TORN FLESH

CHAPTER NINE: PRESCRIBED LIVING

THE screams were the only thing Violet heard in the first hour.

At first, she had lunged forward out of her seat to try and go to Margo, but to her dismay, the man beside her had pulled her back refusing to let her pass through the doors she'd been told led to the operating room.

Two hours later, she would be shaken awake by the same man, he held his hand out to her a small smile on his face, "she's in recovery, but they say you can come see her." Violet had launched out of her seat rushing past the man and down the hall before she slowed and turned to wait for him as she had no clue where they'd moved Margo to.

He walked quickly, aware that the child wanted to see the older girl immediately and wouldn't take no for an answer, approaching the door to the girl's room, he carefully twisted the knob and pushed it open taking a small step back when the girl ran past him into the room already at the bedside.

She watched with a fixed gaze as the older girl slept, her eyes closed as her chest slowly rose and sunk with each breath she took, Violet looked back at the man almost tempted to wake Margo, she left her alone and stared at the man for a few moments, "what was wrong with her?" he gestured to her leg.

She regretted not having realized it sooner, she hadn't been dehydrated, or hungry, she'd been sick, and she might still be. When she took note of the fact Margo was sleeping, she sat in the chair beside her bed and quietly watched her while she slept, hopefully, she woke up soon. She didn't like the looks of the place at all, or the people.

It seemed odd, for them to just show up out of nowhere and snatch the two of them up, even if they had helped Margo with her leg. "I'll leave you with her then..." the man trailed off gesturing to the door behind him as he moved to leave, "you want me to ask Marcel to bring y'all something to eat for tomorrow morning?" Violets eyes shot up to meet his gaze, "you have food?" he cocked his head to the side a small smile on his lips as he nodded his head, "yes ma'am we do, plenty enough to give y'all some too." she nodded her head in response, it had been far too long since she'd had a decent meal that didn't consist of spaghetti-os.

"I'd get some sleep if I were ya, big day tomorrow. Gonna run some tests on your girl and try to get her walking." Violet gave a small nod turning back to look at Margo, she looked so peaceful sleeping, as if she'd never met the world they lived in now, as if everything were normal and she was safe and unharmed.

Violet could only dream of days like that.

She hadn't had as many as the older girl, and until she woke up, she couldn't hear any of the stories from before that she was sure the girl had stored away in her head.

Maybe she could tell her about the man she'd spoken of, what was his name? Michael? Mike?

No, she remembered, it was Mitch.

She wondered what he was like. Despite having been Margo's partner at some point, she hoped for the girl's sake that him being the person she had described to her, that he had made it through the end. That he was still alive and roaming the Earth looking for her.

Drifting off to this thought, Violet rested her head against the arm of the chair her eyes closing at the sight of Margo safe and sound in the hospital bed.

When she awoke, Margo was turned in the opposite direction, her fingers clutching the edge of the pillow as she slept, her soft snores were the first thing the small girl heard when her eyes opened. Sitting up in the chair, she glanced in the direction of the door her eyes stopping at the countertop when she saw the small tray of food settled on top.

Her eyes widened as she crossed the room and padded across the floor to check out what lay in wait for her. On the tray, sat two sandwiches, a bottle of water and a juice box she had to assume was for herself. She smiled at it, even if she did claim she wasn't a child, it was a nice touch she hadn't expected.

Some times, when she was alone before Margo, she had wished she could be treated like a child again, it would mean her parents were still around, and they were all happy and safe.

But with her fathers death burning holes in her heart, she realized that wasn't going to be possible, maybe that was why she had latched onto Margo so tightly.

She was like a sister- no a mother, in ways she couldn't exactly explain.

Like her mother, she was sick. Fate seemed to have some luck stored away for the girl, having already taken away both parents, it didn't seem to want to take another from her. In more ways than one, it seemed she'd been blessed.

Violet picked up one of the sandwiches, testing it's weight in her hand, it was too good to be real. She brought the delicacy to her mouth and tore into it, excitement shot all throughout her body at the sign of food, the nutrients in it would help replenish those she'd lost in the last few days, but when she turned around to look at Margo, she felt almost nauseous.

She knew the girl would need as much as she could get, but she also knew Margo would insist she eat it, so instead, she compromised.

Quickly crossing the room, she pulled open the door and peeked out hoping to see the man from the night before, when she saw him at the small desk flipping through a magazine with a woman on the front she felt herself smile just the tiniest bit.

"Mister!" she called out carefully stepping away from the door in hopes of not waking Margo up, she cracked the door closed behind her and approached the desk with her sanwich in hand, "hey!" she called out again her voice soft over the mechanical humming of the lights overhead, the man set his magazine down and met her gaze- her eyes just barely poking out over the top of the desk- "hey kiddo, what's goin' on? Your girl awake yet?" he glanced past her hoping to see the girl peeking out from by the door; she wasn't.

Violet shook her head, "I know it's a bit greedy, but do you think I could get another sandwich, for her?" the man watched her with careful eyes before smiling down at her, "why of course, I was hoping you'd say something, I figured a sandwich for each of you wouldn't fill y'all." he stood from his seat and walked around the length of the desk before gesturing for Violet to follow him.

She did. As they walked, she slowly nibbled on her sanwich hoping to make it last longer, she didn't know how much food they would be given or how much they were going to be allowed to have, but she didn't plan on wasting a bit of it. He led her into a small storage room boxes lining three of the four walls, on the fourth wall, two fridges sat side by side powered by something Violet couldn't see upon first glance.

"You want me to make another like the one you got there?" she looked down at the sandwich before giving a small nod, he moved to the fridge carefully opening it and sorting through a few things before he pulled out what he would need, Violet watched from the doorway unsure of if she wanted to enter the room or not, it seemed far more eerie than she was okay with.

But she remained polite, mainly because they were guests and she had no idea what they were capable of, but more so because it was the right thing to do and they'd shown nothing but hospitality and generosity since the pair had arrived.

After a few minutes, the man turned to Violet and held the breaded structure out to her, "there ya go." he smiled, she returned the smile quietly crossing the room to take the sandwich from him, "you come out when your girl wakes up, alright?" she nodded her head, it was the least she could do after everything.

"I'll take you back to the room so you can wait for her, eat up and rest some." turning away, he began to put the items back in their places before escorting the small child out of the room and down the hall to the room Margo was still occupying, before he closed the door, he watched her with a quiet stare before taking his leave out into the hallway.

Violet set the sanwich down on the tray- she'd left it on the counter with the rest of the items- before retreating to her chair beside Margo, she leaned forward on her elbows taking another bite of her food, it felt new on her tongue, telling her it had been too long since she'd had something like it. It wasn't until another hour had passed that Margos eyes slowly flickered open, she didn't move for several moments until she heard the sound of a chair scraping and turned to try and find the source of said sound.

That was when she saw Violet.

The girl sat in her chair wide eyed watching as Margo met her gaze before a smile lit her lips.

She smiled back pain crawling in at the edge of her expression, "hey." she spoke her voice low and raspy from the lack of water in the past few hours, "hi." Violet whispered back, turning onto her side Margo faced the girl, she couldn't think of how long she'd been out but the last thing she could remember was the sound of gunshots.

That was it.

"Are you hungry?" the child questioned moving to climb out of her seat, Margo shrugged her shoulders, "I could really go for some water actually." she spoke, Violet smiled, it was ironic, only a dozen hours ago she'd refused any water and now here she was suggesting she wanted to drink some. Instead of saying she should have listened to her from the start, Violet made her way to the counter and grabbed the bottle of water twisting the cap off as she approached the white hospital bed.

Setting it down on the bedside table, Violet reached forward offering to try and help the girl sit up, as she'd done the day prior, she held out her hand to keep the girl at bay carefully scooting herself so she could drink the water without spilling it all over herself.

The small blonde handed her the plastic bottle and watched as she brought it to her lips, it seemed normal, almost as if they were just recovering from a small accident on the road and would be able to go home in a day or two.

Except for the fact it hadn't been an accident and they had no home to go to.

Margo took a long sip a few dribbles of water running down her chin and she drank the water, it felt nice on her dry tongue, refreshing even. After a few more seconds, she lowered the bottle and held out her hand for the cap, when Violet withheld it from her, she handed the girl the bottle and watched as she screwed the cap back into place and set it on the small table.

"If you're hungry, they brought us some food earlier, I'd eat it if I were you, they said they had to run some tests soon." the girl slowly nodded letting her hands rest in her lap as Violet retrieved the tray, when she returned she watched as Margo gestured for her to set it across her legs. Reluctantly, the girl did so before reaching for her juice box and returning to her seat.

"Once you're done I have to tell the guy outside you're up."

TORN FLESH

CHAPTER NINE: PRESCRIBED LIVING