When I wake up, I'm lying in a hospital bed. My mom is knelt beside the bed, holding my hand and murmuring prayers. Faint tracks of tears mark her cheeks but none are streaming out of her eyes. Cerys is stood at the foot of my bed and Sophie leans her head on Cerys' shoulder.
The King is still lying in a hospital bed further along, frail while sleeping and the Queen has her head rested against the bed as she sleeps.
Katalina is arguing fiercely with the head nurse in the office. May sits on the edge of a bed, fiddling with a dress. My beautiful silver gown is gone, replaced with a sterile hospital gown. I twitch the hand that my mom is holding and she starts, jumping up to hug me.
Cerys and Sophie leap forward and May pushes a button on her pager. Katalina darts out of the nurse's office and smiles. Cerys sits down next to me and pushes me back down as I try to sit up.
"My lady, you've had a most awful shock, don't try to get up too soon," A nurse says.
May looks brittle and scared and I wish I could reach out to her. Sophie sits down next to me on my other side and grasps my hand.
"It's so awful, it could have been any of us," she says simply, her face blank.
We sit still for about five minutes, in absolute silence until a commotion outside causes Katalina to go whirling out.
A couple of minutes later, Katalina marches back in, followed by Caxon. He smiles and tugs on a leash. Boo trots in behind him and my face breaks into a smile. The nurse's face breaks into a look of disgust crossed with awe. Boo rushes to my bed and presses her front feet on me.
May rushes out and comes back in with a clothes bag. Mom, Sophie, Cerys, Katalina and Caxon step back as May draws the curtain around my bed. She unzips the clothes bag to reveal a turquoise thigh length gown. She pulls out a pair of gray flats and my eyes widen. They are pure, soft leather and they are simply gorgeous.
She removes the simple hospital gown and replaces it with the dress as I slip my feet into the flats. May tidies my hair and draws back the curtain. Caxon's eyes widen and I cheekily grasp the leash off him. He smiles and I walk respectably out of the hospital wing, with Katalina following.
Katalina links arms with me and Boo tugs on the leash.
"You don't want to know how long I was arguing with the head nurse to get her to let Caxon bring the dog in!" She exclaims as we walk away. She is wearing a pair of jeans and a sparkling top.
"Come on!!" I cry as we step out onto the garden and Boo rushes away. A pair of guards stroll along behind us, their eyes sharp as they look for rebels.
We let Boo off the leash and she gambols across the grounds, her face happy as she plays in the most room she has ever had. We run around the gardens, feeling like we're twelve years old again as neither of our childhoods were very good.
But Boo growls into some trees and barks fiercely after an hour in the gardens. One of the guards dashes into the trees and the other guard rushes us away.
He hits a panel on a wall and the alarm begins to drone. He hits another panel and we dart inside. We go down five sets of stairs, our breathing becoming laboured but Boo darts ahead with boundless energy. The guard opens the large metal door by pressing his thumb against a panel. We rush through but I feel another wave of weakness coming on and I crumple to the ground.
Barely a couple of minutes later, Caxon slams in and flings his arms around Katalina. She pushes him off gently and he reaches for me. He pulls me gently off the ground.
YOU ARE READING
Scintillate {The Selection}
Fanfiction{EDITING} In Illea, the Selection is an opportunity of a lifetime for one average girl to be catapulted into the royalty. Marie entered, never thinking she would have a chance at even getting to the Palace, and it changed her perception of her past...
