Ancient Agenda

Opening my heavy-lidded eyes and turning my head, that which felt just as weighted down, my brain finally registers that I am lying in a pool of my own blood that is slowly absorbing into my chestnut -auburn hair.

"Ugh." I moan to myself and make a small effort to lift my head to assess my surroundings.

"What the hell happened?! " I whisper, the strength going out of my shakey neck. Letting the back of my skull return to the blue, carpeted bathroom floor, I close my eyes.

I'm so cold.

I know I am dying.

Chapter One

"Oh my God! Ma'am! What happened?!" a slightly familiar voice shouted just in front of my face. So close, I can smell the night before alcohol on their breath. Being awakened by the offensive stench, I open my eyes to see my new landlord peering, not two inches away from the tip of my nose.

"I don't know Al. But could you back away, out my bubble, cause you're going to literally quicken my death with that breath." I complain with a wave of nausea, closing my eyes once again.

"Sorry Shane. Went out with the boys last night." apologized my landlord Al Ripping. A scruffy cowboy type, of whom liked his bachelor life and the fact that he had little, if no responsibilities being in his 70's.

"What can I do? Do ya want me to ring for an ambulance? " continued Al.

"No! No doctors, e.r's! No! Just help me sit up, so I can check where I'm bleeding from." I explain to Al, pushing my elbows down on the floor to assist my landlord in easing my back up to sit in a prone position.

"Whoa there ma'am! Easy does it." he ordered when he noticed how pale I became once I was upright.

"Ugh." I muttered for the second time. "I feel as if I have been drained of all my energy. Never felt so wiped out Al."

"Well, I think ya really oughtta let me call up the 911. Ya'ain't lookin' so hot. Makin' me nervous, is whatcha are!" said my landlord, still holding my back, kneeling at my side and shaking his nearly bald head.

Feeling as if I would faint, I whispered, "Yea, maybe you're right. Call."

That was when the world as I had known it for thirty years, went completely black in an instant.

Chapter Two

"Miss Shane! Miss! Wake up now dear!" a sweet, cheerful voice brought me out of a nondescript dream state.

"Ah! There we are! Welcome to the land of the livin' honey! "

My eyelids shot open, seeing a brunette nurse at my side, fiddling with the tube attached to my I.V. bag. She was smiling at her work, so I realized her to be a pleasant type, not "Nurse Ratchett."

"Hi." was all I muttered, not knowing what name to address her by, because her black hair hung over her name tag.

I didn't need await long, as she turned to me and said,

"Well! Ya look a heck of a lot better than when ya'all came in here! That is fer sure! "

"What happened? I don't recall much. Just lying on my new apartment's bathroom floor, blood all over the place and my landlord calling an ambulance. Other than that....nothing." I explained, finally noticing the pleasant nurse's uniform name tag that said 'Tammy.'

"Yea, well I was on that night. Saw ya'all come in dear ta death's door hon! Doc Woolf saved yer life, he did! Ya had a bump on yer head the size of a goose's egg and two puncture holes under yer right breast! Took the doc some time tryin' ta find were you was bleedin' from. Real strange, ya ask me! Doc thought so too!"