TOXIC BLOODLINES 1/4

THE NEW NORMAL

KIMBERLY

Warm sunlight shining through my window woke me up. And with a yawn and a stretch, I rolled onto my side. It was hard to go back to sleep, but the paranoia of waiting for my alarm to go off forced me to wake up. Why hasn't it gone off yet? Then I heard the steady beeping of the machines. Huh? I sat up. My eyes scanned the room. A hospital? Why am I in a hospital? Then I remembered the accident. Arik. A stillness came over me. I pulled out the drips and climbed out of bed. A sharp pain shot up my leg. My foot was in a cast. "Ow, ow, ow," I held in tears as I saw the other bandages on my legs and hands. I felt my face and winced from the sting of a stitch on my chin. Then a nurse walked in with a food tray. "What's going on?"

Startled, she almost dropped the stray. "You should get back to bed." The nurse approached me.

"What happened to me? Where's my aunt?" I asked her.

"She's coming, just get back to bed," The nurse guided me.

"Where is my aunt? WHERE IS MY AUNT!" I panicked.

"Kimberly, you need to rest, wait here," the nurse rushed out.

I got out of the bed again and limped toward the door. I was locked in. "Hey! Why is it locked? Hello?" Nobody answered. I started to panic. Why would they lock me in? I aggressively pulled on the handle and began hitting the door. "LET ME OUT!" I carried on pulling on the door handle until a doctor finally arrived. I recognized him, it was José's dad. Good, I'm still in town. I felt relieved. Doctor Garcia smiled at me then unlocked the door. "Arik Jaeger- is he here? Is he alive? And my friend Ian- We were in an accident!" I rambled on hysterically as more of the details flashed into my memory. Blood, so much blood.

Doctor Garcia led me back to the bed and signaled for the nurses. They came in to calm me down while he pulled out a syringe. "No- get away from me!" I struggled with them.

"It's okay, rest," Doctor Garcia injected me.

"No, no, I don- wan-," my vision darkened.

~~~

I must've been in and out for days. I could vaguely remember the nurses coming in to check on me, their voices, soft and comforting. With a deep yawn, I flickered my eyes awake to the white ceiling of the room. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. I'm still here. A tear rolled down my face at the realization. This is bad. I sighed and sat up in the bed. The room I was in looked different, but I knew where I was. The top floor. I guessed by the size of the room. But why am I here?

Looking around, I sought to gather answers. The cards and wilting flowers all over the hospital room told me that quite some time had passed. My skin prickled when the bright yellow of the marigolds caught my eye. They were the only flowers still alive. Then the door slowly opened, and Sara tiptoed in.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," she greeted me.

The joke was awkward and way too soon. I remembered what she had done, the stupid prank. Everything told me to ice her out, but I held my tongue, just this once. "Is Arik okay?" She nodded her head. I let out a sigh of relief. "But, like, is he okay, okay?"

"The pup- He'll live. From what I've heard, his dad's not letting anyone see him, but he's okay," Sara responded nervously. She was concealing something; I could feel it. Sara never made eye contact when she was lying. She started biting her nails, one of the nervous ticks we shared. Then I noticed the hospital band on her wrist.

"Sara, why do you have—"

She looked at me, her lips quivered. Sara was fidgety as she tried to repress her emotions. Whatever she had to say was too painful to come out of her mouth. My stomach started to sink... "Ian?" I asked, tears already filling my eyes. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt.