Shattered [Niall Horan]

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

// Catherine

A prickly sensation had the area around my upper lip occupied. My hands were willing to travel all the way up to the region where the uncomfortable sensation lingered, have myself rid of the irritation that had been persistent for quite some time then, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It felt as though I wasn’t strong enough to perform such a petty act, although I knew for sure I was. Why wasn’t I being able to do it? Perplexed, I tried stirring in my position – another task that seemed impossible for me to execute. Something cold, hard, yet comfortable was pressed to my back, but I was unaware of what it was. After a few minutes of clueless pondering, I learnt I was lying on a bed.

Mistakes – we make plenty of them as we grow up. I knew I made many. And although for some anonymous reason, I wasn’t being able to recall much at the time, I knew for sure that in those 19 years of my life I had never committed a mistake so enormous that it’d hold the reason behind why my wrists were fastened by manacles on my sides.

The questions that occupied my head were boundless, the answers to them being non-existent to my dissatisfaction. My efforts to free myself from the discomfort I was in, however, remained undamaged if not infinite like the inquiries that clouded my mind.

My body was confusing me. Those eyelids, willing to open, yet stubborn to part began fighting hard against the mysterious strength that had me cemented to my position. I wasn’t one to give up though. I never gave up. I didn’t believe in letting go of things so easily – I had never learnt to.

Having lost count of how many attempts I had taken, I assembled all the strength my body was capable of offering me and took yet another try in obtaining my vision back, surprising my own self as I finally succeeded this time. The endless challenges weren’t done with me though. As I forced my eyelids open, sharp rays of bright white light penetrated right through my eyeballs, like those X-ray beams do with the bodies. My eyelids squinted instinctively, afraid of meeting each other,  once again. Who knew, I probably would’ve never been able to open them again if I shut them then.

I realised I had finally developed enough strength to make my muscles contract under my will. As the fingers on both of my hands wiggled under my control, I raised my right hand, bringing it right to the region where the itching was still existent, the manacles that I had assumed to be fastened to my wrists being proven to only be a part of my imagination. Rubbing my fingers against my upper lip, and hence finally ridding myself of the prickle, I shifted and slumped my back against whatever was behind me, noticing a couple of transparent pipes attached to the back of my left palm. Allowing myself a few glances at my overly white surroundings, I apprehended where I was. I was in a hospital. But I was still in need of answers as to why I was there.

The door to the room softly creaked open revealing a wide framed asian woman – her white uniform indicating she was a nurse. Not knowing what to say, yet wanting to speak, I parted my lips to let some words out of them, but before I could voice a word, the woman’s jaw dropped, eyes seeming as though they would bulge out of their sockets any moment. Having her eyes ogle into my face with that same gob-smacked expression for the next few seconds, she briskly turned around on her heels and scampered off, mimicking the run that kids do when they encounter something they consider being a threat to them.