Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Autumn Falls ❯ A Mother's Nightmare ( Chapter 2 )

Footsteps could be heard walking into the room and Hayashi Mayumi knew it was her youngest daughter. She hated how she would beg to sleep in either hers or her oldest daughter bed. (Who would comment that Himeko sounded like a dog begging like she did.) She would hope that the girl would grow out of it by the time she was no more than 8. But here she was, 10 years old and still doing it.

“Mommy, can I sleep in your bed tonight?” Came the usual question. With a sigh, Mayumi turned on the light and looked at the clock, which read 1:45 am., then looked at her daughter. She was clutching a small brown bear (Who she called Mr. Bear) with one arm and playing with the hem of her shirt with the other.

Where Mayumi noticed a dark bruise on her daughter.

Without warning, the mother pulled Himeko close to her and looked at the bruise more closely. It looked like someone punched her hard and it looked like it had been there for a while. “Where did you get this?” She demanded

“I don't know.” Came the soft reply.

“You don't know? How could you not know? You had to get it from somewhere! Now where the hell did you get this damned bruise?”

“I don't know.” She repeated softly. “Can I sleep in your bed?”

Mayumi took a couple of deep breaths. She was tired of her daughter always asking for thing and depending on her. But that was going to stop.

Right now, starting tonight.

She picked up her daughter and carried her to her room, ignoring her screams, cries and protests. But she did give her a quick slap, warning her not to wake the other two.

But Himeko didn't listen. She never did.

She placed the 10-year-old in her bed. “If you can't tell me where you got that, you can't sleep in my room. Don't even think about going into your sister's room either.” With that she closed the door, blocking out Himeko cries that she was sorry. She wasn't in the mood to here it.

Sunday morning were the usual in the Hayashi household. The two youngest would get up and watch early morning cartoons, while her oldest daughter went to hang out with friends, while she slept in.

When she was woken up, something was wrong.

Like today.

It was her son, Shigekazu (she hated her husband for giving him that long name; he was usual called 'Shige' short) woke her up. He said that it was something wrong with Himeko.

Mayumi wasn't that worried, it was most likely a cold she come down with. (Not matter what she did, her room was always frightfully cold.)

But when she did go in Himeko's room, she saw what was wrong.

It looked like someone came in and beat up Himeko. Her left eye was swollen shut, while her right was blackened. She had cuts up and down her face and arms and her bottom lip was also swollen.

To make things worse, the young child was sweating and was shaking like mad. She was also muttering incoherently and it was hard it know what she was talking about. She also was breathing fast and her face was flushed.

For once, Mayumi was frighten for her daughter's life. She turned to her son. “Where your sister?” She asked him, scooping up her daughter and getting herself ready.

“She left.” Mayumi put a light jacket, telling Shigekazu to do the same.

“Where?” He did as he was told running up to the doorway to put on his shoes.

“I don't know, she didn't say.” Mayumi put on her shoes and the two walked outside to the car.

“I'm sure she has her cellphone, so we won't have to worry.” She placed Himeko in the front seat, while Shigekazu got in the back seat. “For now, we'll just worry about Himeko.”

When they arrived at the hospital, Mayumi when to take her daughter out the car, Himeko suddenly started to scream loudly, kicking wildly and tried to pull herself out of her mother's arms. Luckily, there was a nurse nearby, who heaped take Himeko inside.

There were many times where Mayumi had to worry about her children: When her oldest daughter was born two mouths early; when Shigekazu had broken his arm; the day Himeko had fallen down the stairs and had injured her head

But this had to top them all. This was a situation where Mayumi didn't know the outcome. And she was scared.

After calling her daughter and telling her where they were, Mayumi waited for the doctor. Shigekazu occupied himself by looking at the various fish in the fishtanks and counting how many he saw.

After what seemed like forever, Mayumi finally saw the doctor who looked at Himeko. “How is she?” She asked, almost expecting to hear the worst.

“She's fine. She had what's called a panic attack.” The doctor explained.

“That would be..” The mother trailed off.

“It's where you have a intense period of fear. All the symptoms were what you saw when you brought her in. Whatever scared her, it frighted her enough. What about a phobia? Is she afraid of anything?”

“The dark, I think. This isn't life-threating, is it?” Mayumi felt her heart beat race a lot faster.

“No, I'm not, if it's under control.. If you want to see your daughter, you can. She resting right now.” He show the worried mother to Himeko's room, where the young girl was sleeping soundly, a I.V. hooked up to her. While Shigekazu walked to his sister's bed, the doctor talked to Mayumi some more.

“There are a couple of things that worried me. One of them were the number of bruises on her body.” He started. Mayumi paled; she was afraid of this.

“I don't know how she got those. She never tells me. You don't think I did it, do you?”

“I'm sorry, Ma'am, but we do have to eliminate suspects. What about her father?”

“No. We divorced ages ago. He's never been in contact with the kids since we separated.”

The doctor wrote something down on his clipboard. “If you don't mind, we want to keep her overnight. Run a few tests.”

“Sure. I'll glad for your help.” Mayumi bowed politely and the doctor left. She sat down at her daughter's bed, stroking Himeko's brown hair; something she inhered from her father.

“Hime-chan,” She whispered, calling her by her nickname; she hadn't done that in a long time. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.“

She sighed. “If only you'll tell me what's wrong.”