Mallory's Melody

Chapter 59

MALLORY HAD HEARD MANY STORIES of people dying and then coming back to life. Before now, she'd dismissed them as mere superstitions, false stories, as evidence of man's desire to ease the painful reality of death. Yet here she was, as living proof of the veracity of those stories, once dead and now alive. She knew she was dead because she'd felt it, that nothingness, that inexplicable, elusive abyss, and she'd also felt what it was like to rouse out of it, to burst out of the surface of unconsciousness and be overwhelmed by such eruptions of joy that she almost jumped out of her bed to dance and dance her way back to death.

And she would have, sure enough, if the creepy doctor hadn't pulled her back. She thought him creepy because there was something indeed creepy about waking up to meet the smiling face of a man you hardly knew, and even creepier about hearing him say, "congratulations, you were dead and now you're alive."

"Now I need you to stay put for a while. You're still quite delicate. I'm going to check your pulse and your breathing. How do you feel? Any palpitations, any bodily malfunctions?" He was drawing pieces of equipment she'd never set her eyes all over her.

But all she could think about was the pain that imbued her all body. All she thought about was the scorching heat she'd felt in the fire, the darkness. Jason.

Jason.

"Where's he?" Mallory asked, nearly climbing off the bed. "I need to see him. I need to see—"

"You need to stay here, miss," the doctor demanded. "Last thing we need is for someone to die on our account. Your step-mom and your boyfriend's mother are on their way. Just stay put."

Mallory felt the heat spread onto her cheeks when he said boyfriend's mother. There was a pride she got from hearing him believe that Jason was her boyfriend, that they were together. Fear overwhelmed her features again. She had to know if he was okay. She had to—

"I need to see him!"

The doctor sighed. "For the last time miss, you do not need to see your boyfriend. He's in another ward. He's doing fine. You don't need to worry about him. Now, all you need to do is breathe and try not to die. Because there's no saving you again if you do again."

Mallory looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, how you made it alive is still a miracle to most of us. Your burns were lethal, they ate through most of your arteries to the extent that we thought there was nothing we could do again. The surgery did nothing to help matters, and just when we thought it was over, well, here you are. Breathing and undead. It makes me almost want to believe that miracles do happen."

Mallory smiled widely at him. She was one in a million. She was part of the one per cent that died and then roused back to life, that had the opportunity to experience life again. But something still bugged her.

"How did I get out of the fire?"

He scribbled something on his clipboard. "Some fire-fighters got to you. Your boyfriend protected you. He shielded you with his body. He, on the other hand. There's no saying that he'd ever fully recover."

"What?"

The doctor stood up from her and looked away. "Look, that's as far as I can tell you. I don't want to add more to your burdens."

"What happened to him?" Mallory yelled. "What?"

The doctor only looked at her with pity. He stared down at his watch. "Good, your family is here. I've got to bring them in."

Could he have been any more obvious in his deflection? She began to make up different possibilities about what could have happened to him. She was completely attuned to her anxious thoughts, so attuned she hadn't realised when Susan had walked into the room.