by Newbiel
"That ball is trying to take over my body!"
Gathering all of his strength once again, Nathaniel braced himself for the impact he was sure was coming. He was quickly proved wrong when the mysterious ball stopped just before hitting him.
*****
While the nurse and the intern outside were working hastily to control his vitals, suddenly the light in the room started to flicker and one of the monitors shut down.
"No please, not now! Not a power failure now!" Judith exclaimed in distress.
*****
"WHO ARE YOU? AND WHY DO YOU WANT TO TAKE MY BODY?" Yelled Nathaniel at the crimson ball.
Nathaniel could only think about the unfairness of the situation. The moment that he finally escaped his jail, someone magically appeared and wanted to take what was rightfully his. He could only look at the ball curiously, that was then that he instinctively knew that this ball was a man and there seemed to be a strange link between them. Which was surprising, especially considering they were so different.
"What the hell are you talking about kid!? I don't even know what you are talking about for Christ sake!" The crimson ball angrily replied.
"So, you are not here to take my body? Really?" Nathaniel asked, his anger diminishing.
"Of course not!"
"Oh, all good then. My name is Nathaniel, what is yours?" Nathaniel asks in a timide voice.
"Marc and for Christ sake kid don't be that guileless. I could lie just to steal your body!" Marc exclaimed fiercely.
Chapter 3: :
"Please can you stop swearing? It's annoying. And I'm not that naive, I mean I'm just a twelve years old kid, yes but I'm quite smart. Your name is Marc, tell me that your name is Donald duck." Said Nathaniel with mirth.
"And why would I do that?" Marc asked, puzzled.
"Please, humor me."
"My name is …. my name is… What the hell?" Marc shouted, seemingly lost.
"That's one of the first things I learn while trapped here, we can't lie in this form. Not even to yourself." Said Nathaniel with a bit of sadness in his voice.
"How long have you been trapped here kid?" Asked Marc with a tinge of warmth in his voice.
"I don't know honestly but I think years must have passed now even decades. I have no way to know." The sadness in his voice, more obvious now.
Marc drew near Nathaniel and extended a bit of crimson light to him. It was almost like he was trying to put a hand to his shoulder in a sign of comfort but ended up looking quite weird.
"What do you believe happened here? Why are you here and why I am with you right now? The last souvenir I have is when I die in Peru."
"I don't know but if I were to guess, I believe I was destined to give up and died a long time ago and you have been given the chance to reincarnate into my body. I don't know by who or what though, I don't really believe in those kinds of things. I'm not a religious person." Nathaniel confessed.
"You really believe that is the case?" Marc asked, doubtfully.
"That's the only thing that I can think of besides us supposed to fight to the bitter end and then the winner gets my body."
"Ah ah! That's actually funny. No, I don't think that's the case, your first guess sounds logical to me even if nothing about this situation is. There is one thing that you must know about me though. I did a lot of bad things in my life. I killed a lot of people, some because I was ordered to, some to protect myself but globally I already abide by a set of rules I fixed myself. I never touched children. Now, you are telling me that I was destined to get your body? Bad luck for the one who runs the entire show but I'm not going to do it."
"Really?" Nathaniel asked hopefully.
"Yes, I'm a killer but I'm not a thief, especially to a child. I made good and bad decisions in my life but the thing is that I had the privilege to make them, would I make the same if I was given the chance to go back? Maybe but I'm not certain. You on the other hand never had the chance to make them. I believe it's time for me to leave this world and face the consequences of my actions to the big men or women or aliens running the entire show. Maybe give him or her a piece of my mind in the process." He laughed.
"I don't know what to say except thank you. You're giving your life away for me to live."
"I have something else for you if I manage to make it happen." Marc said.
At this moment the white and crimson balls of energies merged together taking the form of a Yin Yang symbol. One part was a pure, indomitable white, while the other was domineering red. The symbol then began spinning faster and faster until he disappeared from the void around him and reintegrated with his body again. After all those years, Nathaniel was back.
******
After a few moments, Nathaniel started hearing people talking not far from him.
"You know as well as I do that there are hundreds of explanations for rising blood pressure on a comatose teenager Nancy! That could mean nothing!" Said a stern masculine voice.
"I know sir! But I believe that it is significant! We need to do a head scan." Urged the woman, probably Nancy.
"A head scan for a kid in a coma for more than 4 years! And for what? A blood pressure that went up for 2 minutes? That's insane! How are his vitals now Melanie?"
'Well now I know, 4 years… goddamnit, my moms must be heartbroken…' He thought internally, feeling extremely sad and guilty.
'I need to open my eyes now. I need to say something.' Nathaniel thought.
His eyelids were so heavy, so painful, but the pain was good. Pain proved that he was alive. Pain was a relief for him after years feeling absolutely nothing and it had a familiarity that was a little disturbing but soothing. Suddenly, he felt a woman's hand on his arms and then something cold and metallic that must have been the stethoscope. His eyelids begin moving slowly and a blurry form starts to appear in front of him, with white and blue around it.
'Okay, now that I see, sort of. I need to talk. Tell them that I'm here.'
"It's good, Doctor." Answered Melanie.
"errrr" Croaked Nathaniel.
"Good, we are going to observe him and if something happens again then we will do a scan. I'm sorry I shout at you Nancy but you know as well as I do to which family he belongs to and I'm sure not going to give them false hope asking for consent to perform a head scan that will not accomplish anything."
If Nathaniel could frown right now, he would have. He had no idea what he was saying about his family. His parents were working as a guitar instrumentalist and a state appointed lawyer. They belonged to the lower side of the middle class family. Thinking about it now, he had no idea how they could afford to keep him in a coma all those years. Letting the matter aside for now, he knew this was bad. They were going to leave his room anytime now, he needed to try harder to get their attention. His vision starts to get a little clearer and Melanie enters his vision. She seemed to look around, searching for something.
'She must have heard me! I need to try harder!' Nathaniel exhorted himself.
"Y… o . ouuu.. uuu" Croaked Nathaniel with a bit more force.
Melanie whipped her head around and looked at Nathaniel, eyes full of awe and disbelief.
"Doctor! He's awake!" Shouted the intern, startling her colleagues.
Hearing that, they all rushed to his bedside but Nathaniel chose to ignore them and keep looking at Melanie, captivated by her beautiful brown, kind eyes.
"Youu...rrre... pprr...et.ttt..yy" Nathaniel managed to said with a rough almost inaudible voice.
Finally spent and with the last sight of a blushing intern, he blacked out.
Chapter 4: :
New York. 08/02/2012. 07:48.
Karine Lyndon was sitting on the dining table, absentmindedly twirling her spoon in her coffee mug. She was stunning. Around 5"8", shoulder length blonde hair tied up in a bun, thin eyebrows and clear blue eyes. Soon 38 years old but nobody in their right mind would guess her age to be over thirty five years old. She was wearing a black jacket and knee leng
th black skirt. Despite her stern dress up an aura of melancholia was permeating the room. Karine was looking at a framed picture. Two gorgeous women, one blonde and the other with jet black hair, were hugging a ten year old blond boy.
The blond haired woman in the picture was naturally Karine and the young boy was Nathaniel. Karine was remembering when the picture was taken with a sad smile, they were on the couch of their old apartment. Nathaniel daringly took a bet with her. If he could learn to talk and write in french, her maternal language, in two weeks he could have violin lessons. Amused she had accepted, pleased to see him interested by his heritage. One week later, he talked to her in french when she came back from work. The most astonishing thing was that his accent was nearly perfect, better than even hers.
When she asked him bewildered how he learned and who taught him, he just gave a silly smile and did not respond. Now, she did not know why she was so surprised at the time. He had always been smart, smarter than any boy his age. They were even discussing at the time to move him up a grade or hire a private tutor. But they did not have the means and the ressources to do it at the time as their money was tight.
Looking at the picture and his cute smile a pang of sadness gripped her heart. She would give everything, do everything, to see him smile again. Her eyes were watering and when they started to flow, arms appeared around her and someone hugged her from behind.
"Hi love." Said a captivating voice before kissing her cheek.
"Mary" Responded Karine in an affectionate voice, turning around.
Mary was a stunning 37 years old woman. 5"9", striking black long hair, grey eyes and luscious lips. She was wearing a blue business dress which put her form in full display while remaining stark. Seeing her wife tearing up she knew immediately what she was thinking. Turning her head she took a look at the picture on the dining table.
"I think about him too you know, every single day…" Mary said while hugging her wife.
"Do you think he… he will ever wake up?"
"Of course, he will." Said her wife, caressing her hair.
"I had a strange dream last night, I saw him... " Karine began to say before being interrupted by the ringing of her phone.
Disentangling herself from Mary, she retrieved her phone from the table and totally froze when she saw the caller ID. Her mind was in turmoil and she was starting to feel that something bad had happened. After all, they never called before and she knew comatose people were more inclined to have complications due to their inactivity. In fact, it was one of their most terrifying thoughts, that someday he simply dies while being away from him and learning about it on the phone.
"Hello?"
"Mrs Lindon?"
"Yes, speaking"
"This is Doctor Cobert from Presbyterian Hospital. We met a few times, I'm the doctor in charge of your son."
"Yes doctor, I remember you. What is going on? Is our son alright?" She said rapidly in an anxious voice. Turning she saw that the expression on Mary's face was fraught with worry.
"Yes, he is fine don't worry. Better than fine in fact, around 01:00 AM last night, he came back to us."
"WHAT?" She almost screamed on the phone.
"Nathaniel has woken up. I was there, he even managed to talk which is unprecedented after a long term coma patient. I would never have believed it if that hadn't happened right in front of me."
That was it for Karine and she burst into tears full of joy. Feeling a soft hand on her shoulder she locked eyes with her wife.
"Our baby is back, he came back." She said as she watched the expression on Mary's face turning into joy, tears flowing down her cheeks, ruining her makeup in the process. But it did not matter at that moment, nothing mattered except the fact that their baby was back.
"Why are you informing us only now if that happened several hours ago?" Karine asked angrily, her emotions in a complete mess.
"We needed to perform some tests. It's not uncommon for patients from coma to open their eyes or move a little. But there is a strong cerebral activity in Nathaniel's brain and he has truly come back. This is nothing short of a miracle."
"Sorry doctor, I am still in shock. We are coming to the hospital right away." Said Karine, apologizing.
"That's not advisable Mrs Lyndon, It's ordinary for patients who come out of coma to be irascible, prone to anger and behaving erratically. It's best for you to stay away from him, for his own sake."
"Our son is not like that. And that was not a question doctor, we are coming. We will see you in fifteen minutes." Answered Karine in a voice that broke no argument before hanging up.
The two womens hugged each other while still crying before taking the keys of their apartment and leaving.
Chapter 5: :
Presbyterian Hospital. 08/02/2012. 07:55.
When Nathaniel finally came to he was feeling slightly better. Not opening his eyes, he tried to move his body and realized that he couldn't. He was feeling scared, scared that he traded a prison for another and that made him angry. He tried to know more about the current state of his body and that's when he had an amazing discovery. He could look inside his own body! He could see everything from nerves to bones, muscles to tendons, that was simply amazing to see. He could even see his own heart beating and even starting to see it beating faster as he was getting excited.
He didn't know from where this ability was coming from, maybe it was a consequence of him staying trapped in that unknown realm for so long or maybe something that came along with Marc's last gift to him. At that moment, he started using it on him, trying to find why he couldn't move. His first assumption was maybe it came from the accident that almost killed him. He wasn't that great in anatomy to be honest but he couldn't find anything huge. That's when he realized what was the problem, it was his muscles. They were thin and atrophied. Once he knew what was the problem, he started to relax as he knew that could be fixed with reeducation.
Keeping his eyes closed, he started to focus on what was happening around him. He could hear someone in the room close to him and two people talking just outside of it. A man and a woman it seemed even if he could not hear what exactly they were talking about.
Finally opening his eyes, he realised that his eyelids were not as heavy and painful as they were before. He began opening and closing them to ease the pain a little, noticing that he was seeing clearer each time.
"Nathaniel?" Said the woman beside his bed.
Looking at her, she seemed to be around 40 years old with short brown hair and a caring aura around her which made it easy to trust her. Seeing that he was looking at her she approached the bed and took place on the seat near him.
"How are you?"
"Iiii… hurt… everywhere…" He said in a rough voice but louder than it was before.
"I know, your muscles are in an advanced state of atrophy, I'm sorry but we can't give you pain medication, that could do more harm than good in your current condition." She answered in a soft and compassionate voice.
Taking a clipboard from the nightstand and turning her head in the direction of the door, she made a gesture to the two people outside. The door of his room closed soon after and she turned back to him.
"I'm sorry but I need to ask you some questions. I know you are hurting and you are tired so we will do it like this. For yes, close your eyelids once, and for no close them two times. Can you do that?"
Nathaniel closed his eyelids once.
*****
Arriving out of breath in front of their son's room they were stopped from entering by a young intern.
"I'm sorry madams but I can't let you enter, Nathaniel just woke up and we need to ask him some questions. This is for his own good." Said the intern in a peaceful voice, her arms raised in a sign of appeasement.
Seeing that Karine was going to say something harsh, Mary gripped her arm gently and spoke.
"When are we going to be able to see him?"
"I honestly don't know. That depends on his evaluation and the do
ctor's verdict on it. That could take hours or days."
"That's unacceptable!" Cried Karine.
"Has our son really woken up?" Asked Mary. She still couldn't believe the fact that he had really come back.
"Yes, I was there. He talked too." She said, a tinge of red appearing on her cheeks which didn't go unnoticed by the two women who exchanged looks.
"What did he say?" Asked Mary, her curiosity picked.
"Euh… Well, he said I… I was pretty." Said the blushing intern.
Mary looked stupefied at the red faced intern, then at her wife who was shocked, her mouth wide open in a silent 'o'. Locking eyes with each other they suddenly burst out laughing. They laughed so hard that they doubled over with laughter offering a much needed release of stress. At that moment, a nurse exited the room of their son and they turned serious instantly. Surprised by the laughter of the women upon arriving in the hallway, she turned to the intern for information but the girl kept blushing, refusing to meet anyone's eyes.
"Karine, Mary, I'm glad to see you." Nancy welcomed.
"Nancy!" Karine answered instantly. "How is our son?"
The three womens knew each other quite well considering the fact that Nancy was there on the worst day of their lives. They also met an incalculable amount of times when they were visiting Nathaniel while he was still in coma.
"Good, he is okay but sadly I can't allow you to come inside, the doctor left firm instructions."
Seeing that the two women in front of her wanted to argue she immediately raised her hand to stop them.
"But, Nathaniel wanted to see you and I believe that it's time for both of us to take a coffee break. If I were to allow you to enter, that would be an ethical violation and I could lose my job because of it but if you were to enter when no one is there, well, I can be blamed for that. Do we understand each other?" Nancy said with a crafty smile.
Seeing the parents of Nathaniel nodding she put a hand on the shoulder of the intern beside her and added.