The Forum by Marie Reyes (short books for teens .txt) 📕

rushed off before Martin could get another word in. This was torture. He needed answers, but all he could do was lie here, trapped in this bed.

No one was around. The cannula had been taken out. He could just slip out. No, he couldn't. He was dressed in this stupid, flimsy gown, but he couldn't just lie there doing nothing. Surely If he slinked out of hospital, his treatment wouldn't be covered. Maybe he could find Isabella in the hospital on his own, find out what was going on.

He knew Piper and Kristen wouldn't have just left him there. Someone took them. If he waited, surely the police would have some information for him. They asked him a couple of questions at the scene, but they still weren't here yet for more formal questioning, probably to give him time to recover, but he wanted to speak to them now. They must have talked to Isabella already.

Despite being tired, it didn't hurt too much when he lifted himself up, just a dull ache. These painkillers were good. He swung his feet off the edge of the bed and pressed them against the cold floor, slowly putting his weight on his legs until he was stood up. He didn't feel particularly stable, but he told himself he could do this. Just one foot in front of the other. He didn't make it far before his legs buckled beneath him.

~~~

Martin came to, with a doctor and a nurse over him. "What happened?"

"You tried to get up and walk, that's what happened. You need to rest. You're in pain. Your body is trying to heal. I know you're anxious to find out what happened to your frien—"

"Shh." Martin heard the words, First Choice Insurance from the recovery room television. "Can you turn that up? Please, it's important."

A newsreader stood outside the office he had only been at the day before, and a huge crowd had developed. He had never seen so many emergency vehicles all in one place. A headline scrolled underneath, which he needed to squint to read. Shots fired in the offices of First Choice Insurance. Office workers held hostage.

This was not a coincidence.

Chapter Forty

Four

"STOP!" Kristen yelled at the top of her lungs.

"What!" John took his attention away from terrorizing the employees of Best Choice Insurance.

"You, you are killing innocent people, people in the same position that you are. These people have to put up with everything you have, and you're killing them."

"You don't get it."

"No, you don't get it! So your customers are dicks. People are dicks. Everyone. You, me, them. Everyone has their own shit they are going through. You murdered my father. Do you have any idea what that feels like? Huh? Do you? Talk about Connor being pathetic. You. You! are pathetic. Get over it. Grow up. What the hell is wrong with you?" Every ounce of anger she had clung onto since she had found her father's body came out in one explosion, and she screamed at him with everything she had. He hadn't seemed fazed by anything that had happened so far, until now, and he even took a step back in surprise. The gun waved as he pointed it at her, his arm shaking with rage. "Do it. Go on. You loser! You fucking loser! You took everything from me. You need to know what a pathetic piece of crap you are. Go on. Shoot a poor defenseless girl to make yourself feel better. Either way, you're going to end up in jail where you belong. You can rot there. Or maybe you'll shoot yourself first. I don't think you'd do well in prison."

As his finger went to squeeze the trigger, Piper dived towards him, tackling him by the waist and knocking him to the ground, but it was too late. A shot rang out in the auditorium and the crowd moved, frenzied like a stampede, except there was nowhere for them to run. People knocked each other over, tried to hide behind each other, and pushed each other out of the way in pure chaos.

Piper looked at Kristen. She was fine. No visible gun-shot wounds. Where was the gun? John got up off the floor. Where was the gun? Where the hell was it? John didn't have it. When he got up, he was empty-handed. He ran toward Piper, but he had nothing. But if he had nothing, what was that searing pain? He pulled away, and she stumbled back. Something jutted out of her abdomen and she touched it. The hilt of a blade was sticking out of her. Before John could react, he was surrounded on all sides, being restrained. She heard one more gunshot before everything went black.

~~~

Piper flung her arms out in front of her, protecting herself from whatever was coming her way. "No." There was someone above her. Someone was holding down her arms. She stopped battling against it. She was sick of fighting. She was tired.

The sound of sirens was deafening, and she tried to block it out. All she wanted was peace and quiet. She remembered the last day she had seen her children, before she got that message, and before everything got fucked up beyond recognition. She needed more time in that moment. Her second chance had been so brief, and she had been so quick to fuck it up.

The sirens had stopped now. It was just voices, but she ignored them. She didn't want the noise. When she couldn't will herself back to sleep, she wondered where Martin and Aadesh were. The last time she saw them, Connor had a gun to their heads. For all she knew, they were dead on the floor in that abandoned school. If they were dead, she thought, she would be able to tell somehow. She had a sixth sense about these things. If they