Claude

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I wake up to the sound of beeping.

I am in a hospital. It looks vaguely familiar until I realise that it's the one I was in when I first came to Claude's house. My heart pounds as I begin to panic but when I try to lift my head up to see what's going on, I can't.

The beeping of the machine intensifies. I try to match my breath to the beeps but it only gets faster until I begin to feel light headed.

A door to my left swings open but I can't see who it is.

"Sweetie, you need to calm down." A nurse looms over me, her voice nasally and very loud or at least I think it's loud because suddenly I can't hear very well as if my head were underwater and she's trying to yell at me from the shore.

I'm aware of the beeping getting quicker but I can't calm down. My whole body begins to tingle until it feels like I'm floating and another face appears above me but I don't recognise it.

Then everything goes black.

***

This time when my eyes flutter open, I'm somewhere different. I try to sit up but my head pounds and I sink back into the pillows. I'm able to move it to the side and see that the room I'm in is quite similar to my room. I only know that it's different because there isn't a stack of books on the nightstand.

As I'm inspecting the room, Raph walks through the door. He is humming a song and carrying a stack of clothes and doesn't seem to notice me.

"Hey," I croak out and excruciating pain shoots through my throat.

Raph jumps a little and spins around to look at me.

"Oh my God, you're awake."

"Where am I?" The pain gets worse and I left my hand to touch my throat only to be met with more pain.

"Try not to talk. You've got some nasty bruises on your throat," he says gently.

He sits down beside me on the bed.

"I'm so glad you're okay. For a moment there we all thought you weren't going to make it."

"Wha-" I began but he shushed me rather aggressively.

"I'll explain but you can't ask any questions until you're better," he says sternly. "I'm not sure what the last thing that you remember is but when Claude found you, you were in a bad way. He took you back here to the house and your face was just covered in blood. It wasn't until later that we found all the blood in your hair too. I don't really know what happened from there but the nurses must've done a good job because you're alive."

I'm alive. Raph says that he doesn't know what I remembered but I do. I remember the look on Blaise's face when I shot him. I remember how his heartbeat stopped while mine continued to beat. But mostly I remember the peace when it was all done. I remember the peace.

The peace has faded and now it's just pain.

"How long was I out?" I manage to say.

"Stop talking. And only for about five days. I don't understand everything the doctors were saying but it looks like you got lucky. You've managed not to damage anything too major."

Lucky. I am lucky to be alive.

"You look really ugly though," he chuckles. "Your face is all swollen and puffy, it makes me feel better about myself."

I don't laugh. He grins at me sheepishly and we don't say anything for a while.

"Claude was upset if that makes you feel better."