NECROMANTIC

twenty seven.

When I came to, my head was pounding.

I opened my eyes groggily, and let out a feeble groan, before shutting them again when the bright light above me made my head hurt more, and beside me, I heard three gasps.

"She's awake!"

"Is she ok?"

"She looks like shi- I mean, she looks pretty bad. She's so pale."

"Possible concussion will do that to you. Poor thing."

The voice that spoke last got closer with each word, and I opened my eyes again, to see – to my absolute surprise – Helen. It seemed as though she'd just come back from a shift – she was in her nurse scrubs, her hair was piled up in a bun atop her head, though a lot of tendrils had come free and were framing her face and neck, and she looked tired.

Rob said she was off work this weekend... had he lied to me? Because... he didn't wanna see me?

Maybe I was being silly. Maybe she'd just been called in. She was a nurse, after all... nature of the job and all that.

I wasn't entirely convinced though.

"Hey sweetie." She said, when she looked at me and met my gaze, and she smiled softly, crouching beside me and reaching out to put a gentle hand on my forehead. Her touch felt nice – her palm was cool, and reassuring. "How you feeling?"

I attempted to say 'been better', but upon speaking, I discovered my throat was dry and it came out as more of a mumbled, unintelligible squeak.

"You took quite the tumble there. Hit your head pretty hard on your desk. Can you tell me what kind of pain you're feeling?"

I opened my mouth again, but it literally felt like I'd swallowed sand, so I raised my arm and made a pathetic drinking gesture, mumbling "Water, please."

"Of course!" one of the other voices said – mom's – and she disappeared, into my en-suite, and there was the sound of the tap running, before she reappeared, and came to stand at Helen's side, holding a cup out to me. "I know it's bathroom tap water, but it should be fine," she looked at Helen as she said "Right?"

Helen smiled at her and nodded, before both of them turned back to look at me, and I shifted up on my elbows, before gratefully taking the cup. My hand was shaking, however, and some of the liquid sloshed out – so Helen gently moved the hand from my forehead to wrap around my hand on the cup, helping guide it to my lips as I lifted my head a bit to take a sip. When I was done, and lowered the cup, she raised her eyebrows and asked "Better?"

"Better." I said – my voice wasn't back at full volume, but it was a definite improvement on pre-drink.

"Ok... Sweetie, what hurts? I know it's a silly question, but I just need to know how to approach this." Helen said, after I took a couple more pathetic little sips.

I licked my lips. "My throat did. But the water helped. My... my head." I gingerly reached up where I could feel a faint throb, and my fingers made contact with – ah. A wound, a cut, I wasn't sure – it felt horrible, and it made a flash of pain go across my skin and I gasp-winced. "Yeah, my head. Where the cut is."

"Ok." Helen nodded. "That's expected, normal. Anything else?"

"I just feel like there's a migraine waiting to happen. But other than that, no."

"The rest of you feels ok?"

I went to nod – but since I accidentally touched the cut, my head hurt more, and it was too painful to do that, so instead, I lamely stuck a thumb up.