Two Eyes Down: Nearsighted

ER

I regain consciousness on a gurney in the hospital. It's loud with beeping and shouting as a bum wheel squeaks beneath me. Light after light passes like the city. a big red sign in bolt letters I can't read brings it to my attention that I am not in the car I was in however long ago it was. I was in a car crash. I am not with my friends. They were in the wreck too. I am not with my girlfriend. She tossed her life in the air for a chance to save mine.

I feel the occasional shards of glass in my body and I feel the burn of my skin as it fights an enemy that won't leave. I mostly feel the female in green hospital attire holding sheet after sheet of paper towel to my nose and squeezing as it gushes blood. It's not that it hurts really, or it didn't at first. Once the adrenaline of recent events faded I started to feel the pain. I was given some meds for it, along with the swelling. The first thing I asked the woman that was checking me to make sure I wasn't dying before them was about my friends. She grimaced and said she didn't know because she had been caring for me. They might not have even arrived yet. Then I asked about my face and she laughed.

"It's fine. Swelling and bruising, probably a nasal fracture. No worries, a doctor can reset it in no time."

Then the groans and cries of pain come from down the hall and the woman rushes out to help. I am left to my own devises in a room with white walls. I barely get a look at the place though, because the second I see who the woman is as she is rushed by me in a gurney on her stomach, I'm off the bed and rushing down the hall. I know it's Demi. I've heard those same groans in different moods and times. When we made love all that time ago, when Rue died in The Hunger Games, when I shunned her for some reason I can't remember. This wasn't sensual or sadness or annoyance though, but I'd take anything over the pain in her throat.

I slipped into her room when the doctors left, hooking her up to a machine and injecting pain meds. When I saw her she was on her stomach, groaning in a low, thick tone that was clearly fighting tears. Her entire backside from shoulders to ankles was freckled with glass, blood ruining transparency with every penetration. I drew tears immediately. This is my fault. I should have protected her. I didn't see the headlights as soon, but I could have pulled her closer. I could have helped her stay safe, but I didn't, and now she's here.

"Baby", I whimpered from behind.

Demi tried to look back but yelped in pain, so I walked in front of her and squatted so she could see me. I quickly pecked her lips and held her face to mine. Wanting nothing more than to feel the safety blanket that is her again. "Oh my god... I'm so sorry Natalie I tried to help you but".

"Don't you dare say that. You took a back full of glass for me".

We both stop our tearful conversation when we hear another person being rushed past us. What's different is all the noise sources are doctors and machines. The patient is not making a sound. I'm the only one to look up and see Dylan's pale face tilted to the side on the gurney as it passes the doorway. Demi didn't even ask, she just said go one I looked at her with a mortified look upon my face.

I ran after them, hiding when they reached their destination. He was tested quickly before doctors were being called via cell phone. While on the calls, blood curling screams were coming from down the hall, but I did not recognize them so I went to Dylan once he was left alone with his monitors. According to them he's alive, but he looks like a corps. He's pale, unmoving, and silent. He usually snores in his sleep. His blond hair is red in some places. It is clear that not all the blood is his, though. Getting closer, I see the bandage under his disheveled hair and glass all over his arms and legs. Along with that, I see bruises all along his right side, which have me worrying for broken bones that he's almost sure to have. 

The screams got progressively louder by the second before they reached maximum volume. Never have I ever seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelled something so foul in that moment when I saw the blond boy on his side with doctors all around him. There was a metal bar going through his torso, the blood was being picked up rag after rag. Within that second Nate was carted past I saw a pile of red rags on his bloody shirt. When I saw his twisted, glass impaled face with a gaping mouth looking at me for a split second as his hands shook vigorously, I was suddenly there again. I saw the headlights, I heard the boys hollers of alarm, I felt Demi throw herself on me, I tasted the hazy night air and old breathes, and I smelled the burning rubber beneath us.

My hand made its way to my mouth and I rubbed Dylan's hair before bolting out the door. Only to see them go into a room and close the curtain behind them.

In total shock, I walked back toward Demi's room, but a nurse saw me with my broken face and immediately escorted me back to my room.

"What are you milling around for, I'm sure your parents are in the waiting room", she stated with a warm smile.

"No no no, my my f-family is in here w-with me", I said, to horrified to speak clearly. After that, that's all I said. Family. I had to point on a frowny-face scale how bad the pain was. I pointed to the one next to the biggest frown, but I couldn't read what was under it. I was declared to have a broken nose that really wasn't that bad. They reset it and had a mask cast on my face in less than an hour. I was also diagnosed with a mediocre concussion. I didn't feel much of it though. The lights were turned off so my eyes wouldn't hurt and I was left alone once they finished pulling the glass out of me.

I preferred my permanent darkness. I wish I could wonder, I wish I could pretend, but i see what it is now. Nothing will change that but gouging my eyes out. I won't do that, I hate pain, but I thought about it for a while, playing with the idea like an imaginary friend.

I need my family. The family I had in my dreams, the supportive, comforting, kind family that would make me stronger in this time of need; but like the ideas I have, they are merrily imaginary friends.
----------------------------------------------*insert sad emoji* might add a little more in the future, but that's what it is so far.

Vote, comment, share and follow if you like

Thanks to my girl Zara, I felt like I should get this done sooner rather than later. I love you babe. :) <3