Swimming to the Light (Southern Vampire Mystery)

Chapter 1 - Glimmer

I don't really know how I ended up in this place. I woke up one day and I was in a room not my own. There was a nurse sitting in the corner chair, reading. was hooked up to an IV and my wrist was strapped to the bed. There was a hose snaked up my nose and there were machines softly beeping nearby. I must have made a sound because the nurse in the corner looked up. She closed her book so fast it fell from her hands and hit the floor at her feet.

"Oh, you're awake. I'll get the doctor." And she had left with a swoosh of crepe soled shoes. The room was softly lit and didn't seem like a hospital room exactly. There was a door. There was a curtain that hung from a pole suspended from the ceiling. There was a glass wall. I could see a hall and machines in the hall but it took too much to focus on that. My eyes felt heavy and my arms hurt. It was hard to keep focused and my head wanted to roll back into the pillow. My eyes closed. I was so tired. I was on my side. I curled into myself. Maybe I'd just sleep again.

There was something digging at my shoulder. It stopped. Then it started again. Poke. Push. Jiggle. Poke. Push. Jiggle. My head was lolling just a little with every push. My eyelids felt like weights were holding them down. But I pried them open and tried to focus on the source.

"Girl? You still alive?"

My eyes pulled open again. I thought I saw Dr. Ludwig. The nurse I saw earlier was standing behind her. I found myself staring at the nurse. I wondered if she was just a dream. She was tall and something other. Her skin was coffee colored and she had funny freckles all over her. Her hair looked like some kind of animal fur. I was too tired to really see her eyes, but she reminded me of Bellenos the elf. I wondered if he was still happy and living in Fairy with my great grandfather. I wondered if he hunted deer and ripped them to pieces with sharp shark teeth in the woods of Faery. I noticed the nurse's skin and freckles made a nice contrast with her pink uniform. She had some fashion sense that nurse.

Then I noticed how she made Doctor Ludwig look like a demented dwarf just by standing next to each other. I found myself giggling, but no noise was coming out. I wondered if I was drunk. Maybe I was hallucinating. I blinked a few times to focus my eyes. No good. I felt my eyes roll and my eyelids pull down toward my feet. I wanted to float and float and not be pulled back to this place.

Poke. Push. Jiggle. "Girl! Do you hear me?" I jerked my chin a little to show I heard her. I tried to roll my head to get away from the grating voice. It didn't work.

"Where?" My voice didn't want to work. The sound of my single word echoed oddly in my ears. My throat was scratchy and hurt. I blinked and closed my eyes. I licked my lips and tried to get some moisture into my throat by swallowing. There was a straw at my mouth and I sipped a little water. When my eyes opened again, the nurse's back was to me. She was putting a cup on the far table. It seemed odd that the lines around her were suddenly in sharp focus.

The doctor's face came back, very close to mine. Her eyes looked bugged behind her glasses. I started my noise-less laughing again. But I stopped when she poked my eyelid with her finger and pulled it up. She was shining a light in my eye and I wanted to get away. But I couldn't find the strength to pull away. Then the light was gone and the finger was out of my eye.

Ludwig's face retreated a bit. She had a look on her face like I was some odd thing that needed to be classified and put in a jar. I felt poking again. And I could feel a wave of cold as the blanket pulled back from me. My hand was lifted. A pinchy thing was placed on my pointer finger. Then the edge of my panties was rolled back and there were fingers pushing on my groin right where my leg and lady parts joined up. The fingers stayed there a long time. Doctor Ludwig was telling the nurse numbers. The nurse was writing them down. Then the fingers were gone and the blanket was back. I made my voice work again.