Ephemeral

Rude Awakening

I opened my eyes up slowly, taking in the dark room that I was in.

Letting out a small breath I attempted to roll over but found that I couldn't move any of my limbs. Swallowing, I looked around the bed that I was laying on to find multiple machines beeping loudly, and with my arms resting on top of the covers I was under, there were also plastic tubes digging into my skin.

I...I couldn't feel anything.

There was a heartbeat monitor next to me, and from the loud and quick beeps, I was able to tell that it was mine. My heart was thumping wildly in my chest, and I searched around the small room, looking for a way out of it, even if I couldn't move any of my limbs to get there –

It would have calmed me down if I had a way out of here...

I didn't like the feeling of being trapped...!

I spotted a white curtain that had questionable stains on it that prevented me from looking any farther to my left. A door opened up and a man in dark blue scrubs entered the room. I stared up at him, trying to move even an inch of my arms but found that that endeavor was useless. He came closer and walked purposefully to my bed side.

"W-Where am I-?" I squeaked out, looking up at him.

The last thing I remembered was being inside Rafael's apartment – he was acting strange and said that Aidan's men were coming after him. Then, I got stabbed with something and it forced me to lose consciousness.

The man dug into his pocket and my eyes widened as he took out a syringe.

"N-No – wait-!" I began to plead but didn't get very far. He didn't care to listen to me and instead decided to inject it into one of the plastic tubes that went directly into my skin. "Wait, please-!" I kept trying to persuade him to stop and then found that the room was beginning to become blurry.

My heart rate had steadied to a normal level.

That bastard gave me a sedative...

My eyes felt tired and my head slowly fell to the side as I stared at the white curtain to my left. I could barely make out another person laying on a bed – much in a similar state as me. The curtain was very thin and I could see through it.

"H-Hel..." I wanted to say help but the word died on my tongue. The drug was overtaking my mind and body and before I knew it...

I was waking up in the same room.

Much like before, I realized that I couldn't move my arms or legs. I knew now to not panic over my situation or a doctor would come in and put me to sleep. Breathing out of my mouth, I lightly panned my eyes over the room again, doing my best to not elevate my heart rate – the people that took me were keeping a stern eye on my vitals and I couldn't afford them to come back in here.

"Is anyone...? Is anyone over there...?" I asked quietly, hoping that the other person was awake.

Or alive.

"Yes," came a woman's voice. My eyes widened at the response – I had not been expecting anyone to reply back to me. It might have been selfish of me, but I was relieved that I wasn't in this place alone. Even having a stranger's company was far better than having no one's. "Who are you?"

"Arianna..." I answered, tilting my head up to look at the ceiling – it was metal. It was apparent that I wasn't anywhere good by all the metal that was around me. "Who are you? How long have you been here?"

The woman let out a small, dry chuckle from under her breath – "Arianna?" She questioned my name, almost in disbelief. "I'm...Sofia. I've been here for..." She became quiet. I looked over at the curtain, wondering if she was going to continue. "Four months and some weeks..."