"You can't punish people for who they are." - Allie

PART SIXTEEN
↳ a price to pay

THE FIRST THING THAT PENELOPE WAS AWARE OF when she came to was the deep and painful ache on the left side of her torso. Her eyes were still closed but she noticed that every time she breathed, it hurt if she wasn't gentle with her breaths.

The pain was like nothing she had ever experienced before, it was different to a graze or a bruise. It was a burning kind of pain, like someone had shoved a hot poker into her side.

Penelope was lying down, she knew that for certain and she was definitely not in her own bed. The place where she was laying was stiff, hard and the sheets tucked up to her chest felt scratchy against her skin.

As she slowly felt herself becoming more aware, she thought back to the last thing she could remember. Cassandra was shot, right before her eyes. She hadn't seen the shooter, but after seeing her behind the blonde, she'd been shot herself.

She remembered Harry's voice right before she lost consciousness as well. Foolishly, she was still holding out hope that Cassandra had miraculously survived the attack and with that thought, the girl gently began to open her eyes.

After a few hazardous blinks, she determines that she is in fact, lying in one of the many empty beds in the town's hospital. Next, she notices the two boys asleep nearby. Grizz has his head resting on his arms, as he leans on the bed just beside her right arm. And Harry is snoring softly on a chair in the left corner of the room.

Both boys are no longer in their formal attire and instead dressed in sweats and hoodies. Nell suspects that this means she's been out for quite some time.

A quick glance outside the window tells her that it's probably sometime in the middle of the night. Penelope then reaches down to pull the blanket away from her and gazes down at her wound.

It looks like it's been bandaged rather well, there's no sign of blood anymore which means Gordie or Kelly probably worked out how to stitch her up. Satisfied with her immediate wellbeing, the girl sits up slowly and without waking Grizz, she manages to slip her feet off the opposite side of the bed.

She jumps down to the ground with a wince and half tip-toes, half limps her way around the bed and past Harry to the door. Thankfully, nobody thought to dress her in one of those hideous hospital gowns and she's dressed quite comfortably in her sweatpants and one of Grizz's long sleeve t-shirts.

Penelope staggers her way through the hospital on a desperate mission to find Cassandra. Her brain is telling her that the girl is probably long dead but she can't help but hope. She makes it a whole ten steps before the pain in her side becomes unbearable and she collapses to her knees with a barely concealed sob.

'She can't be dead, she can't! Of all the things I could have screwed up, WHY THIS?' Penelope screams in her mind as tears begin to fall down her cheeks, partly from the pain and partly from the feeling of defeat in her chest.

She must have made enough noise to wake the boys because only a few moments later, Harry and Grizz come sprinting into the hallway and immediately spot her crumpled form on the cold, hard floor.

She's somewhat aware that they're speaking to her as each of them gently grab an arm and help her stand but she doesn't hear a word they're saying. The sound of the gunshots won't stop ringing in the girl's ear on repeat. The feeling of the bullet colliding with her side, Cassandra's unmoving body beside her's.

"Penelope, hey. Look at me," It's Grizz, he's cupping her cheek to get her to focus on him.

"What were you thinking? You need to rest, Nell," he explains, watching her with deeply worried eyes. Harry still stands close beside her, ready to jump in if she needs him but otherwise he seems to be letting Grizz do most of the talking.

"C-Cassandra? Is she okay? Where is she?" Penelope manages. She looks to each boy in turn, desperation clear in her eyes.

Harry looks away, not able to meet her eyes. Grizz meets her gaze but there's a dark and serious expression on his face, "She didn't make it Nell. She was still alive when we brought her back to the hospital with you, but she didn't make it through the first night. Gordie and Kelly just didn't have the knowledge to save her."

"No. NO! They saved me! Look at me, Grizz. I'm all stitched up! Why am I alive and she isn't?" Penelope begins to cry as she speaks and Grizz looks like he might be about to join her.

"I don't know Nell, I don't know," he says in a small voice, it cracks slightly at the end.

"Where is she now?" Penelope questions in a small voice.

"Gordie wanted to do an autopsy on her first to see if he can find the gun that the bullet belongs to but the funeral is tomorrow morning." He looks like he wants to ask Nell more questions about the incident but he seems to hold back, noting the dark circles under her eyes and how exhausted she appears.

The girl's lip begins to tremble as she stares back at her best friend's broken expression. Wound forgotten for the moment, she throws her arms around Grizz and grips him tightly. He's much more gentle with his arms but returns the embrace nonetheless.

As he holds her, his chin tucked comfortably atop her head, all she can think is that she could have saved Cassandra. Maybe she should have jumped in front of the girl and took both bullets to save her, maybe the very reason she had been brought to this world was to save Cassandra?

No matter how much knowledge she had of the future, Penelope had still cost Allie her sister's life, and that was unforgivable.

As Penelope finally pulls away from Grizz, she turns to Harry with fresh tears in her eyes.

"You were there weren't you? I remember hearing your voice," her voice is hoarse as she addresses him.

"I came back to check on you and then came running when I heard the shots. I called everyone and then I stole some random car and drove you both here," he explains, trying to make light of the situation with the comment about the car.

Penelope launches herself at Harry and ignores the pain in her side as she holds onto him tightly. "You probably saved my life, Harry. Thank you," she murmurs into his ear. Harry hugs her back.

After too short of a moment, Grizz clears his throat and they pull away.

"Come on, it's like the middle of the night and you need to get back to bed and get some sleep," he orders gently. Harry and Grizz both reach out to grab a shoulder each but Penelope makes a noise and pushes them away.

"Stop that, I walked out here all by myself so I think can walk back by myself," she mutters.

She notices Grizz and Harry sharing an exasperated look in her peripheral vision but tiredness is beginning to take over her body and she lets it slide. By the time she makes it back to the hard hospital bed, she falls asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow.

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okay i know this is shorter than usual BUT it's approx 12:30am for me currently & i nearly didn't write an update at all for today so yall are so lucky i wanted to stay up & write this!

also if you guys ever notice a spelling or grammar mistake pls feel free to comment & let me know. trying to get a chapter out everyday is hard enough so i don't always have time for really thorough editing. it wouldn't offend me if you pointed it out, it would actually really help me out!

P.S thank you all so very much for 10K reads & 500 votes!! it makes me so happy to see you guys are enjoying reading it as much as i am writing it ❤️