The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 1, Continued, Again

I didn't sleep at all that night, nor any night after that. I kept that up every night for a week straight, until finally exhaustion gave way to sleep. I didn’t want to dream again. I didn’t want to see the looks on their faces again as I failed to save them. But once again I was back in the warehouse, and once again I was tied to a chair just like the rest of my siblings. Again they were killing Luke and again I broke free too late. He was dead in my arms, I cradled him and rocked back and forth, waiting for him to wake up but he never did. Then nothing but darkness surrounded me. Instead of fire, this time I was coughing up water, so much, I thought it would stop but it didn't. The darkness closed in around me, making a box while the water kept coming. Eventually, so much water was in the box that it was over my head and I was drowning. I couldn't hold my breath and it escaped, now instead of air I was inhaling water. Except I wasn't drowning, I was breathing in and out normally—painfully, but normally. I don't know why, but I needed to get out anyways. I pounded at the glass until my knuckles bled and the water looked like fruit punch, still it would not break. Blood swirled around me in the water, taking the shape of a small flame, and the flame kept getting bigger and bigger until I thought I would burn to death in water. Defeated, I sank to the bottom only to find that there was none. I kept sinking lower and lower but it never ended.

I woke up with a start and tried to remember where I was. The hospital, I was still at the hospital. This time the only people in the room were me, Dr. Glass, and the security officers. Another nightmare. I made a new rule: never sleep again.  Another thing was different today, I was still me. Since I had gotten to the hospital, I had always had the floating-and-watching-my-life-through-a-screen experience when Dr. Glass was around. I guessed that the way I feel when Bex takes control is the way she feels when I'm in control.
"Are you alright Bex?" Dr. Glass asked.
I shook my head, "Not Bex. My name's Madelyn."
"Madelyn? Wait, you're Maddie? Well, it's nice to meet you. Do you think you could tell us what happened?"
"Bad dream." I shrugged, "Did you get a hold of Nada yet? She's my aunt and I need to see her."
"Yes, we called her last night while you were sleeping. She was just landing back in America and said she would be over as quickly as she could."
"Thank you. Can I get some morphine or something for my arm, it really hurts." I’ve never really liked pharmaceutical drugs, or drugs of any kind, but the pain was making my vision fuzzy. That’s a really bad sign.
"Oh my goodness. I can't believe they haven't taken care of this yet. Let me go get an orthopedic doctor and I'll have them look at it. Okay?"
"Thank you." Dr. Glass and the security guards left, and twelve minutes later Dr. Glass came back with another doctor. A man, not very tall with gray eyes and a goatee walked with a limp into the room, his wide rimmed glasses didn't sit quite right on his nose and his name badge said 'Dr. Parks'. He came over and looked at my arm, touching it and turning it over which made me wince and bite my tongue to keep from cursing him out. Afterwards Dr. Parks and Dr. Glass left and spoke in hushed voices, looking over and gesturing at me through the window. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar Arabic face with black hair down to her knees, and gorgeous brown eyes leaning over the reception desk to talk to the nurse. She walked over and tried to come in, looking quite unpleased when the guards stopped her before she could. She turned to Dr. Glass and exchanged some words with her. Dr. Glass and the woman went to the guards and they were allowed in.
"Nada!" I sat straight up and then remembered the cuffs on my hands and feet, "Shoot."
"Hello, love." she looked over at the Doc, "Take them off." she ordered.
"Pardon me ma'am?" Dr. Glass asked, bewildered.
"The cuffs, take them off. She's not a criminal, she's a fifteen year old girl"
"I'm afraid I can't. She's a danger to herself and others. They have to stay on."
"Bull. If you won't take them off I'll do it myself. Get out please, we have some things to discuss." Nada shooed Dr. Glass out the door before pulling a lock picking kit out of her bag and getting the cuffs off.
"Thanks Nada, those were really starting to piss me off. Now, one, how long till we leave. Two, what the Hell happened to ‘Never be unreachable’! I've been here for almost two weeks already." Never be unreachable was the third rule in moms list. There were 42 rules in total.
"Okay, one, I was dealing with my own kidnapping problem. Two, Leave? You're not going anywhere. And three, don't lecture me on rules when you completely disregarded rule seventeen. Now tell me what the bloody Hell happened." That was another rule of moms. Rule seventeen is 'it's okay to save yourself' But she never actually cared about that rule. Dad put it in. I’ve never followed that stupid rule though. Why should I save myself when other people are still in danger? That’s just downright selfish is what it is.
"Probably some old friends of moms." I said sarcastically, "They wanted to know where she was."
"Okay, you didn't tell them, did you?" I shook my head, and Nada continued, " Good, and what about your parents? Are they still in Europe? Are they back? Where's everyone else? Did you contact Oliver?"
"No, I didn't call Oliver. My parents came back to find us, and everyone else is-" I stopped, choking on the words.
"What Madelyn?" Nada asked, worry in her eyes.
"They're dead. Killed. All of them. I tried to save them Nada, really I did, but I couldn't." Nada was blurry in my vision and my lower lip was trembling. Nada climbed on the bed with me and we sat there, crying into each other. She sobered up quicker than I did and after an hour or so Dr. Glass and Dr. Parks came in saying that my arm was beyond saving and that it had to be amputated. The world around me slowed down almost to a stop. Bex came and wrapped herself around me, I could feel the change from me to Bex like the change from one cover identity to the next. It was smooth and painless, except for the fact that my physical appearance changed as well. My bottle green eyes turned to Nordic blue and when it happened it felt like I had crossed my eyes for too long. I wondered how that happened, most people with multiple personalities didn’t change their appearance when they switched, so why did I? Bex looked over at Nada, who gasped when she saw that Bex' eyes were blue. She told them that they had to find a way to save the arm. There was nothing that could be done, they said. It would be better to amputate than leave it, they said. In the end, Nada gave them permission and I was taken up to surgery.