Ephemeral

Phantom Pains

The nurse came in to take my vitals at about six in the morning – I wasn't able to sleep a wink that entire night. After all, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched from the darkness of the room and hadn't ever lowered my guard once because of it.

The nurse seemed startled as she rounded the corner of my bed to take some blood and found my wide, tired eyes staring back at her as I didn't anything. The woman flinched in surprise as her hands went up to her chest in shock, peering over at me to see if I was still alive as I didn't move a muscle.

Silently, I offered her my arm and she took what she needed before sealing the bead of blood with a circular, orange Band-Aid. I placed my arm under the blanket and continued to stare out the window, with my back facing Bella.

"You didn't sleep at all..." Bella's groggy voice came from behind me. The nurse coming into the room must have woken her up. "Did you...?"

I slowly turned to face her and stared at her – she looked tired and her blonde hair was disheveled. Despite the fact that I was free from Aidan physically for the time being, I never went back to blonde. It was better to keep my natural hair color since it required less maintenance that way – I also didn't want Bella to think that I was having another identity crisis.

She wiped the sleep from her eyes as she looked over at me from her bed.

"I kept thinking that someone was watching me..." I explained to her.

Bella let out a small exhale – "Creepy..."

I nodded in agreement.

"It's your discharge day..." Bella said as she placed her arms by her sides. She gave me a small smile. "I wish I could run the hell out of here, too."

"You just need to heal a little bit more," I reasoned and she rolled her eyes. "What?" I teasingly asked. Bella couldn't keep the small, amused smile off her face. I was glad that she was able to find some humor in this entire situation. "Am I sounding too much like Doctor Ortiz now?"

Rafael knocked on the door as he walked through and I looked over at him as I sat up.

"Speak of the damned devil..." I muttered under my breath, to which Rafael let out a thin smile on his face. "Am I going to get discharged now?"

"We need to go over your blood tests and I'll let you know, Arianna," Rafael responded, holding his tablet with both of his hands as he brought it to rest in front of him. He looked between me and Bella. "How are you feeling today, Bella?" He brought his attention over to my sister, though he still kept me in his peripherals. "Any aches or pains-?"

Bella let out a sigh as she rested on her forearms, lifting her upper body up.

"I could go for some more morphine, actually," she replied to his question.

Rafael grinned at her. "I'll let the nurse know," He opened up the tablet and began to tap on the screen. "Anything else that we should be made aware of...?"

Bella looked over at me while lifting an eyebrow. I stared at her for a few seconds and then shook my head. She then nodded her head towards Rafael while giving me the deathly side eye. I let out a sigh as I had been defeated and began to pick at the skin around my left thumb nervously.

"I think...someone was watching us last night," I admitted.

"Oh?" Rafael asked, his attention now back on me. I began to sweat under his sudden pressing gaze. There was something about it that made me want to look away. "Please, tell me what happened?" He lifted a hand up to his chin as he waited for me to answer.