Sleeping With Ghosts

Chapter Four

It felt like I was floating, like one of those cheesy ethereal scenes of someone drowning that looks so enchanting.

Unless you're the one doing the drowning.

I have come to find that still today, the sense of thingness was one of the most terrifying things I have experienced. I didn't feel hot nor cold, just languid. I couldn't see anything or even tell if my eyes were opening or closing, and I couldn't feel my chest moving nor my heart beating. I couldn't hear anything except burbling voices on occasion.

"Not breathing..." A woman, her voice laced with strain to remain monotone.

"Thready pulse..."  A male voice. If someone was feeling for my pulse, I couldn't tell, which freaked me out more.

"Bag..."

My chest hurt and it felt like I had been catapulted from somewhere in central China back into my body with enough force to break open the first three rings of hell and set the sinners free. My eyes were pried open and flashed with the most obnoxious light I had ever been blinded by. I tried to move something, anything, only to be submerged beneath the waves once more.

Suddenly I was back with Jax, looking up into those stormy eyes rimmed with red. He hugged me so tight I thought ribs would break. I still couldn't move even in this realm, not even my lips to mouth words. Terror ripped through me, and so did something else.

"Fight for me." He commanded quiet as a whisper in my ear. "You have to fight for me. I need you."

Before the last words were finished being spoken, I was slammed back into my body like a character from Dragon Ball Z that was sucker punched into the ground making a crater, and managed to geyser water from my lunch oh so gracefully all over the guy paramedic's face. He didn't miss a beat.

"Hey! Hey! We got her!" He yelled and my vision slowly began to clear and focus into place on the face hovered a foot over my own. I could see that relief had flooded his features, softening the too hard lines of his jaw and the small dimple in his chin. Dents in his cheeks hinted at dimples, which was proved when his pearly smile revealed them. His skin was olive in complexion compared to the deep auburn of his hair that was tied back in a pony tail and I had the chance to think 'hair dye'. But the thing that really caught my attention were those eyes; Ivy green with a starburst of yellow in the center.

"Ma'am? Can you tell me your name?" He asked, wiggling his fingers in front of my eyes that I instinctively followed.

"A-.." I had to swallow, my throat was so hoarse ands sore I thought I had sand in it. "Avalen Jones."

"Avalen, my name is Garrett. I'm a paramedic. Do you know what happened to you?"

My eyes widened as modesty flooded my mind and body and I weakly tried to cover myself. Points to the man who hadn't yet wiped my geyser spit water off his face.

"A towel... Please?" I almost begged as I felt my eyes burn more than they were before. I was determined not to cry so I just closed my eyes, and if I had been able to, I'm sure I would have blushed. Finally the sweet sensation of a dry towel being laid on me relaxed me fractionally and I opened my eyes to acknowledge his partner.

"I'm Jaime." She nodded simply, her blonde curls bouncing with her movements and framed her porcelain face. I found myself mentally applauding her ability to not look like an oompa loompa on crack cocaine. Her eyes were a deep cherry wood brown, a heavy contrast to everything else. She was perched on her knees next to Garrett and I noted she looked so petite and pretty I wondered how she worked such a manual labor job.

"Miss, we need to get you on a gurney and to the hospital." Garrett spoke calmly, drawing my slow attention to his relaxed smile, one I tried to analyze and decide if it was just professional, or if he was actually relieved. I tried to sit up but realized I couldn't and almost started panicking.

"You're strapped onto a trans board. It's okay. We're just gonna pick you up and put you on the gurney." Jaime spoke softly and slowly, before she and Garrett exchanged a brief look before she stood at my feet and he at my head and lifted me onto a wheeled gurney that had been just out the bathroom door. The gently lowered me onto the flat surface before I felt them strap in the bottom to secure me so I wouldn't wobble off.

How had I not realized I was already on a board? I tried to lean forward but Garrett's fingers pressed gently but firmly into my shoulder and I was immobile once more as my strength had not returned. Jaime pulled two blankets from her duffel back and tucked them on and around me. My whole body was slow and fatigued, which was starting to aggravate me so I let out a flustered sigh.

"Shock." Garrett spoke softly, as if he had seen my struggle. "That's why we really want to take you in." He flashed that easy smile again, which for some reason unbeknownst to me, made me smile in return.