The Untitled Chronicles of Unwanted Heroes

Simon

Waking up under the blinding lights of the hospital was strange. Looking to my right and seeing my least favorite person in the world sitting next to me was unnerving. Realizing the total lack of feeling in my left leg was absolutely terrifying. "Tee?" I croaked, my voice as weak as my friendship with the girl next to me.

She was absently staring off into space, sitting criss-cross in a plastic chair that looked less comfortable than sitting on the white tile floor. Hearing my voice made her jump, her stormy eyes flashing dangerously in my direction. "You're finally awake," she said, her voice as monotone as ever.

"Yes, it appears I am," I replied with a humorless smile spreading across my face. The events of the past few months were starting to come back to me in small flashes. It seemed like every time I blinked I saw a second long scene of my past. An man with red eyes, a little girl pleading for help, my parents car driving off into the sunset, Delilah in chains, red everywhere, an explosion. "Teegan what happened?"

She hesitates but then says, "There was an accident... Or maybe it was on purpose. I don't really know." She's wringing her hands nervously, she is hiding something from me.

"What kind of 'accident'?" I blink. Oh that's right...

"An explosion, it was one of us but I don't know who." She won't look at me.

I sigh and give up on getting information out of Tee. I look around the room instead. I'm definitely in a hospital, the smell of the place gives that away immediately; sterile wipes, rubbing alcohol, and just a lingering smell of the suffering and the dead. I remember this smell from when I was five and nearly died from eating all of the eggs in the refrigerator, expecting them to give me super powers. The hatred of eggs still resonates inside of me and so does the hatred of hospitals.

There is a heart monitor beeping steadily in the corner, reminding me of my old alarm clock from middle school. The constant BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP causes me to shiver. The thought of going back to middle school is far more terrifying than anything that has happened in the past few months. I'm attached to a plethora of tubes and wires all hooked up to different machines. There is a little metal table to my left with a TV remote, a cup of water, and a battered leather notebook that is tied shut with a satin ribbon the color of smoke and lilac mixed together. I want to open it and discover its contents so badly, but I don't have enough energy to even raise my arms. Frustrated, I turn my attention back to Teegan, who has began exterminating her fingernails, another nervous habit of hers. I can't remember where the notebook came from or what was inside of it, but the memory seemed to be tickling the back of my mind like a unreachable itch on my back. "Tee," I whisper because I can't manage anything louder.

She snaps to attention, "Yeah Simon?"

And then I ask her the only question left to ask that has been bothering me since I first woke up, "I don't have something I used to, do I?"

Teegan purses her lips and shakes her head silently. I feel the small ball of hope growing in my chest burst into a million pieces. It had been useless to think that she would tell me I was wrong. I knew that from the second my eyes opened and the blinding lights of the hospital forced me to blink nearly a thousand times before I could really look around. Simon this is bad, my head was saying. No she's lying, she's Teegan you can't trust her, my heart countered. Both organs were arguing back and forth and I couldn't tell which one would win. "Teegan please pull back the covers." I was about to find out.

But she shook her head, the cornered animal look taking over her thin face. Her gray eyes had gone from nervous to completely petrified. "Then tell me Tee, why am I here? Huh? Tell me why." I had resorted to pleading. How was I so desperate so quickly? Because, Simon, you're starting to panic and you know it. My brain had stopped fighting my heart and had moved on to my entire body. I could hear the heart monitor picking up speed. BLEEP... BLEEP...BLEEP.. BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEPBLEEPBLEEP! My mind started going one thousand miles an hour, every thought rushing together like food coloring being poured into water. Everything was blending together and I couldn't stop my hands from shaking. Teegan looked scared, I felt scared, and sad, and angry, and slightly energized. "Please Tee, just show me why I'm here." I'm melting. No I'm not, I'm exploding. Exploding into a million feelings like an incredible firework. Like a volcano made of feelings.

Teegan stood up, she was shaking too. Gingerly, she pulled back the bed sheets and blankets that covered my body. I squeezed my eyes shut like a little kid watching a scary movie. But this wasn't a movie, this was real life. I wasn't an actor being paid to act frightened by the sight of my lower half. Teegan wasn't my tortured love interest that strangers fantasized about meeting. No, I am a 17 year old with one leg, torn apart by an explosion set off by one of my ex-best friends to save the life of a little girl I don't remember. And Teegan is the one that despises me, the one who always seemed to hate my very existence, not love it. Blink, blink, blink. I couldn't stop remembering. Then the nurses came. Rushing about while I drown inside my own mind. It's just a panic attack, my brain says. No, my heart argues, you are dead you only have one leg. And then, like all the movies, the world fades to black and I am left with the picture of my one and a half legs plastered to the insides of my eyelids.