She Paints Pain

Chapter 21

Someone’s sobbing loudly and I couldn’t remember where I am or who I’m with. Clearly it’s a girl crying, but I can’t register who it is or why they’re upset. My eyes feel too heavy to move and the rest of my body felt so numb I wasn’t sure if it was still attached to me.

          Jackson was the first thing on my mind because I wanted him here and to tell me what’s going on. My thoughts were fuzzy and I can’t remember anything from the throbbing in the front of my head. His name was on the tip of my tongue, I wanted to call for him so bad, but my throat was too dry. It hurt just to swallow.

          The crying stopped without me noticing and I could hear someone breathing next to me, but I couldn’t identify them from their scent. I finally opened my eyes a little to a blur, so I blinked a few more times to clear it up.

          The first thing I saw was a white ceiling connected to four white walls. Then I heard a beeping sound that I wanted to turn and look for, but couldn’t because my body still refused to move. I just wanted Jackson.

          Someone was sitting in a chair next to the bed I was laying in, staring down at a phone and when I opened my mouth to say something, I started coughing. Somehow my arm shot up and covered my mouth as I coughed and when I went to lay it back on the bed, a fire burned my whole arm, making me groan in pain.

          The guy looked up from his phone, his eyes wide as if I scared him and when he saw I was looking back, his face became neutral. Blake’s beautiful eyes looked over my face and I shifted the best I could on the bed to get comfortable. My body ached and I whimpered, deciding not to move if I didn’t have to.

          “W-wa,” I stated, but immediately started coughing again. “Water, please.” I whispered. If he wasn’t a werewolf he probably wouldn’t have heard me.

          He stayed seated for a minute before hesitantly standing up and looking around the room. He found one by a backpack in the corner and strutted back to the bed, holding it out to me. “It’s your brother’s.”

          I nodded and attempted to sit up, but my stomach burned and I was instantly in tears, falling back on the pillows. Blake watched with no expression as I waited for the burning in front of my ribs to leave and then walked around my bed, picking up a remote and pressing a button. The bed started moving so I was in a sitting position.

          “Thanks.” I choked out, lifting my hand slightly to grab the water bottle. My shoulder stopped by itself, not able to move anymore because of the pain. It was a numb kind of pain that only affected my shoulder, but when I lifted my arm I noticed bruises covering my skin; a few tiny scratches scattered up my arm.

          I gaped at the new bruises I’ve never seen before and turned to my other arm, noticing the same amount of bruises and scratches. I still couldn’t remember why I was here or even what day it is and Blake is being way too nice to me. He would never, ever be in the same room with me, completely alone and then offer to help. I have to be dreaming.

          “Wh-what happened?” I asked, looking down at my legs, but realizing they were covered with a blanket. I looked up at Blake, noticing him looking over my face again. He didn’t answer, instead guided the bottle to my mouth and helped me chug the rest of the water, the liquid cooling the back of my throat instantly.

          He threw away the empty bottle and shoved his fists in his pockets, looking down at the ground like he didn’t want to be here. I definitely didn’t want to be here either. “Thanks, Blake.” I whispered, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. I really wanted to go back to sleep and wake up in my own bed, or maybe even in Blake’s. “Where am I?”