Learning to be Strong Alone // Jeraphina Fanfiction

Chapter XVI: She Doesn't Know My Name

"An old friend is what you need
to help the struggling.
We all need the connection."

...............

My hands are numb . . . and cold

I don't remember much of anything right now—my mind is blank and foggy—attempting to hide the memories that I hold inside.

Am I outside? There's wind beating on my face, I think; it's numb—my whole body is. I can't really tell, though.

Water dripped down from my eyes—from my hair, body, clothes. The cold wind was beating out to me—whipping at my skin, pushing my tears from my cheeks and onto my tingling neck.

It's not like the wind is damaging my skin or anything, it's just stabbing at it with a blunt knife—scraping past my face and falling back off again.

The thudding in my head; it's loud. It hurts, too.

"Ah, so you're awake, now," a voice abruptly called out to me—poking right through the fog and clearing all the thoughts that clouded my still clouded clarity.

My eyes shot open and pupils jerked toward the feminine voice before gluing themselves to a lady with blonde hair in a white coat.

I was in a hospital . . . of sorts.

My left hand and arm were bandaged, I noticed. A white cloth material was reaching up from above my elbow and down to my fingers—not quite covering the tips. From what I could feel, my head and legs were probably banged and bandaged up, too.

The lady smiled at me, "What's your name, young man? We found you down by the river," her body sauntered over to a counter, picking up a lightly steaming cloth. "You've been asleep since we picked you up; it's a miracle you even survived a fall like that."

I didn't respond, only managing to stare blankly at the cloth she held.

"So?" she asked me once more, placing the cloth onto my forehead and dabbing my teary eyes. "What's your name?"

I closed my eyes each time the small, white cloth made contact with the delicate skin atop of them. The stains on my face and salty water gripped to my lashes were removed with each touch.

Hesitantly, I looked into the golden eyes of her own irises, mind blank from confusion and shock, not knowing what to say in this odd situation.

My body slowly shuffled further up the bed just to meet the wall, her hand being peeled from my face as I dragged myself away.

My hands were gripping at the bedsheets as I crawled my way up, her eyes not leaving me for a second.

No matter how far I crawled, all I met was the wall. I tried to get past it, applying heavy pressure to the bed, pushing on it as hard as I could.

My left arm tinged in pain and I had to stop.

Tears once more fell from my eyes, their size and pupils dilating with each strained breath I took into my lungs.

She saw what I was doing—how I was acting, and a sorrowful smile became present on her face, wrinkling the skin beside her squinting eyes as she sat herself down onto the pastel blue sheets that encased my body.