Sunny went through the rest of the day with the letter burning at the back of her mind. She wanted to take off and just blow her schoolwork and practice off. Her parents would lose their minds if the school called to let them know she had skipped out.

She buckled down and put the distraction away as much as possible. She used her free time at lunch to look at any news about Emily's strange case. The general consensus from the cops seemed to be Emily had blown herself up with a bunch of drugs at a party.

Emily's parents said the police were a bunch of no-brain clowns that couldn't figure their way through their own houses in the light of the midday sun. Crossing guards were smarter, and they would rather give badges to three year olds.

The police chief wasn't happy about that, but he had been forced to admit that no one admitted seeing, much less attacking, Emily and leaving her where she was found.

Sunny put her notes away. She locked her bag up in her locker and got through practice. Her coach berated her for her diminished shooting. She took the words in silence. She just didn't care about the game at that moment.

As soon as practice was over, she changed and grabbed her bag from her metal cabinet. Then she ran all the way home, cutting through the shortcut and ignoring if Old Man Rickett came out to try to stop her trespassing. She locked the door behind her as soon as she got home, and ran to her bedroom. She dumped the bag out on the bed and grabbed the letter.

She sat down at her desk and pulled the letter from the envelope. She read the contents twice before placing the paper facedown on her desk next to her keyboard.

Emily wanted her to come to the hospital. She wanted to see Sunny. The words had been opaque, but it sounded like Emily expected trouble and she didn't want anyone to know.

How did she handle this?

Sunny checked the Uber app on her phone. Then she checked the funds on her cash card. She had enough to get across town to Haggerty, and then back. There wouldn't be a lot left over.

She didn't think her parents would approve of the visit.

Emily mentioned the bird, named it Ra. How could she know about that if she had been locked away for a couple of years? What else did she know?

Sunny decided she had to know. She had to have answers to her questions before more animal headed ninjas tried to take someone else.

She would have to call the school to leave a note that she wasn't going in. Then she needed to call Uber. A ride over to talk to Emily, and then ride home before she gathered her assignments to make up the work.

She needed to let her parents know that she was skipping. They wouldn't like it, but they would like even less if the school called to check on her, and they found out she had skipped without telling them.

Sunny went over the plan in her head. The sun faded against her window. A lot depended on what her parents would say. They might not want her talking to Emily.

She had a feeling that she would need to do it. And the letter gave her a noon deadline. After that, Emily hinted she wasn't going to be at Haggerty anymore.

Sunny put aside the thought that her friend was going to pull a Houdini and just escape from the mental hospital. Shouldn't she be able to walk out if she was cured of whatever had landed her in there in the first place?

A thump alerted her that her mom was home. She braced herself for the coming confrontation. She doubted her mom would want her to talk to someone locked up for their own good.

But she had to know what Emily knew.

She left her bedroom and went downstairs. Her mom had already took off her jacket, placed her keys and watch in a glass bowl on a shelf by the door. She kicked off her shoes under the shelf.

“Hello, Sunny,” said Mrs. Sparks. She smiled at her daughter. She looked like an older version of the girl with the same shade of blond hair, and blue eyes. She had a few more lines on her face, and a small scar on her hand from a dog bite when she was a girl. “How was school?”

“I need to ask a favor, Mom,” said Sunny. Now that she was engaged, she couldn't think of a reasonable explanation to obfuscate her reasoning so her mom wouldn't ask twenty questions. “I need to skip tomorrow.”

“Really?,” asked Mrs. Sparks. “Why?”

Sunny decided that the truth would just have to do right then, a shaded image of the truth.

“Emily Hyperion sent me a letter, and she wants me to visit her,” said Sunny.

“She wants you to visit tomorrow?,” said Mrs. Sparks. “Isn't Emily in the hospital?”

“Yes,” said Sunny. “She wants me to visit her there.”

“I don't have an objection if your dad doesn't,” said Mrs. Sparks. “I have a couple of meetings in the morning. I can drop you off and pick you up both ways.”

“Thanks, Mom,” said Sunny. “Emily said I can come by in the morning, any time before noon.”

“Probably after the hospital is open for visitors,” said Mrs. Sparks. “Is she okay? It was a shock about what happened.”

“Do you know what happened?,” asked Sunny. She leaned against the wall, arms crossed.

“Just what the news said the police said,” said Mrs. Sparks. She headed to the kitchen. “It seemed ridiculous.”

“Why?,” said Sunny. She followed her mother and sat at the kitchen counter.

“Do you know anything about drugs?,” asked Mrs. Sparks. She started checking what she had in the refrigerator for ingredients to dinner.

“Not really,” said Sunny. “I know people take them to change their emotions. They're addictive so it's hard to quit taking them.”

“The police said that Emily took enough drugs to put her in a coma,” said Mrs. Sparks. She placed some bread on the counter, then some canned chili and a package of hamburger. “But her brain activity and everything seemed perfectly normal like she was asleep.”

“Isn't that what a coma is?,” asked Sunny.

“There's always damage,” said Mrs. Sparks. “I asked for the record from Jamie Hyperion in case we had something to sue over. Emily's brain tissue was fine, blood stream clear, no signs of build up in her system.”

“You're saying the police lied, but there was nothing Emily's parents could do about it,” said Sunny.

“Allegedly lied,” said Mrs. Sparks.

“What would you need to sue over this?,” said Sunny.

“More evidence of wrongdoing, but except for the mistaken press notice, there is nothing to hang on the police department,” said Mrs. Sparks. “Haggerty has been watching Emily this whole time and has reported no change. It seems odd Emily wrote you a letter, but Jamie, or Jill, haven't called us to let us know what's going on.”

“Maybe they don't know yet,” said Sunny.

“What do you mean?,” asked Mrs. Sparks. She broke the hamburger up into a pan and started browning it, slicing it apart with a spatula.

“I don't know,” said Sunny. “The letter made it seem like she asked the hospital to not call them.”

“Really?,” said Mrs. Sparks. “I wonder why. Usually the guardian has to be called when someone wakes up from a coma. An adult would have whomever has their power of attorney, or next of kin. There have been some cases where an adult declared there was no one to notify, but I would think they would have to notify parents that their child has awoken.”

“Should we call them?,” asked Sunny.

“We should wait,” said Mrs. Sparks. “We don't know what is going on, and Emily might not be that coherent in person. She might still be getting tested before she can be released and doesn't want her parents hoping that her recovery is complete before the hospital lets her know.”

“But it's strange?,” asked Sunny.

“I would say extremely strange,” said Mrs. Sparks. “The doctors might have told Emily she only has hours before she slips back into the coma. That would explain why she wouldn't want her parents to know about this.”

“I can see that,” said Sunny.

Did you really want to make your parents suffer because you only had so much time before you slipped away again? Sunny frowned as she decided that she would have done the same thing and keep the knowledge to herself, maybe write a letter to explain things before she was gone.

Parting twice was worse than parting once.

“What do you think about all this?,” asked Mrs. Sparks. She opened the can of chili and mixed it in with the cooking meat.

“I don't know,” said Sunny. She went to the refrigerator and got a can of Coke Zero and opened it. “Everything about this seems weird, and Emily's letter wasn't that clear except about wanting to meet up before noon. I guess that would be lunch time at the hospital.”

“See if you can find out why she didn't want to talk to her parents other than not wanting to hurt them if she has a regression,” said Mrs. Sparks. She stirred the meat and chili as it cooked.

“I have a feeling they won't like being left in the dark,” said Sunny. She sipped her drink.

“If they were the ones responsible, we can't risk Emily being in danger if she goes home,” said Mrs. Sparks. “I don't want to think of Jamie and Jill like that, but Emily was a victim of a crime and the only witness. We don't know what happened, and won't unless she tells you tomorrow.”

“I doubt her parents are involved,” said Sunny. She smiled at the thought of Mrs. Hyperion lifting anything heavier than a tea glass. “As soon as I talk to her, I'll let you know what she said.”

“All right,” said Mrs. Sparks. “It would be nice for everything to work out right.”

“I'm home,” announced Mr. Sparks from the front of the house. “Is that manwiches I smell?”

“Yes, Dear,” said Mrs. Sparks with a rolling of her eyes. “Come get your plate.”