Chapter Fifteen - Minerva

I run out of the café and race to the truck. I climb in and start crying, horrible, gut-wrenching sobs. I hear the door open and jump before I look over and see that it is Nick. He sits quietly next to me while I sob.

“She’s a strong girl,” Nick says when I finally settle down and stop crying. “She’ll make it.”

“I know she’s strong but I can’t help worrying.” I tell him looking at him. “I am scared for her. She’s my little sister, Nick, I don’t know what I did without her.”

“I don’t either,” Nick says. “She’s special. May I ask what happened to Marina?”

“She was hit. The second gunshot that went off, hit Marina. She spooked, when she got hit and that’s why she ran. When my parents got to her, she lost a fair bit of blood. The wound was to her abdomen, the bullet shredded her colon. There was nothing the vet could do to save her, she had to be put down,” I say with tears in my eyes. “My sister loved her, she’ll be crushed, when she hears about this. If she hears about it.”

Nick grabs my arm and turns me so that I am facing him, he gives me a shake. “Minerva, we have to think positive about this, she will wake up. She’s strong enough to survive this.”

I open my mouth to say something, but when I can’t think of anything, I close it and just nod. I stare down at my hand for a moment, I am just about to ask if he wants to go back to the hospital, when my phone rings. I rummage around in my pocket, finally pull it out after the second ring. I quickly check the number and see that it is my mum.

“Have you heard anything?” I ask before she can say anything, anxious to know how my sister is.

“She’s out of surgery, the doctors are certain she’ll make a full recovery, but she’s in a coma at the moment,” she tells me sounding less anxious than she did before.

“Okay, we’re on our way back now,” I tell her before hanging the phone up. I quickly start the truck and pull out into traffic and head back to the hospital.

“What happened?” Nick asks trying not to get upset.

“She’s fine, the doctors say she’s going to make a full recovery, but she is in a coma at the moment,” I tell him with a smile. “You were right she is a strong girl. I’ve always known that she is strong but I didn’t know just how strong until today.”

I pull into the parking lot and we both get out. We race to the emergency room where my dad is waiting on us. He indicates for us to follow him and he quietly leads us to the top floor of the hospital to the Intensive Care Unit. Dad talks to someone through an intercom and we are buzzed into the unit. Her room is right next to the nurses’ station. I race to her bedside and am glad that she is neatly tucked into the bed and that someone has neatly placed her stock tie pin on her bedside table. I walk over and stand next to my mum while my dad grabs my mum’s hand to comfort her.

“She looks so pale,” I say looking at her face.

I take a better look at her and notice that she has an IV in her arm and that they have set up a heart monitor on her. Seeing my sister like that in a hospital bed, laying so still, hooked up to so many things upsets me. I spin around and race out of the unit with tears streaming down my face. Once I am outside the unit, I collapse on my knees and burst into horrible sobs. I hear the door open behind me, but I can’t gather the energy to look to see who it is. I feel a hand on my back and know that is my father.

“Sweetheart, are you okay?” He asks me, gently rubbing my back.

I shake my head and he pulls me into his lap like a small child and rocks me while I try to calm down. It takes me a while to calm down and we just sit there holding each other leaving each other to our thoughts.

“Did you get him?” Dad finally asks after I’ve been settled for a couple of minutes.

“They got him, but Dad I think he’s a psychopath. He showed no remorse, no regret. Nothing. He said he did it show her a lesson. My sister is laying in that bed and he has no remorse for what he did,” I tell him quietly knowing that he should know what happened and needing to get it off my chest.

He is just about to respond, when Maggie comes out looking for us. She has stayed quiet for most of the day. She is generally an energetic, happy girl but she has barely said anything all day.