Truly Lost

Sleuth

Sleuth
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost

The Hospital reeked a horrid smell and the waxed floors were slippery. I've always hated hospitals, but damn this one sucks. I don't know what it is about the paintings in my room, but I just don't like them. The door also is missing a hinge and the other makes a loud creeping sound if you even look at it wrong. The windows are dirty and the bathroom door takes two people to open because the door is too big for the frame. I hate this room.
I got up and decided to go for a walk down to the floor below me, though I didn't know which one it was, and I had to walk because one of the elevators was broken and there is a zero percent chance I'm waiting for a different one. So down the stairs I trekked. The stairwell was made of concrete and it was cold. Really cold. I'm talking freezing cold. Maybe it's because it couldn't hold heat or maybe the hospital staff just hate everyone who goes through here. The railings were also cold, so I couldn't hold myself up which was hard considering I had just woken up from anesthesia just an hour before.
When I finally got down the stairs, I walked around the halls looking for something to do or someone to talk to, but there was no one except nurses and doctors. I walked down a hall full of patient rooms, gazing into each until I saw Claudia. I backed away fast and fell down on the floor, hitting my head off a railing on the way down.
"Sir, are you alright? Sir?"
I looked up to see a nurse over me, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just slipped, that's all." She called another nurse over, her name was Baker. They helped me up and brought me back to my room where I sat on my bed and waited for nurse Baker to come back with my doctor.
When my doctor came in he asked me, "What were you doing on the critical care floor?"
I looked over to the doctor, "I wanted to go for a walk. How did I get here?"
"Do you mean in this room or in the hospital?"
"How did I get into the hospital? I'm fine, but what happened to Ava?"
"Who is Ava?"
"The girl in the fire. I pulled her out and you guys took her and I can't remeber anything after that. Why am I here?"
"Sir, there wasn't anyone else there. The vets clinic was closed and when the firemen came, you were laying on the ground and your shirt was on fire. There wasn't anyone in the clinic."
So who did I pull out then? I know I did, "Ma'am, Ava must still be back there then, you guys didn't see her. Ava is still in there, go get her! She's probably hurt!"
"Sir, there was no one else, the police and firemen cleared the scene—"
"How could they clear it if Ava is still there?"
"Sir, Ava wasn't there. There is no Ava."
"Stop calling me Sir! My name is William. You need to find Ava, she's still back there and she was on fire. Can you find my bird? Little Warble, he was there too. He was in surgery the day before."
"Sir, no pets survived the accident. Also, you've been in a coma for three days, you need to lay down."
"I haven't been in a coma, go find Ava and Little Warble. They are alive, I just saw them. How long has it been, an hour?"
The doctor looked over to the nurses, "Rose, get someone off the Psych floor to do a consult. Baker, get Radfield and Germain from neuro."
"I don't need a damn consult! I'm fine, but if we wait any longer both Little Warble and Ava won't make it! They will burn. You can't let them burn!"
"Sir, please calm down, you are freaking out and it's getting your heart rate up. Slow down." Then the doctor walked me through some breathing exercises, but all I could think about was Ava and Little Warble. They can't be dead.
Two more doctors came in and introduced himself as Dr.Radfield, the head of neuro, and Dr.Germain from the burn unit. They talked to me about my head and my brain and if I had any pain. "Where is Ava?" I kept asking, but no one answered me. Not one person knew where she or my bird were. Little Warble. I really miss him, even if he was only in my home for half a day.
About an hour later, some police officers came in and talked to me about the incident, though neither of the idiots could tell me if they found Ava or Little Warble. At that point I realized I had to deal with the fact Little Warble was probably dead and Ava was lost.
"William?"
"Yes, officer?"
"This Ava you keep asking about, was she in the fire with you?"
"Yes ma'am, she was. She was calling out to me for help."
"Alright, did she sound young?"
"When I got up to her, she looked about 25 ish, maybe. She was pretty young"
"You saw her?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Interesting. What did you do when you saw her?"
"Well, she was on fire so I tried to turn on the tap so I could hose her down, or something, but the water didn't run, so I had to use the fire extinguisher on the wall to put her out. I think it worked, but after I got to the lobby I don't remember anything else."
"William, this bit is important, can you tell me what she was wearing?"
"No, her clothes were charred by the time I got to her. Though, she did have brown hair and the part of her shoes that weren't on fire were pink."
"Thank you William. We will do everything we can to find her and your bird."
I shook the officer's hand and then the others and then they left. I was alone in my room for the first time after what felt like constant supervision. I thought about seeing Claudia again, maybe using a wheelchair or something to get down there, but I couldn't even remember what floor her room was on, or her room number. I caught a glimpse of it, the fist number was definitely a four and the second might have been a seven. It really sucks that I can't remember it, especially since the nurse said she was in the surgical wing. I almost feel bad for leaving. What she said wasn't horrible per say, just wrong. Though, I can see where she was coming from.
The next morning I woke up and couldn't remember where I was or why I was there. I was very confused and there was nobody around to ask about anything, so I sat there in confusion. The last thing I remembered was when I was walking back to campus, and then nothing, but then I saw Claudia in some hallway of someplace, and then I'm here.
All of a sudden, my door swung open and in ran a  nurse frantically. She was sweating and it looked like she had just run a marathon. "Ma'am, are you alright?"
"They might have found Ava."