isn’t any need for me to stick around. I probably should go and get myself checked out anyway. I’m starting to feel dizzier by the second.
“Right, okay.” The paramedic is coming for me again anyway. I’m not getting away with this. “Please, let me know… keep me up to date with everything. If there is anything that I can do, anything at all…”
“Don’t worry.” Georgia squeezes my hand one last time. “I’m getting Ella back. You focus on looking after you.”
I feel like shit as I walk away, as the paramedic takes me and piles me inside the ambulance. I hate how this is working out, and I’m the weak one being taken away, but I have to do what’s right. If I don’t get taken to the hospital right now, then I’m notgoing to be any use to anyone. Georgia has her mom anyway, and maybe even her father is coming, so it’s probably for the best that I am out of the way. I don’t know if they will remember me from all those years ago, but they hated me, they hated me so much that they ended their vacation and sent Georgia off to Switzerland to keep her away from me, so I don’t think that my presence will be much wanted.Especiallyif they learn that I am to blame for everything that happened with Ella. My God, they are going to despise me all over again.
“Now, I need you to lie down.” The paramedic shakes me from my thoughts. “So I can take a look at the stab wound…” I feel dizzy all over again. What the hell is he talking about? “Luckily, the blade didn’t go in too deep.”
Ben stabbed me. Hestabbedme? Now that is fucked up. But then I suppose it’s better for him to have stabbed me than Georgia… but it also means that now he has a knife and Ella as well. This is all too much…
Who is dead?I swear, I keep hearing someone talk about death around me. I don’t know who they mean by it. All I want to do is snap my eyes open so I can find out, but there’s something holding them shut, tightly shut. As much as I will myself to pull them apart, it’s a sensation which is normally so natural, but now it’s too much.
Is it me?Maybe that’s why I can’t open my eyes, because I’ve passed away. I’ve never believed in any kind of afterlife before, but maybe now I’m living it and there isn’t a damn thing that I can do to stop it. Perhaps the afterlife is just listening to what’s going on around you but without being able to affect change.
“Harry?” Oh, God, that sounds like my mother. Is she here to see me dead? That’s messed up. “Harry, are you okay? Oh, God, I really don’t like seeing you like this. How did this happen to you? How did I not know? Matthew did try to warn me that you might be dating that girl again and that it could cause trouble, butthis…?”
What the hell is she talking about? Georgia? This isn’t her fault. She didn’t do anything wrong! Sure, I didn’t tell anyone directly about us being together again, but that’s just while we’re working things out. I certainly don’t want people to think that she has done something to hurt me. Georgia is innocent, she has lost her child…
Mom should be a bit more understanding. She should try and see this from Georgia’s point of view as a mother herself, and she certainly shouldn’t be worried about anything that Matthew is saying. He might be my best friend who only has my best interests at heart, but right now, he’s wrong and I need my mom to know that.
“I don’t know what I can do to make this better, Harry, I really don’t.” Mom sounds like she’s crying now. “I don’t even know what put you here. No one seems to be able to tell me, much less the police, so I need you to wake up now. Please, Harry. Find a way to wake up so that we can figure this out. Me and you, we can do this together.”
I can wake up? That’s an option? So, maybe I’m not dead after all. Then who the hell is dead? Who did I even hear talking about death? God, it’s all so mixed up in my brain now, I can’t keep track of anything anymore. I don’t even know what’s real and what isn’t. perhaps none of this is. It might not even be my mom talking. This could all be happening in some freaking fucked up dream inside my crazy head. I have absolutely no idea, but sheis making me want to wake up even more now. I’m growing increasingly desperate to open my eyes.
“Harry, I just wish you would tell me what’s going on. I just want to know why you’re injured,” she continues, her voice growing softer by the minute. “I feel like there is this whole other side to your life that I know nothing about. Nothing at all. I knew that you had your heart broken years ago and I knew that this girl was back, but I think I must have only scratched the surface. If this is something that you have to hide, then there is a reason for that, Son, and usually not a good one. That, combined with what’s happening now, doesn’t fill me with any kind of joy that this is going well. I don’t think that this woman is someone you should be seeing. Of course, I can’tforceyou to do anything because you’re an adult, but surely, Harry, you must see that this isn’t good for you?”
No, I want to yell.No, no, no.She just doesn’t understand, that’s all. I could make her understand if I could just get my eyes open already. I could easily explain all of this to her and make her see that, but for some reason, I am stuck here and completely unable to do anything. Some stupid force has me frozen and it’s pissing me off.
I love her, Mom,I scream inside my mind.She’s the one for me. The only reason that it’s been a secret has been for Ella’s sake, the only reason that it didn’t work out before was because of her parents…
But there’s no point in my thinking this, is there? That isn’t helping anyone. I need to fight everything, to battle harder than I ever have done before, and get my goddamn eyes open before I explode. I need to say those words out loud and explain them in a real way that can be understood. I can only assume now that whoever was talking about death wasn’t referring to me—although I’m scared to work outwhothey were referring to—and that I can wake up somehow. I need to fight. For Georgia, for Ella, for life. I need to give it all I’ve got…
“Harry?” Mom gasps. “Oh, my God, is that you? Are you waking up? Oh, please let that be you waking up.”
I feel a flicker. I don’t quite know where it comes from, but it lets in some light, a lot of light, maybe too much light, but I won’t let that take me down. I will keep on fighting until I can get the rest of my body working as well because this is a battle that I absolutelyhaveto win. I don’t have any choice. Too much is depending on it…
25
GEORGIA
“You think Ben will call?” I ask the police officer nervously as he places a bug or tracker thing on my cell phone. “I don’t know if he will. I don’t think he wants to speak to me again because he has Ella…”
“We don’treallyknow what he wants, do we?” the guy replies. “From what you’ve told me, Ben doesn’t even really know what he wants. He might change his mind and call you and we need to be ready for that. That way, we give our guys out doing the search that edge because they may well be able to find him quicker.”
I can’t argue with that, can I? Anything to make it easier for the police to find Ella. It’s already been too much time that he’s been with her and we can’t leave it a moment longer. “Okay, sure, whatever you need. But do I have to be here? Can I not be out looking with you? Because it’s my cell phone, isn’t it? I can bring it with me…”
“We need you here in case Ben comes back.” He’s firm, and I guess that leaves me no room to argue. “There is a chance thathe might return or even that Ella might come back, and the one person that she will want to see is you.”
I suck in a breath and I hold it hard. I’m going tohaveto do what I’m told. I don’t really have any choice here. Plus, I’ve already refused to go to the hospital yet, even though the paramedics wanted me to, so it might be better for me to stay here. Wait it out as much as I can. Maybe I can make a move when my mother is here.