We'll Make Our Own Fairytale

Chapter Three

Present

Carson’s POV:

I was feeling so much better. My minor injuries had been taken care of, my bruised ribs had been treated, and my arm had completely healed. It had been six months since the accident and even though it was still traumatic for me to talk about or think about, all my physical injuries had since healed.

For Regina, things weren’t so great. She was still in a coma from the day of the accident. We were all so worried about her. She was expected to wake from her coma any day now, but it was still frightening. I couldn’t imagine what her family was going through, not being able to talk to her, not knowing for sure if she would make it.

My family and I were much more fortunate with how little we had to suffer and my life had returned to almost normal, minus the most important component, Regina, of course. Soon after they let me out of the hospital, which was about a month after the accident, I had gone back to school and doing everything I did before the accident.

But nothing was the same. None of us were promised another day with Regina, and that was the scariest thought. I couldn’t live without her; she was my oxygen, my angel, my life-giving source. I couldn’t even think of how I would be able to go on knowing we would never meet again in this lifetime. I shook away the thought vehemently.

Three days later, when I came home from school, my mom told me that Regina had finally awoken from the coma. “Well then let’s go!” I shrieked.

We hopped in the car and reached the hospital in record time. I knew how to get to Regina’s room by heart; take the elevator to the third floor, straight, make a left and keep going down the corridor until you get to room 342 on the right. We hastily followed that sequence and made our way to her room. She had just been moved out of the ICU because they deemed her physically fine on the outside, despite internal damage.

I looked in tentatively and saw Regina sitting up in bed, sipping something from a large container. Her mom, dad, and sister were gathered around her, all weeping. It was a bittersweet sight. I didn’t want to ruin their family moment, so I waited a little bit before going in with my mom. When we did go in, I was shocked to see what Regina looked like. Her face was pale and she had lost so much weight. She looked frail and sickly; delicate.

I stepped closer to her and said, “Regina. I’m so sorry. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

When the doctors said she had brain damage, I didn’t know what to expect, but I certainly wasn’t prepared for what came next.

Regina looked up at me as though seeing me for the first time and said, “Who are you?”

Regina’s POV:

I didn’t know where I was, nor who or what I was surrounded by. There were so many people – a man and a woman, a girl maybe about nineteen or twenty years old, and a boy about my age. He was with a woman too. There were nurses bustling all about me, and I didn’t recognize anyone. Everyone was crying and they were all talking to me, pretending like they knew me. But I didn’t know them. I didn’t even know why I was here, at a hospital. My head hurt and my whole body ached. I felt trapped; unable to move, to escape this desolate hospital room. What had happened to bring me here? I couldn’t remember anything.

One of the nurses must have noticed my confusion because she came over and said, “Good to see you’re up, sweetie. We do have something very serious to tell your first.”

Her tone of voice sent chills down my spine. I shivered and wrapped the blanket closer around me; when had it gotten so cold in here?

“What is it?” I asked, frantically searching her eyes for an answer.