One Last Butterfly

Chapter 4

In Helena's Home for Medical Affairs

Lily

"Has everything been injected properly?"

"Yes, everything has been done right."

I heard voices through my ear and they slipped out like butter through the other. My head was as foggy and cloudy as the school on rainy Tuesdays, and thoughts seemed to come out, half-formed and lucid, then stutter while being processed and disappear in a poof. My body twitched a little bit, and they all came flooding back to me. The emotions, the pain, the delusions. And a sharp pain in my head with a soreness like rough, sandpaper-like fabric that itched at the back of my throat.

With a great struggle, I pried my eyes open and tried to look around. Two blurs were in front of me, next to some colourful blobs of fuzziness. As I slowly blinked, the world started coming into a clearer and more distinct shape. The two blurs became more defined and ape-like. The colourful blobs looked a lot like bags. Another blink. Why is everything so bright? A faster blink. Ok, it's a lot less radiant. One more blink, and the world became comprehensible. I realised I was restrained to a small white cot with straps and little tubes attached to me leading upwards to a myriad of bags with colourful liquids. Two people stood in front of me, chattering about one thing or another. I didn't know and I didn't care. The world was too loud for me; the Big Ben that rang in my ears silenced everything else.

"Oh, you're awake," a light-haired woman said.

"I'll go tell the Director that she is conscious," a dark-haired man next to her muttered before walking out of the door.

The woman kneeled before my bedside. She softly asked, "How are you feeling honey?"

My lips felt as if they were stuck together with superglue. So I just shook my head.

"Oh, you're not able to talk?"

I nodded.

"That's fine. At least you can respond. That was a huge shock you had earlier, and if you didn't take your daily heart medicine, you would have died from a heart attack."

I nodded glumly.

"But at least you're here now! And about your father-"

"I'll take it from here."

The man had come back with a glamorous woman decked in what looked to be expensive jewellery and wearing an billowing white lab coat. Mentally, I named her Rich Lady. The other 2 were now Nice Lady and Weird Dude.

Rich Lady started speaking. "Lily Freude, it is a pleasure to know that you have woken up sooner than expected. You have suffered a major heart attack due to the extreme shock and emotional pressure you have received combined with your heart problems. You will have to stay in the hospital for around a week. You will have two nurses, although I trust that you would have met them already."

I looked around and assumed that Nice Lady and Weird Dude were my nurses.

Rich Lady pointed to Nice Lady and dictated, "Her name is Nurse Nee." Nice Lady smiled.

She then pointed to Weird Dude. "His name is Nurse Yoi." Weird Dude crossed his arms.

"They will try their very best to help you in whatever problems that have arisen for you. Please do not overstress yourself."

My voicebox finally croaked a question I had been dying to ask all through this/

"B-but, w-what about m-my fa-father?", I stammered out.

Rich Lady heaved a big sigh. "It has been found out that Chadd Freude, your father, died from multiple genetic infractions that passed through his family line; you should know, you have them too. This caused him to have a heart attack and a stroke at the same time and he died a painless death. We are sorry for your loss."

"Hey, you shouldn't tell that right away to a patient who just got a heart attack because of the very same thing!", Weird Dude argued.

"She's going to be fine, Nurse Yoi, and all our patients deserve the truth," Rich Lady sternly replied.

I, meanwhile, was gasping like a fish out of water. My heart was beating at an abnormal pace and felt as if it was about to jump out of my body.

"Not again...", I weakly muttered.

The nurses sprung into action. Weird Dude held me down while Nice Lady just jabbed a needle filled of some clear-ish liquid into my arm. Almost immediately, my heart stabilised and my breathing slowed.

"You were saying?", mocked Weird Dude.

Rick Lady rolled her eyes and her face appeared flushed. "Nurse Aiko, I would appreciate if you kept your mouth shut. And nobody expected this. So please stop mocking your seniors."

"Now, your mother would like to meet you!", Nice Lady quickly interjected, sensing the tension that built up in the room like a thick white fog.

Rich Lady shot a glare at Weird Dude and said, "Of course. We shall let them be then."

They all then filed out of the room and a few minutes later, my mother came in.