AllFreeNovel
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Scared. So scared. Make it stop. Must stay. Awake. Fight. The old lady said.
Focus. Picture. On the wall. Angel.
Meds. Make my head. Heavy. Then light.
The picture. The angel. Focus. See.
Wings. Move. Flutter.
Like snow.
Falling.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
In Which I Wake Up
White.
All I see is white.
Blink.
White.
Blink, blink.
White, white.
The white has little pockmarks, like the surface of the moon.
Blink again, and the spongy square tiles of the hospital ceiling come into focus. The hospital. I’m still here? What if I’m not? I’m afraid to look. Okay. Take this slowly. Slide eyes to the left. Window and a wall radiator. Eyes to the right. Visitor chairs. Mom and Dad. Sleeping.
Mom and Dad. Still here. All still here.
Thank you.
* * *
It’s night when I wake again. The first thing I notice is that there’s no tube in my throat anymore. It’s sore and dry, though. Like I’ve been eating gravel for two days straight.
“You awake?”
A new face appears above my head. I shriek, surprised by the sound of my own scratchy voice.
“Oh, sorry, dude. I thought you were awake.”
I close my eyes and silently will the hallucination to go away. When I open them again, his face is still next to mine.
“You okay, amigo?”
I try to talk but my throat is sore and dry. “Could you. Water. Please?”
“Oh. Sure. No problem, dude.”
In about three seconds, there’s a cup in my hand. I take a few sips and feel my throat balloon with each one. Better. “Thanks. Sorry if I scared you. It’s just … I thought I might have, um, died. Or something.”
“Yeah, no kidding. I was a little freaked out about it myself,” he says.
