The Sight

Chapter 8 : waking up (derogatory)

I wake up strapped to a bed. My head is pounding and my whole left side feels like it's been set on fire. I realize after a movement that's probably because it has been. I'm strapped to a bed.
Wait.
Wait.
No.
I want it back. I want the hallucination back.
I feel tears streaming donw my face. I'm alone. I'm strapped to a hospital bed. I feel a cold IV in my arm. Another needle pierces my skin.
"I want to go back," I whisper.
"Now now, you need to rest love," a doctor pats my shoulder, checking an IV.
"No, let me up. I'm not mental. I'm not."
"Do you know where you've been for the last six months?"
i close my eyes against the harsh hospital lights.
No.
The beep of machinery. That static. Of course it wasn't true. Of course I'm here. I'm always here. Trapped. I've always been here. I will always wake up here. 
"Please," I whisper, but I don't know who I'm whispering to.
I clench and unclench my hand. My head is groggy with drugs. I can't breath. I can't think. All I know is that I'm here. And I hate it. I hate every minute. They should just let me die.
"There now, you coming round?" A nurse or doctor comes and shines a light in one of my eyes.
"Yes," I say, biting my lip. I know better. If i act gentle they'll at least let me up. No pleading. But at least if I act tame they might let me up. "Can I call my foster mum? I want her to know I'm okay."
"Not just yet. You're going to be in care for a little while," she says, "You've been ranting for us."
"What did I say? When I was out?" I ask.
"Something about a dragon."
"That's a game—it's just a game I play, DnD," I say, quickly tripping over my words, "I was working. On my character. It's—a warrior. That's all."
"I see. Well, you get some rest and I'll see if there's time for you to make a phone call."
"Okay," I say, slumping back. I try to tip my head to see my left side but I can't bend that far. It's probably whatever they're giving me. I know the drugs messed with my head. But I enjoyed it that time. I really did.
I lie there, eyes closed to the fluorescent lights waiting. The drugs make me hazy enough to have no concept of time. It might be a week or a month I lie there like that.
Then a couple of orderlies come and let me sit up, under the guidance of a doctor.
"There's a phone at the end of the hall. Dial 8 for an outside line. Then come on back," the doctor says, nicely.
I smile, rubbing my wrist. I'm bruised on one side, and look like road kill, but otherwise I'm fine. Sarcasm. I must've really tried to bash out. Wouldn't be the first time. I'm clad in a stiff hospital gown and the little rubberized socks they give you. There's an IV in one arm but nothing hooked up.
I stand, shakily, wincing a ltitle as I put weight one leg. The hospital row is mostly empty though I see a few patients similarly drugged. At the end of the hall is in fact a corded black phone hung on the wall.
I know Abigail's number by heart. But.
I curl my fingers over the cheap plastic.
I need to prove something to myself. First. Then I'll call her. Say I got the number wrong.
It felt so real.
I need proof it wasn't. I need proof. But how? Other than that I'm here. I don't remember any phone numbers, they took my phone and put their numbers in it. all of them. Except one.
934-454-2928. Call me.
I dial with shaking fingers. It's an American number. No one will pick up what time is it there?
It rings twice, me cradling the cracked phone to my ear.
"hello?" Familiar, American accent, but so trans-Atlantic.
"This is Damian I—,' I have no idea what I thought I was going to say.
"Oh thank god. The hospitals wouldn't tell us shit where are you?"
"I have—no idea—is it—actually you?" I ask, hearing my voice shake.
"No I offer to pick up random people I don't know from hospitals I'm just tracking your phone, I'm going to be there in a few minutes I'm your long lost sister we're going to sell that," Zara says.
"What? You're—actually coming?"
"Are you on something?"
"Oh yes."
"Great. Just hang tight and try not to swallow any more drugs," she hangs up.
I stare at the phone. That wasn't real either. None of this is real.
I go back to the bed and sit down. She won't come. I wasted my chance my brain made that up.
"You have a visitor."
"What?"
"Your sister?" The orderly says, "This way."
They lead me to a little padded type room with doubly reinforced windows. Locking doors let me in and I dare to study them as they usher me in.
Zara is standing there, in the flesh, in a purple tank top and jeans, coach purse slung over one shoulder like she's already over the entire interaction.
"You came," I say, confused.
"Little bro," she walks up and hugs me, kissing my cheek then whispering in my ear, "We're going out that window on three."
"What?" I ask.
"One," She holds me by the shoulders, "Two. Three."
I do not expect her to fling me through the window. It's double pained glass. She kicks it with one designer boot then pushes me directly out the glass, barely catching me as I stumble. The white Porsche is pulled up to the fire lane, back and front doors open.
I'm not mobile so she shoves me directly into the back before climbing in the front. There are alarms going off and people shouting. I can see a security guard racing towards us.
"Are you insane?" I ask.
"I was genuinely going to ask you that question, why did the cops freak when they saw you?" She asks.
"What?" I shake my foggy head.
"Uh, fuck—clothes back there in the backpack , get changed," she says. I can hear rubber screeching on cement. And sirens.
"Are we in a car chase?"
"Ah yes we're in a car chase right now? I just sprung you —which is not my fault someone called Colm? Didn't do your paperwork or something like that so you're wanted, but I don't give a shit about that right now."
"What—where are we going?" I ask.
"The coast, we split up and tracked the the dragon all the way there so we are rejoining the Avengers who are trying to get to the cave—," Zara breaks off as she weaves us in and out of traffic.
"The what?" I ask.
"Oh my god seriously what is wrong with you?" She asks, glancing back which probably isn't advisable at the speeds she's driving. "Elin said they'd probably dope you up but seriously."
"Elin's real?" I ask, "It's all real?"
"What are you talking about-?  Yes I'm real this isn't a vision jackass you're not that high," she says.
"You're not a hallucination—it's-it's all really happening? No, no, I can't do this again," I say, putting my face in my hands. I'd rather die than wake up like that again.
Zara leans back and pinches my wrist.
"Ow," I lean away.
"Yes it's all real! What you seriously have thought—however fucking long you've been Guard-that you're having a dream?"
"Yes, it made more sense than—,"
"Than dragons?"
"Than having a family," I say, quietly, turning over my hands.
"You got hit on the head. Not lombotomized. Yes it's all real, yes we're going to hunt a dragon please put some clothes on," she says, swearing in and out of cars. I can still hear sirens behind us.
"What—happened?" I ask, slowly.
"The feral dragon, the real one, breathed fire at us. The cafe half crushed in they had to pull you from the wreckage,Flynn tried to stay with you but they wouldn't let anyone see you. The rest of us spread out, Locke and I are involved now. Locke went back to get back up, and I was on my way to meet Elin and Freddy and Flynn but I rerouted to get you. Neath stayed trying to get out—apparently erroneously thinking the other kids would stay put they didn't," Zara narrates.
"But Elin's okay?" I reiterate.
"Yeah she's fine unless she found that dragon without us. A red  alert went out to all guard so we should be pretty good to go it's the middle of the day it should be sleeping," Zara says, glancing over her shoulder to check the car chase.
"How um—how do you know how to do this?" I ask, looking over my shoulder. Ther'es no less than seven cars on us.
"I'm American -?"
"Oh right," I tug on a t-shirt that was crumpled in the back seat. There's also jeans I'm praying fit. "What—what—what—no I'm not okay with this."
"Do you not believe it's real?"
"No I'm scared it's not and I don't want to wake up," I say. I can feel a hand on my wrist, turning it over. The girl in flames. Elin? A girl engulfed in flames, long dark hair. That's all I see. 
I can't lose her again.
The thought echoes through my mind. And I don't know what it means? The girl in the fire? Who was she?
"Well it's real, and your hyperactive axe is on the floor there, please tell it to calm down. It didn't want to let me touch it to get it in my car Elin had to do it," Zara scoffs, disgusted.
"Cryptfiller' a particular," I say, rescuing the axe from the floor.
yes yes yes just in time to PARTY we are going to cut this dragon Wide OPEN
"And he's over excitable yeah," I say, crawling into the front seat, "I need to get to Elin. Now. I—does this go any faster?"
"No not really, I think I lost them though," she says, looking over her shoulder, "Oh. Almost."
"Thank you, thank you for this," I pant, slumping in the seat. Why the dreams of flames? And why am I here?
"Anytime, El said you had a bad childhood," Zara says, "Didn't say they thought you were psycho though."
"Yeah well, seeing monsters," I say, smacking my head, "Do you have-anything that'll help bring me around?"
"Monster Energy in the door? Might level you back out," she offers.
"Thanks," I take one and chug it. The caffeine immediately. makes me feel things. But I don't know what things. "Wait—if this wasn't a hallucination then-the monsters coming for me have always been real? And I really did get kidnapped by cultist that time?"
"What—when did you get kidnapped?" Zara asks, swerving again to avoid I guess hitting another car I don't know the world is a ltitle blurry.
"When I was eight. Some cultists —took me—they were trying to cut me apart. I fought away in don't know how. And then police arrested me. They said I'd killed a man or two they wouldn'T believe I was kidnapped becuase I kept drescribing me in robes doing rituals," I say.
"That—makes no sense the only cultists are like insane, semi druid people and if they found someone with the sight they'd send them to us not kill them. Who are you, dude?"
"I don't really know," I say, looking at the next monster engery clutched in my fist.
"No like seriously you need to tell someone who isn't me, that that happened druids don't do that to just anyone. You're not like just a bastard like Flynn you have no idea where you came from?" She asks.
"None—I mean apparently someplace the druids don'T like, and I bonded with Cryptfiller so I'm someone's bastard, just don'T know whose," I say, "What if—whoever sent the druids after me sent the dragon? What they still want me dead?"
"Then that is a very stupid plan and not even going to work, like the dragon hasn't even attacked you personally. And there are easier ways to murder someone and druids probably wouldn't even go for that unless they'd been told you were some magical creature or something—you're not right?"
"Not what?"
"I don't know? A freaky changling shit?"
"Do I seriously look like I'd know that? Right now as you get me out of a mental hospital?"
"You have me there," she mutters.
We do lose the cops tailing us just as soon as I'm dressed in blue jeans and a black t-shirt, and appropriately high on caffeine. That's fine I match Crypfiller's natural energy levels.
Our destination was the coast, and Zara clearly knows where we're going, tugging me in the appropriate direction while texting.
"They tracked it here. Think it's nesting in the rocks," Zara explains.
I feel my heart leap to see my friends, incredibly real, and quite alive, standing off of a remote car park, clearly arguing about going down the rocks.
Neath is standing with Elin and Flynn, Freddy with Colm, and they're all clearly debating which way to go next. Locke is there with Dolomite, clearly bouncing in eagerness. It briefly occurs to me that if Orpheus sent one dragon to make sure his son had friends, what makes us think he wouldn't do it twice. Then I remember I don't have confirmation Orpheus and his cheekbones and chiseled jaw and audiobook narrator voice, is a real person who exists.
"The cavalry is here," Zara says.
"Locke is your dad real?" I ask, at the same time.
"He's on drugs," Zara says.
"Yes Orpheus is real," Neath sighs.
"Unfortunately," everyone else including Locke says.
"Good to know I'm high but caffeine is balancing," I say.
"We're going down to search the sea caves. The dragon will be asleep now it's day," Elin says, gesturing to Locke's dragon which is trying to fall asleep on his shoulder, not unlike a large dog. But it's way too big for that and is nealry locking him over.
"No, you're not a little baby you can't-oooof," Locke nearly falls, trying to support the dragon's big head.
"Right so the dragon will be asleep, we locate it, make a plan to come back tomorrow once the proper reinforcements arrive," Elin says.
"And I try to reason with it, if I can tame it then no need to fight," Locke says, hopefully.
Neath looks at Colm, clearly expecting an argument, "Safe as we can be."
"Let's split up. We can cover most of the caves before dark," Colm concedes.
"Two groups, that's it, we want to keep numbers," Elin says, practically, "For now we're just seeing exactly where the nest is so we can formulate a better plan."
"Even I can handle that," I say.
"I'll go with the Elderblade, you take the dragon, after all you have fought one before," Colm says, critically.
Neath looks like he's going to argue. Then bites it back. Colm out ranks him.
"Flynn, you and Locke go with my uncle, he can find a nest as my Grandmaster described," Elin says, casting an eye at Colm. It wasn't his call who goes with whom, and he didn't need to imply he doesn't trust Locke, who was fixing his dragon's pretty rose gold collar and kissing it's head. Like he's not a threat. I'm pretty sure if you google 'not a threat' there's a picture of Locke putting a stupid hat on one of his dragons.
"Zara will you go with them?" Elin asks.
"Got it, Elderblade," Zara winks, grinning a little, "Fun yeah? All we ever hunt are werewolves."
"Let's go, this way," Elin nods down the rocks towards the water.
"Shouldn't Winters wait in the car? He's never been in battle," Colm asks.
I feel my ire rising, but before I can argue Elin says, "And he wields Cryptfiller. Anyway we're only looking for the nest."
"Yeah even I can handle that," I say.
"It's fine, there's no cars to lean out of," Freddy says, pushing my shoulder a little.
"How long are you gonna bring that up?" I ask.
"As long as we live."