Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
I half opened my eyes, wondering what the hell was beeping so loudly.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Was that my alarm? I reached out to turn it off. I didn’t need to wake up; I had no school to go to. I touched a square box that was way too big to be my alarm and didn’t feel like anything that should be in my room.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
I opened my eyes fully and almost screamed when I saw where I was. I wasn’t in my room. I was in a room but it wasn’t mine. It was too clean and full of medical equipment. I was in hospital. There was a drip susunod to my kama and what I thought was my alarm was actually the cardiopulmonary monitor that monitored my puso beat. There were wires going in and out of my arms connecting to different machines and drips. One drip was full of clear liquid and another blood. I could also feel something on my face. I touched my cheek and felt a tube there. I followed it right up to my nose and figured out it was those tubes they inserted into your nose to give you oxygen. The whole room was white. White walls, white floor, white bed, white sheets. It was kind of annoying all this white. But that wasn’t the big problem now.
How the hell did I get here?
The last thing I remembered was getting shot three times, being in loads of pain, and my puso beating faster than normal and then…..nothing….complete blackness. Although a kind of fiery pain did penetrate the darkness but that was squashed sa pamamagitan ng something icy.
I was confused.
I was thinking about going back to sleep, maybe this was all a bad dream but then the door to my room, that was right across from my bed, opened and Carlisle walked in, followed sa pamamagitan ng Edward. When Edward saw me awake his face broke out into the biggest smile I’d seen on him yet. He flew to my side and kissed me, which I didn’t complain about.
“You don’t know how happy I am to see your eyes,” he whispered to me.
“I’d like to find out,” I smiled to him.
I heard Carlisle cough and Edward tore his eyes from me.
“Before the sweet reunion, I would like to take a look at Kayla,” Carlisle requested, with a smile.
Edward reluctantly stepped away from me so Carlisle could get closer to examine me. He pulled out a little pen light and shone it in my left eye.
“Any pain, Kayla?” he asked me, moving onto my right eye.
I considered this for a moment as he took my pulse from my left wrist.
“Not that I can feel,” I answered. “Am I on morphine?”
He gently placed my hand back on my kama and then looked at the puso monitor and wrote down the readings on his clipboard.
“I got shot in the chest right?” I sinabi to Carlisle. “Three times?”
He nodded and watched me as I looked under the white sheet that covered me. I noticed that I was in a hospital gown. I gingerly touched my chest but felt not bandage. I pressed a little harder and only felt my own skin. And then I remembered about the amount of damage I had suffered and how it hurt when I breathed and all the blood.
“How long have I been in here?” I asked.
“Two days,” Edward answered, watching me with his topaz eyes.
“My body wouldn’t heal,” I said, madami to myself than them. “The damage was too much, major blood loss. I couldn’t survive. It was too much for the venom and my healing ability. How did I survive?”
I tried hard to remember the last few minutos before I blacked out but I couldn’t remember anything that would answer my question. There was the apoy that I remembered vaguely and the ice but…..then it clicked.
“Who bit me?” I demanded. “Who?”
Edward looked to Carlisle and they shared one of those ‘looks’ where Carlisle tells Edward something. I hated those. Edward nodded and then looked at me.
“It was the only way to save you,” he said. “Normal medical methods weren’t working and your own healing ability turned against you. The only thing Carlisle could think to do was give you venom.”
I sat up fast and regretted it as blood rushed to my head and made me dizzy.
“I’m a vampire?”
Edward and Carlisle laughed and I glared at them.
“This is a serious question, guys,” I said, angrily.
Edward kissed the tuktok of my head. How patronizing that seemed.
“Kayla, your heartbeat is clearly shown on that screen,” he pointed at the puso monitor. “And you just felt blood rush to your head. How can you be a vampire?”
Oops.
“Hey, I’m injured!” I defended myself. “Stop picking on me!”
Carlisle coughed then. Something a vampire needed never to do.
“What?” I said, getting scared.
“You’re not actually injured at all,” he said. “Hence no bandages on your chest.”
I was confused. If I wasn’t a vampire and I wasn’t injured, then what the hell was going on?
“Remember how the venom stayed in your bloodstream?” Edward said, trying to dumb it down for me. I nodded. “Well I was the one who bit you. My venom didn’t change you as Carlisle had hoped but just entered your bloodstream and circulated like before.”
“It healed you enough to get you to hospital,” ~Carlisle continued. “Where I could remove the bullets and your own ability could patch you up.”
“Then why all the machines and drips and that?” I asked.
“For display,” Edward spoke like I should know that. “You came into hospital with gunshot wounds. It wouldn’t look right if we didn’t monitor your recovery.”
This was so confusing. All I wanted was to go back to sleep jus to escape all the confusion. Sleep….coma….Charlie….Mum….Darren.
“All safe,” Edward said, sensing my rising panic. “Sarah and Darren are in the canteen.”
“And Charlie?” I looked at both of them.
Carlisle again looked at Edward and they shared one of those ‘looks’.
“What is it?” I asked. “Where’s Charlie?”
Carlisle began flipping through the sheets on the clipboard and randomly wrote down notes. Edward pushed me gently back down so I lying down. He covered me with the sheet.
“Get some sleep,” he said, halik my forehead but holding me down.
“Where’s Charlie?” I demanded.”I want to see him.”
I looked up into Edward’s eyes but he looked away. His thoughts told me nothing either. He was listing all the medical equipment he could think of.
“Carlisle, where’s Charlie?” I looked at the doctor who had probably saved my life madami times than I could count.
“Promise me you won’t run out of here?” Carlisle requested, giving me a true doctor stare. It was one of those stares that doctors did looking over glasses but although Carlisle wasn’t wearing any, it was still effective.
“Promise,” I said, pushing against Edward until he released me. I sat up and waited on Carlisle.
“Really, Carlisle, I don’t think you should,” Edward said. He was tense, his eyes never leaving me.
“I want to know,” I said. “If something’s happened to him, I should know.”
Carlisle was stuck between telling me and obeying Edward. He only wanted to do what was right, of course, what was best.
“After we brought you to the hospital and Charlie and your mother and Darren woke from their induced comas, we told Charlie what had happened,” Carlisle spoke quickly. “He was infuriated. I had never seen him like that and don’t want to witness it again. After he was certain you were going to recover he left.”
I knew where Charlie had left to.
“He’s gone after Loren, hasn’t he?”
Carlisle nodded.
“He left just after you came out of surgery two days ago.”
“We haven’t heard from him,” Edward said, quietly. “No one has.”
I looked down at my hand and tried to assure myself that Charlie was ok. He was a big boy, he could take care of himself. But then again, Loren was lethal with or without abilities. The proof was me two days ago.
“Did anyone go with him?” I asked. Surely Charlie wouldn’t go alone.
“Mitchell shimmered him there,” Carlisle answered. “But then we haven’t heard from him either.”
Edward stiffened and held still for a half a second. He pushed me gently down and I didn’t protest.
“Your mother and Darren are coming,” he said, half smiling. “You have to act gravely injured.”
I managed a smile and waited for my mother to burst through the door with Darren while all the time thinking about Charlie.