Heart on Fire | Noah Sebastian

Chapter 2

I woke with blurry vision and a fuzzy headache. I tried to look around but dizziness overcame me. I blinked away the dizziness and rolled my head around to get my bearings. I rolled around to the window with my vision clearing. It was raining outside. I rolled my head down and found my arm with needles in my veins and bandages on my knuckles. I rolled my head the other side, dizziness blurring me again as that was too strong a movement. My other arm was fine, but my leg was also bandaged.

I woke up in a hospital bed.

Pain began to run down my spine and radiate into my chest and down into my leg. The pain increased with every breath in and eased with every breath out. It felt similar to the pain I felt in my wreck. I've never known pain like this before. It feels like I'm bruised but 1000x worse. It feels like my bones aren't where they should be.

Oh god. My car wreck.

Fuck me. How could I be so stupid.

A nurse eventually strolled in and greeted me, breaking me out of a mental battering. She seemed nice though. She offered me extra pain relief after she explained I had two cracked ribs and a fracture in my femur. Guess that's why breathing hurts. She told me that people who have car accidents in the rain often have far worse outcomes. She believes my guardian angel took care of me yesterday. I don't believe much in guardian angels and stuff.

As the medication made its way through my body and my pain subsided, the doctor had come to visit me. He explained how lucky I was to have only sustained the injuries I did. He explained the fracture in my femur would only take six to eight weeks to heal so long as I complied with physio therapy and my ribs with eventually heal with rest. I had no broken bones, only fractures and a tonne of bruising. He explained that my cracked ribs likely came from the seatbelt I was wearing but that was a far better substitute than being ejected from my car and sustaining far worse injuries or even death. He stressed how lucky I was.

The nurse took my vitals and I was eventually left to rest. As I watched the nurse and doctor exit my room, I spot another being out by the reception desk. She wore a yellow shirt tucked into navy pants and large black boots and seemed oddly familiar although I couldn't quite place it. The lady in yellow leaned against the reception desk rigidly, seeming as though she was filling out paperwork as she wiped away a tear. The receptionist handed her a box of tissues and she battered her eyes and nose with a tissue before stuffing it into a pocket in her pant leg. She continued to weep as she filled out paperwork. Another nurse and the receptionist attempted to console her.

"Nurse" I called out. She turned around and asked me what I needed. "That lady in the yellow shirt over there, who is she?"

The nurse turns around and looks back at me "Oh that's Belle. She's from the Fire Service. Why do you ask?" the nurse smiles.

My heart began to race and my palms began to sweat. Belle... my saviour. I hesitated for a moment as I watched Belle attempt to regain her composure but I decided against my better judgement. "Can you ask her to come in, I want to thank her" I asked politely. The nurse looked back between me and Belle seemingly confused as to why anyone would ask for her. The nurse was hesitant to ask Belle as she was clearly weeping but did so anyway.

I watched as the nurse approached Belle and pointed to me in my ward. Belle looked at me confused but decided to come into see me. I watched as she wept away the last of her tears and take a breath in. She was resetting herself.

"Hi Noah" she enters my room gracefully. She smiled one of the brightest smiles I've ever seen. Her eyes were soft and were trying their hardest to blink away the tears she was crying at the desk. Her eyes met mine in the same way they met them yesterday.