Chapter 7:

Natalie's Perspective

   I wake up, but don't remember falling asleep in a hospital. There are tubes hooked up to my nose, and I'm very tired. I have a bandage wrapped around my forehead and look around.

    "Hey! How's my little fighter doing?" says Uncle Will as he looks over at me. I look down at him to find him painting my fingernails black. "Fine, I guess." I say weakly. I decide not to question why he's painting my fingernails. I look beside me and see Mom curled up on Dad's lap, both of them sleeping. I don't remember anything after I fell asleep on the train.

    "Where's Aunt Christy?" I ask. "She's at the Amity Compound." replies Uncle Will not looking up from my nails. "Why?" I say. "It's a surprise." he says as he smiles. I look at the clock. 8:26.

    "How long have I been sleeping?" I say. I only remember getting to the safe house at 2 something. I don't remember what time I left. Or fell asleep on the train. "Umm, since 5 I think." he says not looking up. I took a 3 hour nap, and woke up in a hospital.

    "What happened to me?" I ask. "Well, you may remember falling at training. But, you scraped the back of your skull pretty bad and you passed out on the train for what, 5 to 6 hours. You lost about.." he stops and thinks for a second. "60 percent of your blood." he says it with a choke.

Sixty percent of my blood gone? I didn't know I was bleeding that bad. I stare down at my hand, which is pale and shriveled up. I thought I only fell asleep. I don't remember bleeding so much. Then I see the door open, and Uncle Uriah, and Aunt Marlene walk in. I try to smile, but I feel too weak.

    "Hey!!! My poor baby." says Aunt Marlene. Uncle Uriah is carrying about 5 balloons, a bouquet of flowers, and a stuffed bear. "Hey." I say. "How are you doing?" Uncle Uriah says. Aunt Marlene runs over and hugs me. Mom said that when I was born, Aunt Marlene was the second one to hold to me and that she was like a second mother.

    "I'm getting better." I say. "Great!" she says cheerfully and releases me. "Because I need you to get better so we can hang out!" she says as she takes my face in her hands and kisses me on the tip of my nose. I still try and smile, but can't.

    "Are you hungry? We brought Dauntless Cake!!!" says Aunt Marlene. Uncle Uriah drops all of the stuff he's holding and runs to Aunt Marlene. "Dauntless Cake, you say?" he says."Not for you, for Natalie you dingbat!" says Aunt Marlene as she whacks him on the head.

    "Ouch." says Uncle Uriah. "Not right now, maybe later. They both nod and sit down, and I try to sleep but I want to know if Dad knew that he hurt me. Not physically. He hurt my feelings and I want to know if he knew. "Dad" I squeak but I know he can't hear me. I try to say it louder.

    "Dad!" but it just sounds like a small squeak. "Well, I'm gonna call Christina and see if she's not walking the fields dancing." says Uncle Will. Uncle Uriah gives him a weird look and before he can say anything, Uncle Will says, "She's at the Amity Compound." as he dials her number.

Uncle Uriah just nods, and Aunt Marlene falls asleep in her chair. Why is everybody so sleepy? Then I forget. It's almost 10. Everybody woke up just to come see me in the hospital. But, do adults really fall asleep that early? Well, yes they work, and I don't so of course they're sleepy.

Uncle Uriah squeezes her hand and then falls asleep too. But Uncle Will is still awake and alert as he speaks to Aunt Christy on the phone.Then he hangs up.

    "Natalie, um I have to go pick up Aunt Christy. The train broke down while she was on it, and they're fixing it now but the workers won't be done until midnight. Will you be okay?" I nod and try to smile, but once again I can't. He nods back, and leaves the room.

I sigh knowing that I am the only one awake. I look around and find that there is a T.V. in my room and look for the remote. I find it on the night stand next to me, and turn it on. Clearly the last person in here was a child because the kid's channel is on.

I turn it to an old movie I like and set the remote down. My arm is tired just from picking up a remote. Geez, I'm so weak. Well, I do only have forty percent of my blood left. I watch the T.V. hoping that someone will wake up. Hoping that it's Dad that wakes up first.

I want to know if he knew that he hurt me, but I also want to hug him. I left him at the safe house, and he probably didn't realize how much he hurt me. I miss him. I want him awake. I want to see him. I also want to see Mom, but I want to apoligize to Dad for leaving him.

I look at the T.V. and realize that a super loud shooting fight is about to come in the movie I'm watching. I turn the T.V. up as loud as it will go and then the fight begins. POW POW POW POW *SCREAM*

Dad jumps up throwing Mom onto the ground, and both my aunt and uncle throw themselves on the ground thinking that someone was actually shooting.I mute the T.V. and look at my Dad who is helping Mom off the ground. Then he looks up at me, and stares.

    "Dad, I'm so sorry I left you. Please forgive me, I'm sorry I'm so sorry...." my voice trails off as he hugs me. I don't know why he hugs me, because I expect him to be mad.

    "No, I'm sorry." he says with a deep voice that sounds like it came from deep within him. He still hugs me, and I wrap my arms around him. "Why are you sorry?" I say. I try to look over at Mom, but Dad's shoulder is in the way.

    "It's all my fault you're here." he says. Then I feel something wet on my shoulder. He's crying. "What?" I say. Why would it be his fault? I'm the one who ran off. He lets go of me and wipes his cheek and clears his throat. But before he could speak, Mom runs to me and hugs me.

    "I love you." she says. "I love you too." She stares at me and cries. "Mom, it's okay. I'm fine." I say into her shoulder. "I know you are." she says, and releases me. She's smiling and wipes her cheeks. "Continue." she says realizing she interrupted, and sits back down.

    "Why did you leave?" he says as he sits down next to me on the bed. "You laughed at me." I say. He sighs. "I did not set off that rigged dummy. I was taking video to see your kick, and at the same time you got knocked backwards Uncle Zeke texted me a video of Shane trying to shoot his paintball gun, so I played it and laughed. I didn't know it was still recording, and I didn't see you fall either. I replayed Uncle Zeke's video, and it ended and it went back to the video of your fall. Then you took my phone, and saw the video of you and left. I wasn't laughing at you I was laughing at the video of Shane. And I didn't even see you on the ground either. You stood up before I even saw you. I still don't know how the dummy was set off. Nobody knows the code to the safe house, or  that's it's really a training room." he says.

Now I feel stupid. He wasn't trying to apologize, he was trying to explain himself. God, why'd I have to be so stubborn and push him away? Now look where I am. If I had stayed he would've noticed my head, and got me to the hospital before I lost all that blood. Before he started crying into my shoulder. Before I made him hurt. Before he thought this was his fault.

 I stare into his eyes and see regret. He probably sees anger in mine. But I'm too weak to throw anything, too tired to scream so I just cry. Anger builds up inside me, but all that comes out are tears. I left him there, and ran from him when he was trying to explain.

    "Hey, what's wrong?" he asks. I stare up at him, tears streaming down my face. "I-" I start to speak, but sobs take over my words. I see the doctor walk in and Dad stares up at the doctor in horror. I didn't hear what the doctor said, but Mom immediately starts to cry.

A nurse walks in with a syringe with a long needle attached to it. I stop crying and the doctor says something about my blood not reproducing fast enough and I'm gonna be too weak to go home tomorrow. I was gonna go home tomorrow? But, why is Mom crying and Dad staring so hard?

The nurse walks over to me with the syringe, and I realize how long the needle is. "No, what are you doing?" I say as the nurse wipes me with an anit-septic wipe.

"Stop, no! Mom!" and as soon as the words leave my mouth, the nurse injects me, presses the plunger down, my body goes limp and I fall asleep again.

Hey! This chapter was really dramatic....but, I kind of liked the cliffhanger I left you in. Sorry! A lot of people were only reading the first chapter, and I guess I didn't end it in a cliffhanger so I think I didn't leave them wanting to read more.....but those of you have read all the way up to here, THANK YOU!!! You are awesome! Don't forget to vote and comment! I'll try and post the next chapter ASAP! :)