Learning Curve

Chapter 2.1-Panic and Catatonic

There was a faint, consistent beeping and unfamiliar voices that didn't seem to be making any coherent words or sentences.

There was also a strange smell, nothing like the usual scent of her room and bedsheets. Maybe bleach? Pinesol?

It was those things that made Marley aware of the fact that she wasn't at home. She didn't have to have her eyes open to realize that. However, she still worked on prying her eyelids open so she could discern where she actually was. But just the notion of such a simple thing came with immense difficulty and it both startled and alarmed her. It almost felt like her eyes were glued shut.

Marley let out a frustrated groan, but tried her hardest to relax. In her current condition, as she was made aware of how sore and exhausted her whole body felt, there really much she could do if she wanted to panic. So, she managed to relax and tried again, slowly, slowly, peeled her eyes open.

Her eyes eventually found a blank white ceiling, a stark contrast from her bedroom ceiling that she decorated with glow in the dark stars, moons, and planets.

Marley began to blink away the sleep and adjust to the new light that was now reaching her eyes. It was like she was newly emerging from the darkness of a dark, damp cave and was meeting the harshness of sunlight for the first time. The contrast from what she had previously been accustomed to was beginning to give her headache.

She shut her eyes again for a few more seconds, wishing the pounding of her skull and the sudden blurry vision that came with it away, before chancing another look around the room she was in.

A look to her left was her biggest clue.

A heart monitor, the culprit for the incessant beeping. She watched as the peaks that captured the beating of her heart began to speed up, indicating the anxiety she was feeling of her predicament.

She had to be in a hospital. But why?

What moments led to this moment? Did it have to do with why her body hurt so badly?

She figured that had to be why, because never in her years of life had she ever felt such pain as this. But still the question remains: What happened to get her here?

Despite the tumultuous amount of questions she had, she refused to let them cloud her thoughts seeing as she wasn't going to get any answers by herself. She couldn't even remember much of what happened last night.

So, first thing's first, she needed to see a doctor. Or a nurse. Someone, she guessed.

Marley braced herself and attempted to sit up but stopped herself at the brisk, electric pain that shot to her arm and wrist. She quickly looked at it to see what happened, and finally realized that it was secured in a cast. Looking further down her body, she saw her left leg in a similar state.

She could distantly hear the monitor pick up again, this time a bit faster.

She was scared now. What had happened to her.

Without really realizing what she was saying, she began to call for her mom and dad. She only began to get louder and louder as her terror and panic increased.

That was when the nurses were alerted of Marley's consciousness.

They barged into the room like they busted open the door with a battering ram and rushed to her aide.

She was looking around the room wildly, trying hard to grasp for something to keep her grounded to reality, but only seemed to be falling deeper and deeper.

"Marley! Marley, honey, you need to relax. Deep breathes honey. Look at me; slow, deep breathes." Marley watched the nurse who kept repeating the same things and found her following her instructions.