All of the blinding lights overwhelmed me as I felt my limp body being hoisted up into a foreign area, the sound of clinking metal battling with the murmurs of voices. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to wrap my brain around the situation occurring around me, but it seemed to be impossible. Some of the light was blocked out by shadows surrounding me and darting from one side of my body to the other. Mumbling filled the air and reached my ears, followed by a loud bang that made my body startle on the hard surface it laid upon. I felt a cold object touch the skin of my leg, ripping through the fabric of my jeans.
A couple footsteps were heard behind me and a voice yelled an unfamiliar command, but I could not make out what they said. A cool sensation took over my arm and I had to bite my tongue to avoid crying out in pain as a hard pinch accompanied the cold chill. My eyelids fluttered as I tried my hardest to focus, but my vision revealed nothing but a kaleidoscope of colors and shadows. My body jerked upward once again and this time, a sharp pain crawled up my leg and a raspy shriek emitted from my throat. My hands reached for my leg, but another pair pushed them back down gently until I was in a flat position again.
Another demand cut through the shriek, maybe by a man, and I tried to mutter a few words in a desperate attempt to ask what was happening, but my lips would not allow it. I opened my eyes widely, struggling with all my strength to understand where I was, who they were, and what had just occurred, when another stinging pain reached my arm and I could not keep them open any longer. My eyelids drooped with heavy weight and I shook my head, fighting the fog that had taken residency in my brain. I managed to open my eyes one last time, only to see dark spots replacing the lights. Soon enough, the darkness was all I could see.
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Beeping.
The first thing I noticed as my mind began to wander back to reality was the beeping next to my head. My eyes refused to open, so I let my brain control my sense of touch. My hand tingled for a bit before I gained control over it; clenching my fist, opening it, clenching it, and opening it once again. When the tingling ceased, I inched my hand up towards my chest and felt the hem of a warm, cotton fabric. A blanket. I felt something sticky and hot covering my skin on almost every part of my body and I cringed at the familiar feeling of sweat. My legs rose to kick the blanket off of me, but one leg seemed to be heavier than the other. I instantly forced my eyes open, confused about why a massive weight was holding my leg down. When my eyes glanced around, I shook my head furiously, not wanting to believe why I was there. The pace of the beeping increased and I ran a hand through my matted brunette hair, my fingers trapped in the jungle of tangles, trying to slow my breathing. I pulled the blanket off my legs with my free arm and my heart dropped when I saw a white cast around my left leg.
My body was covered in a greenish-blue, papery gown with string ties hanging from the side of my torso and the back of my neck. As I removed my hand from its grip on the blanket, I noticed a bandage around my hand and partially up my forearm. Confused, I lifted my other arm as far as I could and grabbed the bandage lightly with my skinny fingers. I winced as the bandage pulled at my skin from under it, so I peeked underneath to see a deep cut in my skin which had been stitched back together, surrounded by other smaller cuts that were not in need of stitches. I released the bandage lightly and looked down at my leg, not even bothering to move it as I began to feel its pain return to me. I closed my eyes, trying to remember what had happened to me and why I was there. Suddenly, it hit me like a ton of bricks being tossed onto my body, and my eyes opened slightly as the sound of a door creaking open reached my ears.
"Oh. You're awake," the soft, surprised voice of a woman announced, but my eyes remained glued to the wall in front of me and I stayed silent, trying to take in the scene that had happened.
This is wrong, I thought. This is all wrong.
I heard her step outside the room for a moment, only to be followed back inside the room by another pair of footsteps. "Miss Walker?" another voice called, this time, a man. I ignored him, lost in thought. His footsteps approached my bed carefully and I continued to stare blankly as he leaned down in front of me, glancing back and forth at my individual eyes. He looked down at his white coat and reached into his breast pocket, pulling out a flashlight. He turned it on and shined it into my eyes, yet not even fazing me.
This is wrong.
He stood straight up again and began to converse with the woman. My bare arm was lifted up and something cold wrapped around it. It squeezed tighter a moment later, then relieved its grip. The grip was taken off my arm and the nurse told me something before placing her hands on my shoulders and lightly pushing me backwards down onto the bed. "You need to rest, Miss Walker," I caught her saying before standing up straight and checking the beeping monitor next to the bed. She sighed under her breath as I laid there, as still as a dead man. "I'll come back in to check on you in a few minutes," she stated before making her way towards the door across the room. She went to grab the doorknob to pull it shut behind her when my voice stopped her in her tracks.
"He's dead, isn't he?" I asked, not bothering to look in her direction. The intensity of the atmosphere around me thickened and everything grew silent. I didn't have to wait for her to respond before I covered my face with my hands, the tears running down my face as I already knew the answer.
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