Astrophysical (completed)

Chapter 21

When Cassie began to open her eyes, she felt as if she had just woken from a long and heavy dream. Her body felt weighed down by a ton of bricks and she could barely keep her eyelids open. She didn't recall what she had been doing before she fell asleep, but as she opened her eyes, she began to feel fear hit her.

The room where she lay was dark. Hardly anything was in it besides the bed she lay on and small bedside table. A chair sat a couple of feet way, but nothing looked familiar to her. She scrunched up her nose and looked to the wall opposite.

Standing there was a tall three-legged alien with a long blue tunic. It had its head down and its hands, which only had two fingers, were pressed together. But as she looked at it wide eyed in confusion, it raised its head and then opened its one eye.

Cassie let out the loudest scream she could muster. Bright fluorescent lights turned on, but she continued screaming. A low deep voice began saying, "Please calm down. You are unwell. We are here to help."

But Cassie didn't like the sounds of that. She tried to get up and felt a wave of pain erupt from her right side. Crying now she fell back to the bed trying to find the right words to call out.

The sounds of a door opening caught her attention though and she looked up to see Ash rushing to her side. He had a new outfit on, but his face was still pale. He quickly touched her hand and cheek shushing her gently.

"Cassie, it's okay," he said soothingly. "You're okay, just calm down."

"Ash," she said through tears trying to take deep breaths and calm herself down now. Her heart was still beating rapidly, but it started to wind down as he ran his thumb down her cheek and squeezed her hand.

"I promise nothing is going to hurt you here, Cas," he said. "The creatures here are only trying to help you heal. Do you remember what happened?"

Cassie looked up into his deep blue eyes. She began recalling their escape and the two thugs who tried to stop them. Then she remembered the axe and looked down at her side. It was bandaged and covered by some electrical monitoring strip. When she met his eyes again, she nodded slowly.

He let out a sigh of relief but frowned. "You got hurt pretty bad, Cassie. It's why we're here. This is the only planet whose creatures are committed to healing others. I'm glad you held out long enough for me to get you here."

She looked over at the white alien who was staring at her with its one eye. It didn't have a mouth, but she swore she heard it talk.

"Don't worry, miss," the low deep voice said again. She squeezed Ash's hand but stayed focused on the creature. "We will continue to monitor you until you are fully healed. But you need to sleep some more since your adrenaline peaked so high."

Cassie grew wide eyed turning to Ash. "But I only just woke up."

He frowned. "I know, but you need to continue to rest to get better. I promise you won't be asleep as long as you were this time, Cas."

Cassie's eyebrows raised. "How long was I asleep?" Ash just smiled weakly at her and then bent forward and kissed her forehead. "You'll be here, right?"

He pulled away and nodded. "I will be. I'm not letting you go again, Cassie. That I can promise you."

She gently placed her hand on the one he had against her cheek. She tried to smile but felt the tears hit her. "I really am sorry for everything, Ash."

"Don't be. Except for the fact that you shouldn't be taking hits for me like this. I'm not fond of you getting hurt over me." He then kissed her forehead again. "Once your better we'll talk. Until then I need you to focus on healing, all right?"