Sleep State

Chapter 16

- Ana -

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Have you decided what sort of action you're going to take if he wakes up?"

"I'm going to charge the son of a bitch for putting my daughter here."

"Carla!"

"I'm sorry, Ray, but we need to. There needs to be justice for Ana."

A heated conversation between three very different, but distinct and familiar voices spoke in a hushed whisper somewhere nearby. What in God's name were they talking about? Take action. Justice. Him. She swore the conversation sounded more like the dialogue of a dramatized television show than the live action dispute that took place within earshot.

Just like an opening scene from a movie, things slowly began to fade into view. One by one her senses awoke and strengthened gradually. First, it was her sense of hearing. Next, was the excruciating pain she embraced with no warning of its severity. From head to toe, her body ached and cried with discomfort. Her temples throbbed. Her muscles weakened. Her limbs were stiff and jello like. Why did she feel like this? What could have possibly made her feel so helpless? Something wasn't right and she swallowed a giant breath of anxiety.

Her vision wavered to be activated as she felt trapped in the nightmare that had dragged her down. The sleep she had endured had run its course and she was ready to spring back to life, but life as she knew it had taken a drastic turn for the worse. With the way her body and mind felt, she knew something was terribly wrong.

"Don't you think being in a coma is justice enough?"

"He wouldn't be in a coma and neither would she if he hadn't been such an idiot in the first place!"

The voices argued the pronoun of a male identity she could not conclude, but he was the least of her worries. The startling conclusion of the two-syllable word that had been dropped twice shriveled her like a prune. Her heart splattered inside her chest and the subtle beep that filled the silence accelerated to an obnoxious rhythm.

"Ana?"

A sudden rush of panic swarmed over and around her. The urgent words, "Kate, go get a nurse," were shouted not with caution, but with worry. Seconds later, the shuffling of feet from across the room moved toward her at rapid succession. New voices requested for movement to be made while terminology only one of with experience in the medical field would know was read off after the review of vitals and careful precision to detail.

"Her heart rate is up."

"...a shock to her nerve system."

"We need to sedate her."

"What?!" A voice from a distance shouted. "No! She's been sedated enough."

"Get her out of here!"

Get me out of here! She had to agree with her protester. It had felt like a lifetime of sedation since she last broke consciousness. Below sea level, she swayed in the dark waters of the unknown for God knows how long. It was time to swim again. She was ready to tread harder than ever to break the surface and come up for air, but the forces above would not let her, not yet. Why were they working against her?

As she pushed against the current, more medical terminology was thrown casually as the faceless group struggled to calm the storm that raged inside her. Waves crashed violently and she slowly realized her body and soul was drifting back out to sea.

"Ana, we know your fighting this, but you have to stay strong." The soft voice cradled and soothed her panicked heart. "I know you can hear us in there. We are all rooting for you."