The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 1, Continued, Again

When I got out of surgery I was still asleep and I had the nightmare again. Honestly, I don't think they'll ever stop. Halfway through the nightmare, right after the darkness started, I shook myself awake. There were tears streaming down my face and I tried to wipe them away, forgetting that I was missing my dominant arm. I curled myself up, wrapping my arm around my knees and listened to Nova who was sitting on the floor by the door of the bathroom, singing like she used to. I almost started singing along when she began singing her favorite song but instead I just smiled sadly. I will kill the people who did this to you. I thought. By the time I'm done with them they will be begging me to kill them. When Nova's song was over she disappeared, taking my smile with her. A note saying that Nada had gone to get us food was beside me on the bed, so I knew I was alone in the room. Have I gone completely crazy? I wondered as I thought about how I was talking to my dead siblings.

The door opened and Nada walked in carrying fast food bags from her favorite Chinese place. She tossed one bag at me and I tried to catch it but ended up missing it because of the whole no right arm thing. I grabbed it after it hit the bed and thanked her. We ate silently while watching the news on TV. Then my face flashed on the screen and I dropped my chopsticks. It was talking about the warehouse, showing footage of the fire and me running back in, the ambulance taking my unconscious body to the hospital.
"kayf bihaqi aljahim?!" Nada exclaimed in Arabic. (Translation: How the Hell?!)
"I don't know. How did this get out?" I asked.
"Better question," A voice from the door asked, "Why did you run back into the fire?" Nada and I both looked over to see Detective Patterson and Detective Dalton in the doorway with cups of coffee in their hands. Crap. This was not what I needed.
"Hello detectives, this is my aunt Nada Sloan. She wasn't here last time we talked."
"No she wasn't, nice to meet you ma'am. Now, I'll ask my question again, why did you run back into the fire?" He asked sternly.
"cad a deirim leo?" I asked Nada. (what do I tell them?)
"níl a fhios agam, ní an fhírinne." she answered. (I don't know, not the truth.)
"What are you two saying over there?" Detective Dalton asked.
"I'm translating for her, she only understands Irish, sorry." I lied, "To be perfectly honest officer, I don't remember why I ran back in. I was delusional after being resuscitated I think." In Irish I told Nada the basic recap of what I had already told the policemen, under the guise of translating what I was saying.
"Hmm, okay then." Detective Patterson responded hesitantly, "If you happen to remember anything, here's my card." he held his hand out with a small card in between his middle and forefinger. I reached over and took it, handing it to Nada.
"If that's all officers, I have some matters to attend to." I expected them to turn and leave, instead they asked another question.
"One more quick question, there were six other bodies in the warehouse. Were there any other people there with you?" There should have been more than six. Aiden killed at least two when he tried to get us out. I killed one at the very beginning, when they couldn’t kill us yet.
I looked over at Nada before responding. "What? They didn't run DNA on the bodies, isn't that the usual procedure? If you did, you would know that they were my family. They killed them."
"I'm so sorry for your loss." He said sympathetically, "But when you say they what do you mean?"
"The people who took us, obviously. And here I thought you people were supposed to be smart?" I rolled my eyes as they finally turned around and left. Aiden and Nova were standing there against the door, so I asked Nada if she could go get me an energy drink from one of the vending machines. She obliged and walked down the hall. Nova came over and hugged me while Aiden sat at the end of the bed. When the door opened Aiden and Nova vanished into thin air. What I thought was Nada was just a nurse coming to change the bandages on my shoulder. Nada came back and gave me my drink and then told me she had to leave for a bit, I told her to be safe and bring something to do when she came back. Before she left she handed me my phone, fully charged, and told me to play games.