The Immortal's Gamble

Chapter 9 You are..?

"Is she waking up?"

"Yes she is. And she can hear you. Laura, I know you can hear us. Can you open your eyes?"

I recognize these voices. But they seemed so far away...

"No, no. Stay with me Laura, concentrate on my voice alright? Arden do it now. Help her with the transition."

Alex? Arden? Help me with? What is he going to do?

"Yes! We're here! Open your eyes Laura, you can do it." Alex coaxed. I could feel his hand on mine.

I can't.. I'm tired Alex..

My mind was lethargically answering Alex when I felt another presence. Warmth enveloped my hands and I felt slightly less tired. 

"Laura, I need you to listen to my voice okay? Follow what I say, now you need to relax your body." Arden started, as soon as I heard the words my body was relaxed. Like wow, I didn't realize how tense my body was.

"Now I want you to slowly open your eyes. Can you do that for me?" Arden began again.

I concentrated on my eyes, trying to crack open just one eyelid. But the moment I did, the bright light that hit my vision made me groan in response. I physically tried to turn over and away from whatever that was emitting the bright light. I just want to sleep.

"Laura don't go to sleep. Stay with me okay. Annalise turn off the lights!" Alex shouted, a click echoed in the room and the brightness was dimmed. There was a shuffle, and I felt a presence next to me despite my fading senses.

"Laura, you need to open your eyes sweetheart." Arden encouraged.

I tried opening my eyes again. This time the darkness was comforting to my eyes but it was blurry.

"Where am I?" I tried to say but my tongue felt like a rock in my mouth and as dry as sandpaper.

"Now isn't the time for questions. How are you feeling?" Alex said seriously.

What is he going on about? I've never seen him being so serious.

"Sorry for being too serious." He cracked a smile. And all I could do was stare at him. How did he know what I'm thinking? My head pounded with questions as I felt the rush of blood flow and I closed my eyes to get rid of the dizziness. 

"You're fine now. Look, we're even holding hands." He grinned, holding up our connected hands.

That doesn't make any sense. 

"Laura dear. There's.." she walked over to me, "going to be a lot to take in. I know you have questions. But I need you to rest. W have lots of time to talk." She smiled and patted my hand then turned on her heels and was out the door, I looked over at Alex who nodded in agreement.

Where's Arden?

"Oh don't worry about him. He was the most worried about you. We barely managed to convince him to take a rest. He will be back later." 

"Rest Laura, I'm serious. You lost a lot of blood and stop thinking. You're going to give us all a heart attack." He scolded when I was about to think about what had happened.

I shrugged and made myself as comfortable I could. Which wasn't all that hard given that the bed felt like a big fluffy cloud.

"Wa-water." I said hoarsely and it was as though a light bulb lit up above his head. His face turned to one of horror before he started apologizing and was out the door. My head was starting to pound again yet I couldn't remember much.