The Rejected Alpha

Chapter 116

My eyes shot open.

My chest was on fire, my lungs burning and aching for air, I realized, as I took a long labored breath in. And then I turned into a fit of gut wrenching coughs, as if I had just been rescued from drowning for at least five hours.

I must have been quite a sight, absolutely vile coughs racking my body, my face probably red or some other unsightly color, blue perhaps? My veins were also probably popping out, protruding from beneath the surface of my reddened skin, looking about ready to burst with the strain I could feel on them through the force of my coughs.

After I had finally caught myself and was somewhat steadily breathing again, slight tremors still traveling along the length of my body, I lay back down. Not entirely because I was done coughing, because I wasn't. I still had a couple fits as my body got reacquainted with a steady stream of air. I fell back down because the coughing episode had taken all the energy out of me and the five second coughing fit felt like I'd been living with obstructive pulmonary disease for the past hundred years and I'd just yacked my lungs out.

Everything still ached, everything still burned, just slightly less so.

But even through my haze and tired mind I immediately locked eyes with Damon's glowing blue orbs as they stared down at me with so many emotions, the most obvious one relief.

I was surrounded by a lot of people but I could only make out Sorayah, Evelyn, Mara and Aliyah who'd formed a tight circle around me, hands connected and stretched out towards me.

Hm.

My mind was foggy.

What happened?

It came to me two seconds after. My heart rate immediately skyrocketing again once the sordid memories came back to me.
They brought me back.

I'd died. I was gone.
And now... I'm back?

I was alive again, even though my body still felt like it would rather be dead. Everything hurt.

But as grateful as I was for all their efforts at saving me, I just couldn't bring myself to feel relief or joy right now.

I also felt odd with the amount of eyes currently focused on me, I couldn't make eye contact. I tried to focus on anything but the people around me at the moment. My brain was trying to sort out information and memories and trying to decipher between hallucinations, dreams and reality. I felt like I had the wildest dream that was clear as day but became instantly fuzzy as soon as I woke up.
I could literally feel my neurons scrambling about trying to recover the lost files. I knew I had to concentrate to get my mind clear but I didn't know what I had to concentrate on.

I zoned in on what I was wearing at the moment. A baggy blood stained green F1 shirt that certainly wasn't mine. If I owned one it would certainly be red with 16 in-front and Leclerc at the back. Whose shirt is this?
I didn't really care though, I was grateful that I at least wasn't naked.

"She's alive." I heard Damon whisper, his voice betraying just a hint of a crack.
I looked back up at him and in no time he had pulled me in for a hug. Almost crushing me. It hurt, a whole lot. But it felt comforting.

I could hear noise from all around me, it sounded like cheerful noise and I assumed that I was supposed to be cheerful but something was nagging me.
Something wasn't right.

Damon held me for so long a time I thought the world had frozen. Just nothing but his warm and strong embrace, the comforting pain that soothed me. He held me while saying things I couldn't actually hear at the moment, I was still out of it. I felt like I couldn't comprehend anything at the moment.