The Loyal Alone

Chapter Seven

The 'hospital' my dad is being kept at for observation, is apparently just the doctor's home, but with medical offices. I guess the doctors are married? I don't know.

We don't enter through the front door, instead there is a side door to the house that leads directly to the medical offices. The side door opens to a sitting room, with a desk and several file cabinets along the back wall. There are two chairs in front of the desk that look large and comfy, and on the far wall there is a door that opens to private rooms for 'treatment'. Along that wall, there is a bench. The room is mostly white, very straight forward. There is a large picture of mountains over the bench and light green curtains covering a small window next to the entrance.

My dad is being kept in that small back room hooked up with medical gear. When we open the door to the home and walk in, I expected to hear him asking for me, but it was almost dead silent, and the voice in my head told me to turn and run now. All I could hear was breathing. My own being the loudest. My first thought was that this wasn't a hospital, this was a cage, or a torture chamber. My only saving grace is my father's smell, over powering and tinged with fear, and medicine.

With his scent in mind. I move forward.

We walked through the doctor's office, and into the small back room which had two beds. The one on the right was empty. The one on my left contained my father. He was sleeping. Connected to his arms were several tubes that glistened with clear liquid. His clothes were removed, and a blanket placed over his bottom half as a courtesy. The rest of him was naked, aside from the bandages which where slowly sopping up his blood. His arm and leg were bandaged, his leg had a stint to help keep it up and make sure it healed right, but through the stint, you could see the red bandages, I felt they would spill over at any moment.

"Is he sleeping?" I need someone to tell me he is just sleeping. Alive, but sleeping.

"He was very animated this morning when he woke up. Evelyn thought it'd be best to mention that you were here, to help calm his nerves. But instead it sent him into a frenzy and we had to sedate him, again." Ulric says quietly. "He is in good hands here. Greg has been watching him carefully the last few hours he's been here."

I just nod. I can't take my eyes away from him. There were wounds which were obviously from the bear trap, like the arm and the leg, but his top half was uncovered and there were long claw marks across his chest, ripping from his shoulder blade to just below his ribs. There were bite marks in his shoulder too. Each a reminder of his heroism and courage while protecting me.

I walked forward. There was no chair to sit in next to his bed, so I just stood. I pushed his curly hair back and noticed how greasy and unkept it was. But it was always greasy, even when I was a kid, he used to slick his hair back with oils when we had a home, and room for nonessentials. I felt sad for him. I felt lonely. It didn't seem like my father, not the one I knew today; because he didn't have that slight lingering smell of whiskey as he breathed. Instead it seemed like he was an old version. As if a few years had passed for me, but he stayed back in the past. It felt isolating. It had to be him though...

I ran my fingers down the long scratches on his shoulders. I felt as though they should be healing by now. They were rough with knobby scarlet scabs, and swollen, tinged yellow, nearly puss-ing over. I placed my hand on my own side, my ribs were sore, my skin was definitely scrapped, but I'd healed in perfect time. This morning there was barely a scab, it was mostly a bruise.

"Why isn't he healing?"

"Wolfsbane," says Ulric.

"Huh?"

"Wolfsbane. Whoever your father was fighting had claws coated in Wolfsbane. It seeps into the wounds and makes them heal slower. The bear traps were coated too. But these men, they were careful to keep these traps just outside of my boarder. It seems clear that they didn't want to capture any of us. They probably just wanted you. They knew they were hunting for other wolves."