Once Upon A Dream • K.M.

(1.3) Markings

"Miss Greer, wake up please, it's time for you to be discharged." The nurse begged as she shook the young girl awake. Eden jolted up, gasping as she took in her surroundings in a panic. Her eyes wandered around wildly as she noticed that she back in the white hospital room with the same nurse she had spoken with last night.

"Where am I?" She breathed out, wanting confirmation that she was back in reality. The nurse took a small step back as she watched, it wasn't uncommon for a victim of an animal attack to wake up screaming and she didn't want to be a casualty of any of the patient's tantrums.

"You're in the hospital Miss Greer. You came in last night with a bite from a wild animal, remember?" Eden took a breath and looked out the window to see the sunlight streaming through the same town that she'd been raised in for the past four years. Sighing in relief, Eden turned back to the nurse, still trying to get her erratic breathing under control.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I just had a nightmare." She apologized, though this only earned a skeptic look from the nurse, who walked forward once more.

"I checked your vitals for you while you slept, everything seems to be at normal levels. Are you okay to go home?" The nurse asked, secretly begging her to say yes. She wanted to be rid of the girl in the bed who had been mumbling very odd phrases throughout the night. When the nurse was making her nightly rounds, she checked on the injured girl only to hear her repeatedly muttering the phrase "den jævelen" in her sleep. While the nurse knew that the girl was fluent in Spanish, this was not Spanish the girl was muttering and so the nurse became uneasy when she was around now.

"I'm fine." Eden assured her, sensing the other woman's discomfort.

"Well alright. Here are your discharge papers and your clothes you came in with last night. They're a little dirty from where you fell. Is there anyone that could come get you?" Eden shook her head, fishing in the bag for her phone, knowing that her friends must have been worried about her. Her assumption was proven right when she noticed five missed calls from Matt and Jeremy.

"No I'm okay, thank you." The nurse gave Eden one last skeptical look before she left the room, closing the door behind her. Eden meanwhile scrolled through her contact list to find Jeremy's name and pressed the call button on her phone while signing her release papers at the same time.

"Eden what the hell, I'm gonna kill you." Jeremy's voice yelled into the receiver as soon as picked up the phone. He had been going crazy all night worried about Eden and the fact that he couldn't get to her only made his anxiety worse. Said girl only smiled, happy to hear from her best friend even if it was just a half assed death threat. She climbed from the bed before pulling out the items in her personal bag to get dressed.

"Well hello to you too Jer, now I'm not an expert on these kinds of things but I'm almost sure that you shouldn't threaten to kill a person who almost died the night before." She mused, trying to calm the younger boy. She had been the one who would constantly preach to Jeremy about staying safe and now she was in the position, though she was hoping that he wouldn't point that out to her. Putting the phone on speaker, Eden stripped out of the hospital gown, letting it fall limply to the floor.

"What the hell were you thinking?" The young Gilbert ignored her joke, too worried about her to be sidetracked by her lame humor. Eden simply rolled her eyes when she realized this, knowing that she was probably about to get scolded for her actions.

"Jeremy please don't overreact about this, I didn't know it was going to happen." Eden begged, sliding the dirty jeans up her legs and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Eden you know it's dangerous out there at night." Jeremy berated, causing Eden to snort as she slid her shirt on.

"What, are the vampires going to get me?" She joked sarcastically. There was a pause before Jeremy sighed, he had desperately wanted to tell her the truth about everything that was going on in the town lately and this most recent event was only pushing him towards it more.