***
I open my eyes and moan as the harsh light in the room invades my brain and makes it ache. I need to stop waking up this way. I turn my head to the side and immediately close my eyes. My body feels restricted. The fear of what that means forces me to open my eyes again. I let them adjust to the bright light slowly and notice that I’m in the same exact place as I had been when I went to sleep. The medical area. Did I faint?
I hear a rustling noise and look over the end of my bed to see Harold sitting at one of the many desks, shuffling papers.
“What happened?” I ask. I can remember the needle, but after that, my brain gets a bit foggy.
I try to sit up and it takes all my energy to do so. My side hurts painfully and I gasp aloud from the shock of it.
“Oh good, you’re up. When you feel up to it, you may go back to your own room.” Harold barely glances at me, clearly very interested in whatever is written on the pages in front of him.
“What happened?” I ask him again. I feel wrong, my body feels wrong.
Harold sighs as if my question is an inconvenience for him to have to bother to answer.
“You had a bad reaction to the needle. Your body went into shock and you began having hallucinations.”
“I did? I don’t remember…” I try to think back again, but I really can’t remember a thing. That has never happened to me before. Then again, I’ve always had Dana with me.
“Yes, it’s rare, but it can happen. You’ll be fine now. Your body has woken from the shock.” Harold turns away and I frown as I try to step down from the bed and find my legs shaking with the effort to hold me up.
“Why am I so tired?”
Another loud, heavy sigh greets my answer. Harold could use some bedside manners.
“Like I said, you had a bad reaction to the needle. It’s most likely your body’s way of recovering from the intrusion. You just need to give yourself a day of rest.”
I twist my stomach as I turn and feel another stab of pain. I pull up my shirt and there is a large bruise forming over my right side and moving across my stomach. It’s painful to touch and my arm shakes as I hold up my shirt. Whether it’s from exhaustion or fear, I’m not sure because I’m feeling both emotions quite strongly.
“What happened to me?” I ask yet again.
Harold turns away from his paperwork and his eyes widen as he takes in my bruise. He moves closer to me and roughly grabs my side, causing me to wince in pain. My eyes water, but I keep the tears in.
“You were thrashing earlier; perhaps you hurt yourself that way.” Harold examines it a while longer, painfully poking me in the side before he moves away and turns his back to me. “It doesn’t appear like you’ve done any internal damage. Just give yourself plenty of rest and drink lots of water. If you still have any problems, you may come back here and knock. I may not be here, but I’ll know you need me.”
I nod in response and then realize he can’t see me with his back is turned to me “Okay,” I say aloud as I walk slowly to the door and open it. Looking down the corridor, I know I can easily just go back to my room and collapse on my bed; remembering Drew has just died on that bed, though, makes me rethink that idea. So I stumble left and collapse onto a couch in the lounge area, briefly wondering where everyone else is and how much time has passed since I had gone in to see Harold. The clock on the wall by the TV is small and I have to squint to be able to read it. I’m sure it says it’s ten o’clock. I had gone in to see Harold just before eight so it’s been two hours.
That seems like a long time to have fainted for. If I had been having hallucinations, what were they of? Did I see Dana?
I turn myself around on the couch and hold my breath when I jolt the side that’s bruised. I wait impatiently for the pain to subside and then let my body relax into the couch. Sleep pulls at me straight away and, even if I wanted to fight it, I can’t. The urge to sleep is simply too strong.
Taken By Surprise Page 48