The Nerd Duchess

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Anya moaned slightly as the darkness slowly faded away to a blurry canvass of white. White from the hospital and the light. She immediately shut her eyes and attempted to assess what had happened to her.

She tried to move her legs and toes.

Good. I am not paralyzed.

Even to herself that attempt in humor sounded too stupid. But she could feel the weigh on one of her legs so that means he screw up her right leg.

She took a deep breath but immediately felt regretted. A few of her ribs were definitely broken or bruised. Her left hand is heavy so she might have broken it. He had already figured out that her hands, and arms were wounded and bruised. Her wrist as well. She could remember the burns she had received from the rope that they tied around it.

Gathering her wits, the dizziness she was experience had come from her blood loss or probably a concussion. She knew she was not lucky so she figured it might have been from the second one. Despite how she wanted it to become the first.

She slowly opened her eyes. This time they adjusted to the harsh light that came from the fluorescent lamp above their heads. She surveyed the room.

Ryan was asleep on one of the armchairs in front of the plasma screen in the room. A couple more sleeping figured were occupying the rest of the chairs. Charles and Anthony were seated side by side on the only couch in the room.

She released a groan in pain when she decided to move to a more comfortable position. It was a wrong move. And Ryan was stirring awake because of the noise she had caused.

"Anya!" he gasped. Ryan moved directly beside her, chastising her. "Don't move. You're hurt."

"Ryan?" she asked as her older brother fussed over her which she completely ignored.

"Where is mom and dad? Or Andrew?" she noticed how her brother stiffened after she had spoken their older brother's name.

He didn't reply. Events flashes across her eyes.

Green. Green grass. The smell of dirt in the air. Line up chairs. An aise and in front of it was a coffin. Beyond the aisle and the coffin and the dug up ground were rows and rows of tombstone.

A cemetery.

All around where there were people crying as the minister said a few more things before the opencasket got closed.

Anya gasped at the vision. But it was more real than that. It could have been...a memory.

Tear started spilling from her eyes. "He's dead, isn't he?" the hand that wasn't wrapped in bandages took hold of Ryan' arm that was near hers. "Ryan, Andrew's dead, isn't he? And it's because of me."

Ryan eyes snapped to her just as the heart monitors had started beating erratically.

***

Anya had finally woken up. It had been true. What the doctor had said about her amnesia, she was recovering. Ryan was happy to say that she was recovering. However, the sad part was that he now has to see the empty and haunted look in his sister's eyes.

She had remembered everything. The fire at the villa many years ago. The same fire that had taken her memories. The same fire that had taken their brother's life away from them.

Ever since Anya had remembered and figured everything out, she was distant. Normally she is a lttle loner. But lately, it had different, she would even talk to anyone. Not their parents. To her friends that had visited her when they had been informed that she was recovering in a hospital in Italy. Not to Charles. Not to Amelia. And especially not to him, Ryan, her brother.

Her face would remained as stoic as it was even when people are telling her an exciting news.

Ryan didn't know what was going on. His parents are as clueless as he was. They had spoken to the doctor, asking him what he thinks is going on with his sister. He and everyone were worried about her well-being. It could have been easily been said that the hospital may have been healing her physically, emotionally nothing.
She barely eats unless it was forcibly done. She wouldn't acknowledge anyone. She just lay there and stare at the ceiling all day long.

Ryan could clearly remember what the doctor had said to him when he asked.

"Amnesia is a very difficult thing to experience. From what we had gathered, as you have said, she didn't remember anything from when she was six years old and below. That is long time. And a lot has happened. And as you were saying, she just remembered that her other sibling died in a fire protecting her. I am not a psychologist but from what I can see. Miss Williamson is mourning a death that has happened a long time ago."

Andrew is dead. There was nothing they could do about that.

"You just have to support her and be there for here. She needs it."

The doctor had said but that task is impossible when the person wants nothing than to be alone.

It wasn't a surprise Anya had always been a closed off person. A smile on the face and a simple, "I'm fine", is the only thing that she does whenever someone ask her how she feels. She is more off the person you run to and tells all your problems but won't tell you hers. She is the person that thinks that the weight of the world is on her shoulders.

Ryan watched how Anya entertained their parents who were fussing over her. A smile on her face, but that smile didn't quite reach her eyes.
Anya didn't have any more break downs than other than the one he saw once Anya had woken up.

She and their parents had been talking for a while now and Ryan was sure that they were about to leave soon especially since it was almost time for visiting hours to be over. The reason they had been allowed to stay was because of a few strings Charles had pulled. But, Ryan knew that they could not exploit that. So they had leave once the bell rings signaling the end of the visiting hours.

And as if fate somehow read his mind, the loud ringing sound of the metallic bell could be heard thorough the hospital.

"We need to go, my little spider," their father said kissing Anya in the forehead after their mother had done the same. "Visiting hours is done. We will be back tomorrow."

Anya nodded. "Good bye, momma and papa. Ryan." She waved good-bye at them. "Charles. Anthony. See you in the morning."

Ryan nodded. He doesn't want to leave her all alone for tonight. But he trusts the personal nurse that his parents had appointed to his sister. She will take care of her.

"See you tomorrow sis." Ryan nodded waving good bye before following his parents out.