Casey takes a deep, gasping breath as his eyes fly open. He sits up, sucking breath, hand pressed to his chest. His heart pounds like crazy for a few wild seconds, then slows, and his breathing follows suit. He looks around the hospital room, at the curtains surrounding the bed, and the confusion grows.
The last thing he remembers is passing out in the lair, but he swore he heard Zilla's voice. Shouldn't she be here?
He touches the bandages around his shoulder and there's no pain. When he pulls the hospital gown aside and looks down at his chest, there's a tiny white scar in a perfect circle and no sign of anything else.
He yanks off the tiny, sticky things on his chest and side, tossing them aside and letting them dangle from the monitor. He throws his legs over the side of the bed and stands up, expecting to wobble, but his legs hold strong. His head is clear. In fact, he hasn't felt this good in years. It's like all the damage of his past concussions have faded.
There's a small closet in the room and he opens it, finding a bag of clothes. He dresses himself, going through the motions, faintly aware that a nurse could walk in on him any second now.
He pushes the curtain aside and reaches for the handle. Only then does he hear the broken sobs of people on the other side. Panic rises in his chest. Did something happen?
He opens the door and steps out, promptly greeted by everyone he loves. There's not a dry eye to be found. April looks like she's a second away from passing out. Andy sniffles as she looks over a clipboard, a nurse pointing out a few things on the paperwork clipped to it.
Every eye falls on him and every mouth drops open.
The nurse turns around and makes a tiny squeaking noise, clapping her hand over her mouth. The clipboard clatters to the floor.
"Uh...what's going on?" he asks.
Andy lets out a sob as she practically leaps into his arms. He hugs her back, bewildered as he looks at everyone else. April stares at him like she's seen a ghost, one hand pressed to the spot over her heart.
"Andy?" Casey asks.
"I'm sorry I was ever rude to you, Casey," Andy mutters into his shoulder, clinging to him tightly. "And I mean right back to when I threw baby food in your hair when I was little."
He stares down at her, then up at the others. Whatever happened, it must have been bad, because even Raphael's face is streaked with tears and Casey is pretty sure he's never seen him cry. Definitely not over him.
"I still don't know what's going on," he says.
"You...you died," Destiny finally speaks. She stares at him with her jaw hanging, disbelief invading every word. "You were dead."
"I died?!" he repeats. Andy still clings to him as he looks down at himself, at her. "Am...am I a zombie?"
"Clearly...clearly there was some malfunction with the...the heart monitor," the nurse says, her voice airy. "Mr. Jones, if...if I may do a quick examination?"
"Sure?" Casey says. The whole "being dead" thing still doesn't make sense. He doesn't feel dead.
Andy lets go of him, taking big, gulping breaths as she fans her tear-soaked face. Her eyeliner has completely smeared, making her look like a panda, and Casey would probably laugh at her if he wasn't so concerned about her mental state. He hasn't seen her cry that hard since Dad's funeral.
The nurse ushers him back into the room and asks him to take off his shirt. He does. She unwraps the bandages, shock still clear on her face despite obvious efforts to hide it. The injury on his shoulder has completely healed too, reduced to a bite-shaped set of thin white scars. She puts her stethoscope to good use, listening intently to his heart, and she steps back after a few seconds, hooking the stethoscope back around her neck as she clasps her hands together.
YOU ARE READING
Shadow Mutation (Book Seven)
Fanfiction"Try not to be stupid next time, okay?" When he's told shortly after graduation that he didn't actually pass and, in order to truly earn his diploma, he must redo his senior year math credit, Casey Jones isn't sure how things could get worse. He kno...
