As soon as the door opened with a subtle click, I bolted past the woman before she could start. I shoved past the doctors crowded around her and almost slid against the tile as I knelt down next to my bedridden wife. There she was. In her hands was my future; Our future, and oh was she beautiful.
My daughter, Tiara, was born that day on July 21st at 13:11 pm.
I stared at a reflection of my eyes, as I held her in my arms, cradled. She immediately stopped crying then, and the whole room was silent except for the glance my wife gave me that almost broke her further into tears. The female nurse who tried to greet me at the door came up from behind me. "Congratulations sir." She said smiling at me in a way that made me uncomfortable. I didn't pay it any mind, I was too caught up in this moment, so I sent her off with a brief smile back.
That's when my wife began to sink into the bed. Deeper and deeper until she was no longer visible, like it had swallowed her whole. The heart monitor blared off with a single beep, as tears suddenly began streaming from my eyes despite my smile. The room grew darker, and the nurse next to me began to smile at me more. I looked down at bloodied hands, caked onto my sleeves, with my daughter no where in sight. I stepped back in disbelief, as everything around me began to decay. The floor cracked open with a haunting pattern that sprawled across the tile, as the nurse next to me began to melt. Her jaw was dislocated from the top half of her head, as her skin began to burn off, exposing her bare skull. Staring back at hollowed eyes, I retreated back into the corner of the room, as everything in the room began shaking. It was as if an earthquake had hit the room. I held my head in my hands, begging it all to go away, until all I could make out was a shrilling shout that cut through the air.I shot up from the chair in the hallway of the hospital still yelling for a moment, as the chatter continued around me. I only received a few glances from the passing patients walking with their nurses. I quickly took aware of my surroundings before bolting to the closed door my wife was behind. She was safe. I sighed, out of both relief and confusion. What was wrong with me that I would be deemed such a horrific and vivid nightmare? "I need to start getting my sleep schedule back on track.." I thought to myself, shaking my head and clearing my eyes as I returned to my uncomfortable plastic seat.
It hadn't been five minutes when I heard hurried footsteps down the corridor to my right. I wouldn't have paid it a second glance if they weren't right in front of me in a New York minute, all crowding through the door. I jolted up in worry, grabbing the final nurse about to walk through the door by the sleeve, stopping him.
"What's going on?!" I barked
"Sir we're going to need you to stay calm and stay seated" He tried reassuring me.
"No...No! I'm headed in there right now to see what's going on!" I said, shoving past him.
Almost as soon as I was in, two taller male doctors turned to hold me back, the sound of my wife screaming in agony and a baby crying.
"She's losing blood! Fast!" I heard a voice yell.
"Let me see her!" I ordered, still being shoved back
I was escorted out; not willingly without putting up a fight first that is. They lifted me from under my shoulders and walked towards the door, clocking one of them in the face pretty good as I struggled to break free from their grasp. We exited the room and they sat me back down, using all their force to hold me down.
"Sir! We need you to calm down!" The one with the bloodied nose started, as the other called for security.
She better be alright! A voice in my head boomed. I couldn't speak, only thoughts flooded my head in the heat of the moment. The feeling of adrenaline weighing my whole world down. That's when it fell silent. Completely silent. I could see the doctors lips moving, and the hazy vision of the hospitals security running down the hallway.Everything was a blur after that.
