The Animal I Have Become

Chapter 5: Back in hospital

I woke up some time later in a room I didn’t recognise. It sort of looked like a hospital room, but it seemed... darker, less clinical than a traditional hospital room. I looked around at the room and saw around 5 other beds with people asleep, some of them looked... almost inhuman. I then saw Emma, Kira, a doctor and a guy I didn’t recognise. I tried to sit up but my stomach wouldn’t let me.

‘Careful there. You had a very close call,’ said the doctor.

‘What happened?’ I asked, clutching my stomach.

‘You had a near fatal allergic reaction to chocolate,’ the doctor replied. My jaw dropped to the floor, ‘Wha...? F-f-fatal? Chocolate? N-n-no... I-I-I’ve never been allergic b-b-before...’

‘People can develop allergies sometimes, especially with your... condition,’ the doctor explained rather vaguely.

I looked at him suspiciously, ‘Condition?’

‘This is a specialised hospital for supernatural beings such as vampires and werewolves,’ said the doctor.

‘Oh.’ My stomach growled and I held it, groaning.

‘Still feeling queezy?’ He asked. I nodded quietly. ‘That’s normal. I’ll get something for that.’ He left the room.

There was an awkward silence for a while. I rubbed my belly feeling like my lunch wanted to escape. The doctor came back with a large bowl, ‘Here.’

I giggled, ‘No new-fanged medicine then?’

‘We find the best way to cure nausea is to just go with and it’ll eventually work itself out.’

I nodded, ‘Okay.’ I looked down at the bowl.

The doctor’s pager beeped, ‘Is there anything else you need?’ He asked. I shook my head. ‘Okay. Press the buzzer if you need anything. I’m going to answer this call.’ He walked out of the room.

There was another awkward silence as I looked at the bowl, then at my friends, ‘So... How’re you lot holding up?’

Emma looked down awkwardly, ‘Yeah, I’m okay.’

I looked at the guy I saw when I woke up, ‘Not to be rude, but why are you here?’

He quickly looked up, having been staring at the ground, ‘Oh right. My name’s Evan. It was my idea to bring you here.’

‘Oh okay. Thanks.’ I looked back at the bowl again, groaning quietly.

‘I think we should leave Becky alone for a while,’ said Emma.

‘Yeah, I’m not really gonna be very entertaining right now,’ I replied, half-joking. They left the room while I lowered my head over the bowl. I began thinking about everything that happened since I was bitten by that werewolf. Tony, Damien, my newly acquired allergy. What’s next? I wasn’t sure. And who bit me? Could it have been Tony? It seems too coincidental that he came along after I became a werewolf, but would he do that? Maybe he can’t control his wolf form sometimes. And were was he? I hadn’t seen him for days, weeks even. Eventually I grew tired, so I placed the bowl on the ground and went to sleep.

When I woke up, I was still feeling queezy. The doctor looked concerned, ‘I think we should do a blood test,’ he said.

‘Blood test?’ I asked, looking worried.

‘Just as a precaution. Normally werewolves recover from nausea the day after.’ He took a sample (while I cringed and looked away) and went out the room.

I sat in the bed in silence, feeling rather nervous, and nauseous. A few agonizingly nerve-racking minutes later, he came back, ‘Okay. I don’t know if you planned it or not, so I’m not going to congratulate you, and I’m just going to come straight out with it.’

I wasn’t sure what to say to this, ‘What’s going on?’ I asked, almost terrified at the answer.

‘You’re pregnant.’