Shadow Bite || WATTYS 2017

Chapter Fifty-Four

There's something wet touching my forehead. I slowly open my eyes and stare right into Pam's kind ones.

"How are you feeling sweetie?" She asks softly, and when I feel a sharp ache in my head and wince she strokes my cheek lovingly. "You've been out for some time."

"Wh-what happened?" My own voice sounds groggy and detached to me, and when I try to sit back up  pain rises all the way up my back. "No, nope, not happening." I mutter, carefully lying back down again.

Something soft an melodic reaches my ears. A laugh. "Such a drama queen I swear..."

That's - but it can't be -

I look to my side and sure enough, my best friend is sitting right next to the hospital bed that I'm lying  on, swiping a cold, wet cloth over my forehead.

The same hospital bed that she was in moments before.

Her hair is a flamboyant red, like fire against her pale skin, and her eyes are two wide green emeralds, full of joy and life. Her skin might still be light, but there's a healthy, rosy glint to her cheeks that she'd lost when the illness had first descended upon her.

She looks healthy and happy.

She finally looks alive again.

"How?" I whisper, and Emma squeezes my hand, a small smile playing on her lips.

"It wasn't a medical illness, Cami. The doctor was right: it really was magical." She answers softly, her face forming into an expression of concentration as she searches my eyes for a reaction. I stay impeccably still.

"I don't understand..." A headache begins to pound away in the inside of my skull now, like a hammer beating against it repetitively.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Her sigh rolls over me like a wave, and something invisible inside of me seems to tighten, before realising that it doesn't actually exist anymore and, finally, disappearing altogether. There's this emptiness that I feel in the pit of my stomach, and the lack of the familiar sound of a pulse beating brings awareness back into my mind. I roll over with an aching body to my side despite Pam's and Emma's light protests, extending my arm to reach for something on the little bedside table beside me. My fingers come into contact with the smooth surface of the table, and otherwise, thin air.

My heartbeat picks up as panic begins to course through me, all the while I feel the horrible feeling of sweat plastering hair to my forehead. My body begins to shake violently, and I don't know how to stop it, I don't even know why that damn thing held such importance to me.

"Emma?" I look up again at my best friend when she takes both of my hands back into hers, forcing them to stop shaking and be still. That doesn't stop the chills that creep through my body though. "What happened?"

"Your friend here was close to dying, and she didn't." A familiar voice thumps in my eardrums and I tilt my head slightly, narrowing my eyes when I see the doctor washing medical tools in a sterile sink, before sliding her plastic gloves off and throwing them in the bin professionally. Everything is done with precise movements, like she's proud of an accomplished job done.

"Why am I in here now then?" When my voice comes out like a hiss, she freezes and looks at me with a sharp eyes. I take a deep breath and force more control into my voice, turning it more pleasant. "What happened to me?"

It still doesn't sound like unicorns and rainbows though.

She looks at me with a completely neutral expression, devoid of any compassion or kindness.