It Started As a Deal

Chapter 34: I Wake Up

"Now I fly, hit the high notes/ I have a voice, have a voice, hear me roar tonight/ You held me down/ But I fought back loud, oh" ~ Sia, Bird Set Free, This is Acting

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When I open my eyes, I am met with the discolored white popcorn ceiling of a hospital room.  Dark brown rings from water damage cover the corners of the room, and the sound of an oxygen tank and heart monitor machine float to my ears.  The smell of disinfectant was thick in the outside air that I could somewhat breath in (since most of the oxygen going into my nose came from tubes) and the sheets that I was tucked into felt stiff and scratchy.  A dull pain throbbed in the center of my chest, but other than that, I felt fine.  I brought my hand to my chest - along with an IV tube - to feel around until I found the gauze and other bandaging that covered my chest and wrapped around my back.

Slowly I rested my arms against either side of me and pushed up with all my might trying to get myself in a sitting position.  The pain in my chest grew stronger as I tried to do so, but I ignored it wanting to not call for help and to have someone come into the room.  I finally managed to get myself up just a bit and stopped to catch my breath and let the pain subside before doing anything more.  Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a clock on the nightstand that showed it to be almost four in the morning.  I look around the room expecting someone to be sleeping in the room on the small couch that is normally in a room only to see that I was alone in my room with nothing in the room.  Normally if someone if staying in a hospital room with someone, they have a bag of clothes with them, but there was nothing in the room.

I was alone in the hospital after waking up from life saving surgery. . . again.

I swung my legs to the side of the bed and placed my feet on the ground standing up on wobbling feet.  Once I'm standing more firmly and not weak in my legs anymore, I clamp my IV tube stopping the drip to unhook myself from it and grab the oxygen tank handle to wheel around with me.  Luckily for me the heart monitor didn't make a noise when I turned it off, so I set out to wander around the halls barefoot.

The hallway was quiet when I pushed my door open with sounds only coming from doors that were open as nurses took care of their patients.  My feet made no sound on the tiled ground, but the oxygen tank wheels made slight noises as I turned around corners or if it got caught in the grout.  There weren't any nurses at the nurses station when I passed by which I presumed was because they were off doing their duties, so nobody noticed my or stopped me to bring me back to my room.

Coming to the end of the hallway, I became face to face with a very large window that overlooked the parking lot and front entrance of the hospital.  I couldn't see much detail because of how high up I was (which was probably the fourth floor), but I did see an ambulance drive up to the entrance and unload a person of a stretcher covered in blood.  How long ago was it that Hunter and Kye brought me in bleeding from a gunshot wound?

"Imogen?" I hear a small voice behind me say causing me to turn around to see my younger sister Millie standing behind in her My Little Pony pajamas holding her security blanket in her arms.

"M-Millie?  What are you doing here?" I asked her opening my arms for her to rush into my arms and hug her.

"We came with Jessica to come find you.  We've been lookin' for you since you left us, but we came because Jess got a phone call sayin' you were in the hospital," she says starting t cry, "Why did you leave us Imogen?  Do you not love us anymore?"

"Of course I love you guys!" I say trying to bend down to hug her closer to me but stop when a pain blossoms across my body, "I only left because Mom was coming home, and she hurt me too much.  I just didn't want her to hurt me again."

"But you got a new family!" she cried out squirming out of my arms to get away from me.

"No I didn't Mil.  I just made some friends and moved in with them so that I could have a place to stay," I try to explain to her feeling tears coming down my face now, "I didn't abandon you; I was going to come home once I knew Mom was gone, but some bad things happened."

"This is the second time you have left us though!" I freeze and look at her with wide eyes after she says that to me.  "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to say that!"

"Millie you know that leaving was not my choice!  You know that it was Mom's fault that I disappeared for those two years because she sold me to get money to pay off her drug debt!" I yell out at her becoming angry that she would accuse me of such a thing.  "How could you say that to me when you know what she did?"

"I said I was sorry Imogen please forgive me!" she cries out at me, but I'm done listening.  I was already halfway down the hall back towards my room by then.  She was running after me because I could hear her feet slap against the ground as she tried to catch up with me.

"Oh good there you are," a police officer said to me as I walked into my room, "We were about to send out an alert for you."  At my confused look he adds on saying, "When you turned your hear monitor off, it alerted the nurse's station to block the exits and look for you."

"Where is Millie at?" Jessica asks running over to me putting her hands on the sides of my face and pulling it towards her.

"I'm right here," she says pushing around the nurse at the door to come into the room.

"Good, go sit down on the couch over there with Josh," she tells her before turning her attention back to me, "What the hell is wrong with you running off like that?  We've been worried sick about what happened to you.  And who were those people you were with and why was Hunter here?  I heard he had kidnapped y'all again, but why is he at the hospital?"

"You know I left because Mom came back home, and those people are my friends that took me in and let me live with them.  Hunter's here because he brought me here so that I wouldn't bleed out to death from a gunshot wound to the chest," I tell her taking her hands away from my face.

"Well why was he the one who brought you here?  Why was he with you?" I stayed silent after she said that so I wouldn't have to say the answer aloud.  "God dammit answer me," she whispers slapping me across the face in anger.

"I'm not telling you shit if you slap me again," I tell her in a cold tone becoming angry at her and trying not to let my emotions show.

"Excuse me ladies, I hate to break your chit chat up, but we need to hook Imogen back up to her drips and allow the police to speak with her," a nurse says hurriedly attempting to calm the situation before it escalated.

"If that's what needs to be done then I'll leave," Jess says grabbing Josh and Millie before walking out of the room.

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