An Apple A Day

Chapter 1

A piercing wail cuts through the cold, followed by a multitude of colors chasing away the darkness. But in fact, the multitude was only two, red and blue, the colored lights flashing behind my eyelids. Make that three. There now is a bright white light shining in my eyes. I try to move or blink to get away from it but I can't. I squeeze my eyes shut tight, finally registering noise around me. Shouting and beeping,  cars stopping, and that ear piercing wail again. I keep my eyes closed hoping for it all to go away so I can go back to my quiet darkness. All of the lights and noise being too much.

"Sweetheart, I need you to stay with for me. Alright?"

It seems that I can't escape my surroundings any longer so I force myself to face the lights. Above me a dark haired woman is shining a light in my face still. "Mom?" I whisper. She moves out of my field of vision and I try to turn to see where she went. 

"Okay Sweetheart, I need you to stay still for me. Can you do that?" 

I listen to my mother and stop moving. I take in my surroundings. The ground is cold and white. Except the snow is tinged a weird color, sort of pink farther out and then steadily to a darker red as I follow the color's trail toward me. Red is a pretty color, I think before blackness overcomes me once again.

***

I open my eyes and find that the sky is moving. It's still cold but the sky moving makes me dizzy. I try and shut my eyes again.

"No, Sweetheart, you need to keep your eyes open. You need to stay awake, understand? No going back to sleep."

I do as I am told and don't shut my eyes, instead I finally look over at my mom. "Where's Dad?"

Mom finally turns so that I can see her face, but the face that I see does not match the woman who has raised me for seventeen years. "Sweetheart your parents are right behind us alright? For right now I need you to stay awake. Talk to me, what's your name?" I am too confused, staring at this woman who is my mother but also not my mother. She prompts me again, "I'm Stacy. I'm a paramedic. I'll take care of you okay? Now can you tell me what your name is Sweetheart?"

I finally get over my shock and answer, "Fiona." The sky briefly stops moving as the stretcher I am on is brought to a halt. Stacy helps another paramedic collapse the legs of the stretcher and they load me into the ambulance. The doors slam shut. They are much louder than I thought they'd be. We start moving again and the sirens turn on. I do my best to ignore the way they pierce my ears and how they feel stabbing my brain. I try and focus on Stacy. She keeps talking to me, asking questions to try and keep me awake as she sticks a needle in my arm. I focus on her voice as she continues to take my vitals and poke me with more needles but doing so becomes increasingly difficult, everything becomes a little fuzzy, her voice muffled. 

I shut my eyes for one quick second just to see if that eases my problems and I hear Stacy say, "No Sweetheart, I need you to open your eyes. Fiona open your eyes for me." But I ignore her and keep them shut, as I slowly sink back into my black bliss, back to where my problems can't reach me.

***

 I wake up this time to lights, but not as bright as before, and not shining in my face. The light is dim in the room. It's also warm, not cold. I look around and find myself to be in a hospital room. I look to the side and see all sorts of machines. I follow their tubes and wires down and find where they connect all over my body. One machine constantly emits a steady beep, others flash or give off numbers that I sort of remember from days spent working with my mother. The blanket I'm wearing is warm but I still feel a slight chill. I'll have to find another blanket.

Just as I am about to sit up the door to my room opens and in walks a doctor. "Hi Fiona. Glad to see that you're awake. I'm Dr. Kogan. How are you feeling?"