Two

The bowling alley was packed full of teenagers. Five people to a lane. Me and Chelsea went to an empty one in the back corner, soon three other people filed in behind us. Mark, Nathan, and Izzy. I noticed them all from math class. They were a pretty close knit group, always sticking together. Basically the nerdy group. Chelsea sat down to type in the names.

"Whose first?" She asked.

"I'll go!" Izzy chimed.

"Then I will." Chelsea said.

"I guess I can go third." I shrugged.

"Ok. Mark and Nathan?" Chelsea asked.

They both shrugged. So she put Mark down then Nathan goes last.

Izzy was a pretty good bowler. She got three strikes. I got five and Mark and Nathan didn't care for the game so they got gutters almost every time. Chelsea won with a full sheet of strikes and I was second. Afterwards we walked over to the small arcade.

"Dude!" Chelsea smacked my arm. "Isn't that your mom!?" She said pointing to the entrance.

"Oh great. And her psycho boyfriend!"

She grabbed my arm pulling me into a dim lit corner. No good, psycho boy toy spotted me and was approaching.

"You really hurt your mother today!" He said reaching for my arm.

"I said don't touch me!" I jerked away.

He reached out and grabbed my hair pulling me into the back alley.

Chelsea being Chelsea tried to stop him but he ended up pushing her down. He pulled me outside and threw me against the wall and hit me in the stomach repeatedly. There was a guy dressed in all black in the corner smoking, but I can't tell if he's watching with amusement or is getting really pissed. He threw his cigarette down and approached me and the psycho.

"Problem?" He looked to me then Ben.

"Help me, please." I pleaded. Psycho hit me again knocking all my air out.

"No problem. Just teaching a child some manners. Move along." Ben waved him off.

"See, I'm not going anywhere until you let her go and you move along." The stranger leaned against the wall resting his arms across his chest. He looked almost dangerous.

"Look kid, this has nothing to do with you. Now go before I hurt you too!" The psycho spat.

My mother ran into the alley and gasped out at the site. "Ben! Let her go!" She ran over trying to wrench his hands free. "You're hurting her!"

He pushed her away making her land on her back. "Stay down!"

The stranger pulled out a gun and cocked it. He put it up to Bens head. "Let her go, or I'll hurt YOU!" He growled. Bens hands loosened and he backed away with his hands raised. He lifted my mom up and pulled her away down the alley. I fell to my knees feeling weak.

"Hey, you ok?" The stranger asked kneeling down.

"It hurts." I mumbled.

"You need a doctor..." he frowned.

He lifted me up and carried me to a car and sat me inside. I was in too much pain to even ask him any questions. I was also in and out of cautiousness. I only heard bits and pieces of a conversation between him and some other male voice.

"Whose the chic?" The other male asked.

"Someone that was in trouble. I helped her." The stranger sounded annoyed.

"Boss, you can't bring a female to the house. She'll know the truth if you do."

"Don't worry about it. She's not even awake."

I slipped completely  under to the darkness.

I woke up in a bedroom. With bandages around my stomach and cords all over me. A girl was standing over top of me dressed as a doctor. I tried to lift up the best I could.

"Oh good. You're awake. No, don't try to get up." She instructed pushing me back down.

"W-what h-happened?" I felt dizzy. I had and IV in my arm pumping fluids.

"You have internal bleeding. You need surgery." She frowned. "Who did this to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it. I-I-I need rest-" I slipped back into the darkness once more.

I woke again an hour later, maybe two. This time the stranger was talking to the doctor. His face was grim and angry. I tried to listen before they noticed I was awake.

"She has internal bleeding. She needs surgery Bran. She needs it before it's too late." The doctor was frowning.

"I'll call the other doctor. Just do what you can until he gets here."

He walked out of the room. His face was red and his nostrils flaring. The doctor walked back over to me and noticed I was awake.

"Hello again." She smiled. Well at least she tried to.

"Why is everything spinning?"

"Try to stay awake..." the nurse looked sad.

She ran out the door calling for the Bran guy. I'm growing more and more weaker. Not sure how long I have left, I smiled up at the light.

"I'm coming home gramps." I shut my eyes for a second and heard people running into the room. My eyes shot open to see Bran standing over top of me staring at me with a concerned expression on his face. The other doctor must've showed up, as they were setting everything up.

"You doing ok?" He asked.

"Yea. It hurts though..."

"Don't worry, it'll stop soon. These doctors will take care of you until you're better, then you can go home."

I nodded and choked out a "thank you."

He turned and left the room. The doctors loomed over me, hooking me up to more wires and injecting my IV with some type of drug. I blacked out once more. 

When I woke up again the room was empty. No doctors were present. A girl about my age was laying on the couch fast asleep. I tried to call for her but my throat was too dry, I couldn't speak. Pain spread through my body and I winced. The girl still didn't hear me. But Bran walked into the room carrying a trey of food and a bottle water. He sat them on the nightstand. He seen me wincing in pain and called for the lady doctor. Her name's Sue.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

Unable to still speak, I pointed to my stomach. She grabbed a needle and a bottle of medicine. My eyes widened with confusion.

"It's just pain medicine. It may make you sleepy, but you need sleep." She shrugged. She injected it and almost immediately the pain died down. I took a sip of water and felt my throat moistening. I choked out a few words, but I doubt anyone heard me. Bran sat in the chair by the bed.

"Feel better?"

I nodded. "Thank you."

"Wanna tell me your name?" He asked.

"Laura..Laura Jennson."

"Nice to meet you Laura. I'm Bran. So who was the guy in the alley?"

"I don't want to talk about this." A tear fell down my cheek.

He nodded understanding. He threw an ice cube at the girl on the couch. She woke up screaming.

"I'll kill you!"

"Wake up sunshine. I told you to watch her, not sleep."

"Sorry boss. She was out for a while and I'm exhausted." She yawned stretching her arms over her head.

"You're dismissed then."

She nodded and headed for the door.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Her names Sunny. As you can tell, she's always bright." He chuckled. "Here." He handed me the trey with food and propped my pillows up for support. "Eat something."

"Thank you." I dug into some eggs and jello and oh my bacon! "Why are you being so nice to me? You don't even know me." I frowned.

"I think you know who I am." He smirked.

"No.." I shook my head confused.

"Well you'll figure it out. And I don't like people abusing someone else." He got up and went to the door. He turned back and smiled at me then left.