Sixty Seconds

Chapter Nineteen

Jessica

I was warm, the kind of warm you feel when the sun hits you after you step out of the shade. Light danced on my shut eyelids, and there was an incessant beeping noise beside me. My alarm clock was going off. Without opening my eyes I stretched over towards my side table, leaning over the edge of my bed. My hand went down to hit the alarm, but it hit thin air and my body tipped slightly over the side of the bed and gravity pulled me the rest of the way.

“Shit!” I squeaked as I snapped my eyes open. Landing heavily on cold tiled floor. A floor which wasn't my floor. My eyes came into contact with black boots. Two hands reached down to me and I took them.

“Idiot” Carter said, pulling me up. His tone was sarcastic but his face told a different story. His normally neat gelled back hair was a mess and dark circles patterned under his eyes. He looked worriedly at me, looking older than he was.

“You look like hell” I told him, looking at his rumpled clothes and tired eyes.

“I'm guessing you haven't looked in the mirror recently” He said, sounding almost weak with relief. I blinked a few times at him, as if to capture that look between my eyelashes.

A tall man wearing a white coat ran in. I assumed he was a doctor. Dirty blonde hair was left flopping over his face, giving him a lopsided puppy dog face. He took one look at the situation and ordered me to sit down.

“How are you feeling?” He asked me. Blinding me with one of those annoying flash lights. I went to fold my arms but something painful tugged at the back of my left hand. I looked down.

“There's a needle in my arm” I told him, beginning to shake. I had had a phobia of needles since I was six years old. I had gotten so dehydrated I was put on a drip, my first memorable encounter with a needle. Both the doctor and the nurse had gone home with bruised shins and bitten hands, too bad I was too old for that now.

“It's an I.V, you had to have a blood transfusion because the gas destroyed so many red blood cells in your body.” He told me, switching his torch off and putting it into his pocket. “How are you feeling?” He asked again.

“There's a needle in my arm. I hate needles” I started to sweat, my horrible phobia of needles coming back in full force.

“She's fine” Carter told him, the Doctor slid the IV out of my arm and I rubbed it continually, shaking off the phobia.

I lay back on the soft hospital pillows. “What happened earlier?” I asked Carter as soon as the doctor left. The sun was high in the sky and I calculated it had been about four hours since I had passed out.

Carter looked at me strangely, I could tell that the news I was about to hear wouldn't make me happy.

“earlier” He repeated. “Jessica, you've been unconscious for three days! ”

I stared at him, mouth open. He stared back. “Three days” I repeated softly. The world seemed to spin slightly.