Crescent (Under Major Rewrite!)

Chapter 4

Fading back into consciousness is just as fun as fading out of it. At first all I hear are annoying beeps. A harsh florescent light invades my eyelids. But at least I can feel my chest rising as I breath. Sweet, I'm breathing. Then a dull throb in my head escalates into a migraine. I groan loudly, inhaling in an attempt to speak when a sickeningly familiar scent chokes at the back of my throat.

I'm in the hospital. The same one my mother was taken to after my dad found her in the woods. She wasn't dead yet, writhing there gushing blood all over the leafy ground. She was rushed into emergency surgery, but died on the table. I shiver at the memory of our doctor, a last generation pack member, coming out into the waiting room with blood stains on his gown. The look of sympathy and regret in his eyes was heartbreaking. Dad broke, falling on the hospital floor with tears running down his face, his breath racked with sobs. My brothers helped him up, letting their own tears flow freely. I didn't shed any until I was in my room. That was when I broke down just like my dad did. Only I didn't abandon my family to seek revenge. I didn't give my children up without so much as a goodbye.

By the darkness outside my window, I assume no one is here. Good. I don't want to see any of them, especially Adam. I wonder what story he told the doctor when they brought me in unconscious with bruises on my neck.

A nurse walks by my open door, doing a double take at my opened eyes. She walks in with a bewildered smile on her face. "Well good morning, sunshine." I open my mouth to speak only to find my throat feeling like it had been scratched by claws on the inside. "Oh, sweetie. Don't try to talk. The young man who brought you in said you were strangled and by the looks of those bruises it'll do you more harm than good to try talkin' now." Her southern accent is foreign but comforting to me and I heed her advice.

Who brought me in? Nate? His dad probably would've done worse than strangle him if he did on top of actually telling them I was strangled. It probably wasn't my brothers, they couldn't imagine Adam doing something like that after all he's done for them. Matt? I don't even know what's going on with him anymore. We were all so much closer when we lived in different houses.

"I'll go get you some tea to help your throat and call your parents so they know you're awake." As she turns to leave I knock on the rolling table beside me, as her eyes look back into mine and I tap my wrist. At first she tilts her head, unsure of what I'm asking. Then, noting in understanding she answers my gesture. "You've been out for two days." My door feels so empty once she's gone.

Two days. Adam choked me out for two days? I missed school and training and...

Thank the Gods! A version of my voice echoes around my head causing me to wince. 'Lower your decibels, please.' I tell her. Somehow I feel her nods in my head before continuing to talk.

Do you have any idea what I'm doing to do to Adam when we see him next? I am going punch his lights out then when he wakes up I'm going to do it again and again and again until he's out for two days. It's so boring when you're not in here! I can't do anything, I have no one to talk to, hell I couldn't even see or hear what was going on because we were unconscious. She speaks a mile a minute and while normally I can keep up because I do the same thing, right now my brain still isn't functioning at top speed so I only get about half of what she said.

My mind is tired, my body restless. I want to go for a run or punch something. Anything to get out of this bed. I sit up to a chorus of cracking noises all throughout my body. With a sigh of relief I feel monumentally more relaxed. I try not to notice the IV stuck in my arm. I hate needles. The nurse comes back with a steaming styrofoam cup in one hand and a phone in the other.

"Here you go dear," she sets the cup on the table sliding it in front of me then hands me the phone. "Your brother wants to talk to you."

I don't ask her which one, instead scratching out a thank you and hold the phone to my ear as she leaves, closing my door. "Hello?" My voice cracks painfully. I do my best to ignore it.