Always and Forever (Part 1)

Prologue

There was a buzz of excitement, people with blurred faces rushing around her, walls zooming past at a phenomenal speed. She turned suddenly to the left. The doors were closed behind her. For a few seconds, quiet, then the talking began. Voices she didn't recognise.

"Chloe Springer, aged nine, no family history of any life threatening diseases. Serious head injuries, fractured arm, several broken ribs, and bruising on the chest. Her parents have been called and should be arriving soon..." a female voice spoke, formally, seriously.

Chloe had no time to think before she slipped into unconsciousness on the bed, and heard no more.

Chapter 1

Linda walked into the hospital, her eyes dry. She didn't know what to expect. Had Tony reached the hospital before her? She didn't know. She'd find out. She held her head high as she walked quickly yet nervously into the waiting room. Someone stood up to greet her. Tony. She flew into his arms.

"How is she?" Linda asked her husband.

"Not good. She's unconscious, and she has serious head injuries. They think she'll have brain damage, when she wakes up."

Linda searched her husband's eyes for any sign of a joke. No, her husband wasn't like that. Her baby, her little Chloe, in hospital. It was too much to believe.

They were interrupted by a voice. "Mr and Mrs Springer?"

Linda and Tony swung round to look at the doctor behind them. "Yes?" Tony asked him.

"Would you like to come this way, please?" It was more of an instruction than a question. Obediently, Linda and Tony followed him through onto a corridor. He stopped abruptly, and turned around to face them.

"Chloe.." he began in a low voice, so as not to disturb anyone who may be in adjacent rooms.

"How is she doctor?" Tony enquired. "Has she woken up yet?"

The doctor frowned. "No. She's not good, I'm afraid. I believe you were told that she would most probably have brain damage when she awoke. Well, it's now a case of 'if'."

Linda gasped. "What are you saying, doctor?"

"I'm saying she's in a coma. Chloe may not wake up. And if she does, brain damage is probable."

Tony said nothing. His grey eyes were creasing into an unhappy frown, looking into his wife's eyes. She was crying. There was no change for the better. No change. It looked as though their only daughter would die before her tenth birthday.

Chapter 2

"Hello Chloe," a voice said, one that sounded tearful and pained. "How are you doing? Did you have a good birthday? I hope you liked the look of your cake..." The voice broke off suddenly, and the person stifled a sob. It was Chloe's mother. "Your friend Melanie asked about you again yesterday. I told her that you were the same. She says she's going to come and visit you tomorrow. You'll enjoy that. You can listen to her telling you about all the school work she's been doing that you've been missing out on. Have you seen all the cards everyone's got for you? You've got at least thirty! Well, darling, I'd better go now. Your father will wonder where I've got to."

Chloe laid and listened to this, and tried to move her hand. She couldn't. She was a living vegetable.

"I'm going now, Chloe, but your father is coming to visit you in about two hours, and then tomorrow, Melanie is coming. Bye, sweetie."

Silence. Chloe didn't like silence. It was spooky.

Chapter 3

Linda sat on the sofa in her comfortable home. Tony sat beside her, his arm lovingly placed around his wife's shoulders. Strong comforting arms.

"Tony?" She said, looking round into his eyes. "I feel as though I'm forgetting about Chloe. What she was like, how she acted, how she looked when she was so alive. I know that she is still alive, but it seems as though she's dead... Tony, I miss Chloe so much. It's hard to believe she's now fourteen! Five years, Tony. Five years!" Linda covered her eyes with her hands, tears seeping through the gaps. Linda was wrapped in supportive arms, as she cried for the loss of her daughter's childhood.

"She'll be alright, darling. She'll be fine." Tony said, not believing his own words.

Linda twisted her head around to look into her husband's eyes "How can you say that, Tony? She's been in a coma, a coma, for five years! Five whole years of vital education down the drain!" Linda got up, and walked to the door leading to the hall way, and stopped. She looked around at Tony, who was looking after her with sad eyes. She spun round, and walked out of the door, hiding her emotions of sadness as anger.

Tony stared after his wife sadly, knowing his wife was not angry, just unhappy that her daughter was in a coma, after such a stupid accident, which now made it seem to the Springers that it had been done on purpose to hurt their baby. Their only child, now a teenager.

Chapter 4

Chloe lay in her hospital bed, unable to move, listening, thinking, but only able to breathe with the help of the huge frightening machines behind her. She was fourteen, but Chloe only knew that because the nurses and doctors kept telling her, as well as her parents. No-one else came and visited her. Melanie stopped coming altogether a few years ago, shortly after her parents started saying she was eleven. Her best friend's visits became less and less frequent, and then they stopped. She had lost her friend, who moved on without her. She was friendless. The only love she was getting was from her parents, who she no longer actually knew. She could hear the aching in their voices; she knew they must love her, although she couldn't remember them or their names.

She kept slipping in and out of consciousness, and would wake up sometimes to silence, sometimes to the friendly chatter of nurses discussing the weather over her head, sometimes to the soulful aching of her parents voices. She wasn't sure what was better. Unconsciousness, or being a pair of ears and nothing else. She couldn't open her eyes to see. They were too heavy, like lead, even when she was wide awake.

Chloe couldn't remember how old she was when she came into the hospital. She could hardly remember how to think..

Always and Forever (Part Two)
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