Lost

Two weeks after the incident, Kean was receiving treatments at a hospital in Tampa. He had been responding well to his treatments.

He regained his consciousness for the first time in two weeks, his vision was blurry as he sat up holding his head wrapped in bandages. He begins to develop painful flashbacks, remembering the night of the accident.

"Ugh! Where am I?" He said as he looked around the room.

"A hospital?" He said to himself, he soon realized what had happened the night before he passed out.

"Mom! Dad! Shit! Ugh I have to go and find them quickly" he said removing the cannula on his wrist.

"Woah woah woah, where you off to?" a man said stepping into the room.

The man walks in with a flower bouquet in his hand, he was a tall man with a light tone, he looked like he was already in his late 30s. He happens to be Chief Officer at the scene where the accident took place.

"Who are you?" Kean asked.

"My name is Vince Derek, I am the chief of police" he said as he laid down the bouquet on the table close to the window.

"I don't have time to answer any questions right now, I need to find my parents, they're missing" Kean replied

"Missing? Uhm how do I put this uh" the officer sighed.

"Your mom and dad aren't missing as you said kid, they're dead." He said

Kean's eyes opened wide in disbelief, "That's a lie'" he yelled. He stands up to leave but is held back by the man.

"You're lying! That's not true, they're not dead!" he breaks out crying.

"Kid listen, we found you unconscious downtown, you were lucky to have gotten out of the car before it went up in flames. Asides you, there were no other survivors, your mom and dad are dead" Officer Vince said as he shook his head.

Kean struggles to free himself from the man's grip

"Calm down! I know this is hard for you but you have to calm down okay" Vince said while still holding Kean's arm.

"You don't know anything about me! Stop trying to get in my way, it's my fault, I need to go and look for them please!" Kean yelled.

He kept on crying, Vince pulled him close as he embraced him. He was sentimental about the child's loss.

"I'm sorry for your loss, but you have to accept it as your fate and move on. You just have to" Vince concluded as he let go of Kean.

"Do you have any other relations? Aunt? Grandma? Cousin?" Vince asked.

Kean looked down as he shook his head, "No, I don't," he said.

"Where do you live? I'm guessing you're not from around here?" Vince asked, placing his hand on Kean's shoulder.

"Monroe, North Carolina" Kean replied

Staring down at Kean, the Chief felt pity for him as he reminded him of his younger self. Vince was a lone wolf growing up, with barely any relations besides his mum.

He saw himself in Kean's eyes and made up his mind to take him in but he wasn't sure how Kean would take the idea.

"Well, I can't leave you here knowing that no one would come for you."

"Yeah, well, I can as well die along with my parents", said Kean in a bitter tone.

"Don't say that. Listen, how about you come live with me, it is my responsibility as an officer to keep you safe after all."

Kean stared at Vince in utter disbelief and scoffed, "what? live with you? Yeah, no thanks, I'll pass"

Vince was starting to get fed up with Kean's nasty behavior and in a strict tone he said, "look here, I understand your grief and I am truly sorry for your loss but I will not let you speak to me in that manner. The hospital says you can be discharged later today, and so I'm going to leave you now and attend to a few duties. When I get back, I trust you must have made up your mind and be ready to go home with me while we explore other options. I'll be back by evening and get your act together before then, are we clear?"

Kean nodded his head stiffly, trying to keep a leash on his tongue as the Chief's tone as rightly put him in his place.

A few minutes after Vince left, Kean was contemplating escaping from the hospital. He hated the idea of having to go home with someone else who's not his parents, let alone, a police officer.

Scanning his room for any available escape routes, he spots a window at the far end of the room and says to himself, "ah, bingo!"

Carefully lifting off his blanket and getting off the bed, he quietly walks to the window and takes a look down. Luckily it wasn't a long way down and he could easily jump without sustaining any more injuries.

Preparing himself for the jump, Kean takes a deep breath, and climbs over the window sill and counting one to three, he jumps and lands on the floor with his back.

Groaning in pain, Kean takes a quick look at his surroundings and notices that he was in a car park.

Dusting himself up and taking a few steps forward, Kean starts to feel lightheaded and nauseous. The fall had affected him as he had not fully recovered yet.

Losing his balance, Kean was about to fall to the floor yet again, but was confused for a second when his body failed to touch the ground.

"Woahhh, easy there".

It was the calmest voice Kean had ever heard. He tried to lift his head to get a proper view of the person that caught him, but he lost consciousness.

The girl quickly rushed him back into the hospital and narrated the whole incident to the nurses at the reception.

The nurses recognized Kean as the accident survivor that had been brought in a few weeks earlier and checked him back in while placing a call to the chief to inform him of what happened.

On hearing what had happened, the Chief rushed down to the hospital and went straight to see Kean.

He met him lying awake with a sober look on his face.

"Hey, I heard about what happened? Why did you do it? You know something really bad could have happened to you right?"

"I know, I'm sorry and you're right. I thought about everything you said before and I know now that I have no other choice than to stay with you. I literally have no one else."

"Well, I'm glad you changed your mind, I'll go sign some papers for your discharge then we can go, okay?"

"Okay".

Kean heaves a sigh of relief and relaxes into his bed, with the thought of the girl that saved him earlier still lingering on his mind.