CHAPTER EIGHT

AMY'S POV

Was this what hell was? I had not done anything that would warrant me going to hell. I had encountered one or two religious humans who had preached heaven and hell.

In a way, I could relate to them because I also believed in the Moon Goddess, and I feared the punishment of being on her bad side.

I tried to at least move a finger, but the movement made pain run through my whole body. Maybe I wasn't in hell, but I was certainly close.

I fell asleep again at some point, and I woke up to bright light and a room. I groaned and shut my eyes immediately. I heard movement around me, but I wasn't reckless enough to see who it was.

I heard the door open and multiple footsteps come in. I felt someone come up beside me, opening my eyes again. I realized it was a doctor. The first thing she did was order one of the nurses to change the bandage around my eyes. There was no feeling in it, so I wondered why it was being bandaged.

"Miss, can you hear me?" A kind woman with kind eyes leaned over me so she was looking down directly at me. I nodded weakly, and she sighed in relief. "Do you remember how you got here?" I shook my head, and she didn't look too worried about it.

"Given the extent of your trauma, I would expect that." She said and scribbled something in her note. "I'll let your friend fill you in on what brought you here."

Maddy was my only friend, and the thought of her being here with me made me feel relieved. It was comforting that I hadn't gone through whatever I did alone.

"Just ring a bell if you need anything." The doctor said and left. I saw Maddy then, and she burst into tears.

"Goddess, Amy. This is all my fault." She burst into tears, and I wondered if I looked as horrible as I felt, seeing as my appearance was enough to reduce her to tears. "I should have insisted that you stay with me."

"Maddy." I croaked and cursed myself for the action that instantly sent me into a coughing fit. She brought a glass of water to my lips and helped me sit up against the pillows. "Please, stop crying. Tell me what happened."

"You were in a hit and run." She said. "You were bleeding out on the floor when a good Samaritan rushed you here. I was only contacted after you were brought here."

"Goddess," it was then that it all came back to me. My baby. "Maddy, what happened to my baby? Maddy, what happened to my baby? What did they do to her?" I felt my stomach, and it was as still. There was no longer any sign of life in my belly. I just knew it.

"Amy, you need to calm down." She shushed, but I was past caring. I couldn't care less that I was causing a ruckus. I just wanted someone to tell me what was going on.

"I'm not calming down." I yelled at the top of my voice, not caring about my throat, my throbbing forehead, and my now aching eye. I just wanted someone to fix my baby.

In my hysteria, Maddy must have gone to call the doctor because a few minutes later, I felt the pinch of a syringe, and the fight slowly bled out of me until I was pulled under again.

This time, when I woke up again, it was to the doctor. I couldn't see her, but she said so herself.

"I'm sorry, Miss Amy. I shouldn’t have trusted your friend to do this to you. Are you ready to hear your diagnosis?" I nodded weakly, the fight in me had been replaced by a big hole.

"Yes, please."

"You were in a hit-and-run accident that made you hit your head. The injury to your head caused the other extended injury. It led to your miscarriage, and we don't know for sure yet until you've recovered, but your right eye isn’t as strong as it should be." Now that explained the bandage and the ache in my eye.

"Thank you, doctor." When she was satisfied that I wouldn't throw another tantrum, she changed my drip and promised to be back. Maddy was sympathetic and was trying her best to be supportive.

"You can go back to work now, Maddy. I shouldn't keep you any longer."

"Nonsense, I'm not leaving you alone in this state."

"I'm not going to kill myself, if that's what you're worried about." I said dryly as a way to break the tension, but it didn't work as I hoped.

"That's not funny, Amy."

"I know," I sighed. "I'm sorry."

The doctor ended up keeping me under close observation for another three days,which left Maddy no other choice than to go back to work. When I worried that I wouldn't be able to pay what I was sure would be an expensive health care f*e, one of the nurses assured me that it was already taken care of.

I was ashamed because I knew Maddy would have to touch her savings to pay for my hospital bills, and I had no way of repaying her.

By the time I was getting discharged, it was clear that my right eye would no longer work like it used to. I tried not to let it bother me and cheered myself up with the fact that I still had my left eye. The doctor recommended a quick but expensive surgery that would clear it all up, but I refused. Maddy would feel compelled to pay, and I couldn’t let her spend another of her savings on me, so we settled for getting me a cane to help me walk well.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay with me?" Maddy begged, but I was done being a burden on her. It was bad enough that she had to spend most of her savings on me, I wouldn't allow her to take care of me post-hospital. Maddy didn't say one word about paying my fees, but it still made me ashamed.

"You've done more than enough, Mads. You know this."

"I'm worried about your mother."

"If this was her fault, I would be worried too but she had nothing to do with it so I should be fine. I just need to recuperate." Seeing that I had already made up my mind, she didn't argue further but she insisted on coming home with me.

When she dropped me off, there was a sack of grocery and I know it was from her. I wondered how I was ever going to repay her.

My mother wasn't around, and by the state of the house, she hasn't been for a few days. I did my best to keep the house as tidy as possible with my cane. I cooked and ate so I could use my medications.

She came home later that night and ate the food I made without caring where it even came from, something that pissed me off to no end. But I let it go. I had to keep the peace for a while.