Chanel Hastings & The Treasures of Aphrodite Book 1: The Magic Girdle

Chapter 4: Dad Reveals The Crazy Truth About My Mother

OOTD: A hideous hospital gown in a hideous shade of hospital blue.

Makeup: It's definitely smudged now.

Hairstyle: Can't remember what I did with it. Hard to use your memory when you just got hit by a car.

Fragrance: Whatever hospitals usually smell like. Hand sanitizer? Bodily fluids? Bland food?

Dear Diary,

Before I regained consciousness, I had a strange dream.

It was night time in my dream, the moon shining high in the sky and softly illuminating everything around me. It seemed like I was standing in some kind of garden. Around me were florals and blooms of all types, everything from lilies and tulips, to marigolds and chrysanthemums. There was a rose bush not too far from me as well, full of flowers of all colours including white roses, my absolute favorite flowers of all time.

Normally, I would have stopped and smelled the roses, but I was distracted by a conversation happening near me. I couldn't see who was talking, but I could hear the voices, and some of them didn't sound human.

"...can't believe this. They had one job. One job!" came the exasperated voice of a human boy.

There was a loud yawn that sounded like it was coming from a large feline, maybe some kind of tiger or lion. "Careless of you to trust those furry fools. They're not exactly your brightest soldiers."

"I thought they would be the most covert, given how well they blend in with humans! How was I supposed to know that they would get hustled by a bunch of little girls?"

There was a pause in the conversation, and then the feline voice came again. "So what are you going to do now?"

The boy sighed. "Gruff and Scruff got dusted this morning. But thankfully, there are a lot of others on the hunt for the girdle. Maybe we can set up a trap near the camp when we figure out who has it."

"If you manage to get it back, bring it to us for safekeeping," said another feline voice that sounded more feminine than the first. "Let her children try to fight us for it if they dare. We'll claw them into shreds."

The voices kept speaking, but I couldn't make out their words anymore. Their chatting grew distant as the environment around me began to blur and fade into black. After a few seconds of nothing but darkness, I eventually felt my eyelids start to lift. My vision took a second to adjust and become sharp again. I looked down to see that I was in some type of bed, completely covered up in layers of white blankets.

As all my senses slowly returned to me, I realized that I was in a hospital. I noticed the safety railings on the bed, and felt all sorts of wires and chords on me, connected to a monitor that beeped along with my heartbeat and a bag of fluids that were seeping into my body. There were all sorts of bandages and wrappings on my body. The blinds on the windows were halfway down. Through the bottom of the windows, I could see that it was nighttime, with the city lights glowing brightly within the darkness.

On the ledge of the windows, I spotted three large colorful bouquets, with 'Get Well Soon!' cards sticking out of them. The one in the middle, the largest one, was signed by my father. The second one, slightly smaller, was addressed from the Levingtons. The third one was from the Nguyens, with an extra pink card from Stephanie.

As I gained my bearings, I noted that I was alone in the room, but I could hear familiar voices coming from outside the door; it sounded like Catherine and my father.

"Dad?" I called out softly, my voice weak. No one responded, and the voices carried on.

I noticed a remote lying next to me in the bed. I pressed the incline button, and felt the upper part of the bed slowly pushing me up. Now that I was in a better position, I called out again, louder this time. "Dad!"