Chapter Three

It was several hours later when Howie opened his eyes again. For a moment he had no idea where he was or why, but then last nights events came back to him and he groaned when he remembered how he had been on his way home and then got involved in something that most of all reminded him of a bad movie. Exactly what he had been dragged in to he still didn’t know. He shifted in the uncomfortable chair he had fallen asleep in and glanced to the side. Kelsey was also awake now and their eyes met.

"So finally does the mysterious man who saved my life wake up," she spoke softly. Her cheeks had regained their color and she looked much better now. Tired but better.

"Hi Kelsey... I’m glad to see you’re feeling better" Howie smiled at her, but immediately she got all on edge.

"How did you know my name?" she asked suspiciously

"I... Well, the nurse told me" Howie stuttered, taken aback by her reaction, and she relaxed a bit.

"Oh, of course" she said, more to herself then to him. "Who are you then?"

"I’m Howard Dorough, but you can call me Howie" Howie introduced himself and she nodded. For a moment there was an awkward silence in the little hospital room until a nurse came in to the room. It wasn’t the same nurse that Howie had met earlier, this one was younger and she had a permanent smile plastered on her face.

"Good morning you two" she said cheerfully and walked through the room to the window. There she pulled away the curtains and let the morning sun shine in. "There’s a lovely day outside today. It’s only 7:30 in the morning but it’s already warm so I bet it will be really hot later." She blabbed on and then turned to Howie, "I’m afraid I’m gonna have to throw you out for a while so I can check up on our patient," She smiled at Kelsey, "But it will only take a moment, so why don’t you go down to the cafeteria and have some breakfast meanwhile?"

Howie nodded. "Sure, I’ll be back later, ok?" he said to Kelsey and she nodded before Howie got up from the chair and walked stiffly out of the room.

About 20 minutes later Howie decided to walk back to Kelsey. He had followed the advice from the nurse and gone to the cafeteria for breakfast, even though he wasn’t exactly hungry. A cup of black coffee was all he had had. When he came back to Kelsey’s room he saw the door was open so he peeked in. He was surprised to see her busy packing. With the arm that wasn’t hurt she was folding a sweater and putting it down in the backpack she had brought with her.

"Are you leaving already?" he asked and his voice made her jolt and spin around quickly. When she saw him she relaxed once again.

"Oh, it’s you" she mumbled and continued packing. "Yes, I can’t stay here."

Howie was confused. This girl was acting really weird. "You have to talk to the police! Some guy just stabbed you with a knife."

"The police" she snorted. "What can they do? They only make things worse." She closed her backpack and picked it up with a grimace of pain.

"Are you just going to let that guy get away with this?" Howie hesitated. She stared at him blankly for a second.

"That’s none of your business, ok? Thank you for helping me out... Bye!" she said and walked towards the door. Quickly Howie blocked the doorway, refusing to let her pass.

"But how will I know you’ll be all right?"

"I will, ok? Now, get out of my way" she hissed and tried to make her way past him but he stopped her again. Howie wasn’t a big man, he was barely 5 foot and 6 inches but Kelsey was nearly a head shorter so he could easily hold her back.

"Where do you live?" he questioned. She sighed and held up her backpack.

"Here! This is my home!"

"What?" Howie cried.

"You heard me" she muttered. "Geez, what do you want? Just let me go!"

"I don’t know who you are, or what your problem is, but do you really expect me to let you go when I know you don’t even have anywhere to live?" Howie was exasperated by now.

Kelsey shuddered. "It’s not like it’s your problem"

"Ok, here’s the deal, I’m letting you go on one condition. You’ll stay at my place at least until your shoulder is better, ok?" The words almost shocked Howie himself as much as they shocked her. One part of his mind told him he was crazy for asking her to live with him. What did he know? She could might as well be a psycho who killed people with an axe. But he still knew that there was no way he could live with the knowledge that this girl had no place to go. Kelsey’s eyes widened and she stared at him.

"You’re crazy, you don’t know what you’re getting into" she whispered.

"You’re right, I don’t. So what do you say? Come stay with me for a while."

She considered it quietly for what seemed to be for ages, then a tiny smile crept to her lips. "It’s not like I have a choice, right?"

Howie smiled back at her. "Nope!"

In the shadows of a large oak tree outside the hospital entrance stood a man and observed all the people walking in and out of the big building. A pair of dark shades covered his eyes and his fingers were playing aimlessly with a lighted cigarette. By the look of all the cigarette-ends laying at his feet you could tell he had been standing there for a while. He leaned nonchalantly at the tree-trunk and when his eyes finally saw what he had been waiting for he showed absolutely no reaction at all. A dark-haired, short girl came walking out of the hospital with her one arm and shoulder in a bandage and a backpack on her back. She glanced around her nervously but when she didn’t see anything suspicious she continued walking.

"So, you survived this time as well Kelsey," the man muttered and put the cigarette to his lips. Then he noticed something else too, together with her was a latino-looking guy. They were talking and obviously the guy offered to carry her bag and she handed it to him.

"Oh, and who is your little friend then?" A cruel smile appeared on his face as he watched them. When they had walked away a little bit he took one last breath of his cigarette and dropped it to the ground. He stepped on it before he walked out from the shadow and followed them.