The Fading Oddities of Nate Smith (A NateWantsToBattle Fanfiction) --COMPLETE--

Chapter Four

Æ~Nate~Æ

Surely it was all a dream.

Nothing that horrible could've happened...that could have just easily been a nightmare. I'll wake up in my room and the day will be like every other. Everything will be okay. I'll be okay.
Hunter will be okay.

My eyes fluttered open to the steady rhythm of a beeping to my right. The sound was muffled, but it was definitely something that would wake me up. A bright light flooded my view, but slowly adjusted into a bland, tiled ceiling. Soft murmurs joined the quiet monotone noise to my left.

As everything came into focus, I realized that the beeping noise wasn't my alarm clock.

It was a heart monitor.

I turned my view to two people - one was a nurse, and the other was a doctor. The nurse had her hair pulled up into a tight blonde bun, revealing her emotionless look even more than if her hair was down. The doctor was a tall man with graying hair, a heavy look of sadness in his eyes. Probably from all of the pain he saw with his own eyes from patients before me. The two had a short conversation, and the nurse left the room, leaving the doctor and I alone.

"I'm glad you're awake, Nate," he said, pushing in his frameless glasses and turning back to me. "We were afraid we'd lose you, too."

My face contorted into confusion, a spark of worry igniting at the back of my mind.

"I'm Dr. Mendez, by the way." He sat down as his eyes were pulled downward, as if the weight behind them were forcing them to look away from me. I didn't blame them, though. He must've been through so much already...

"How long have I been out...?" I barely managed, still trying to take in my surroundings and decipher what's reality and what's not.

"A couple hours, don't worry..." his voice slowly trailed off. He seemed to have to force his head to tilt up and look at me again. "But...your friend - Hunter Hughes?"

I slowly nodded, the spark setting ablaze and making every alarm in my mind turn to full blast.

Oh, no...what happened to him...?

"He-" Dr. Mendez sighed, gathering up his last bit of stoic courage to finally force the words from his mouth. His voice had turned from a touch of relief to a soft yet depressing tone. "We did everything we could..."

I gasped, and the numb feeling - the memory of all of the events before I blacked out - flooded back to me. Tears welled up in my eyes, and a thick lump made all of my words clog up in my throat as tiny squeaks and hoarse fragments.

"Hunter never woke up. His heart stopped beating before they could even get him to the ER."

I didn't bother to try and wipe away the salty liquid from my eyes. I couldn't. I was too numb to...

Oh, lord...it's the accident all over again...

Silent tears turned to uncontrollable sobbing in minutes. Dr. Mendez comforted me as best as he could, but it was all shut out. The whole world, tuned out and faded to nearly black as I plunged back into my own little world again.

And the only things that existed in that void of a world were seven words, repeated over and over again through my thoughts and - or at least I think - through my mouth.

"I couldn't save him...It's all my fault..."

~ ~ ~

Everything's gone wrong.

All of it. My plan. My disappearance. Gone. Just like that.

And it's all because I made some idiotic move and passed out on the side of the road last night.

I'm sitting on a warm bed, in a small room, with two girls before me - one is a wavy-haired blonde with piercing silver eyes, and is wearing a pastel yellow shirt with worn gray slacks. She's sitting in a light gray swivel chair and is swinging around in a restless way. The other is a straight-haired brunette with soft green eyes. Her gray sweater is tied in a sort of hugging-position around her neck, with a white shirt underneath that's, at some parts, tucked into light jean shorts. She's sitting on the same bed as I am - dangerously close to me.

It's the closest I've been to someone since...

No. Ignore it. Ignore it, Nate...

My eyes stay fixed on the two girls, not daring to move. I don't know how long I've been out, but it's certainly been long enough to get dragged away from where I first blacked out.

"Wait," the brunette looks up to me after a short tossing of questions. "I almost forgot. What's your name?"

The blonde blurts out before I can even open my mouth. "The name's Tess Amistad, by the way. You'll meet my brother Leo soon enough." Her hand juts out to me as a small burst of laughter fills the room. "I mean, soon enough as in when he finds you."

Tess, huh? Interesting name.

I shake her hand and turn to the brunette beside me.

"And I'm Olive Zachrielle," she says. "I-I'm alone here, so the only sibling you have to worry about is Tess'."

Zachrielle's a cool last name...Olive Zachrielle...

"So," Tess crosses her arms and seems to glare at me. "What's your name?"

I swallow quietly, clearing away all of the hoarseness in my voice. Should I run for it? Should I not tell them my name? Part of me wants my legs to just spring me upward and run, run away from here. From them. From all this.

But I can't. These are the people that helped me...at least, Olive was the one that did...

"Nate," I finally say. "Nate Smith."

Olive seems to flinch at my name. Her mouth gapes open a little bit, and her eyes seem to dart back and forth across me. Tess takes a look at her and raises an eyebrow.

"What's wrong, Olive?" she asks.

"N-Nothing..." Olive replies, unable to take her eyes off of me. "Sorry...it's just that your name sounded familiar...Nate."

Oh, no. Does she know? Was she a subscriber? I haven't even known these people for a minute yet and I'm already at the risk of being exposed. I can feel my hands digging into the sheets. A sure sign of nerve.

"R-really?" I say in the steadiest voice I can manage, flashing a forced smile. "What's so familiar about it?"

Olive seems to peer at me a few seconds longer, then shakes her head. "Nevermind. I just thought I heard the name somewhere before."

I have to force myself not to breathe a sigh of relief. Hopefully I can stay a secret for at least another day.

But I know it won't last forever. Whoever these girls are...I don't want anything to do with them. I need to leave them before anything happens. I need to get back on the road before I'm discovered again.

And I can only imagine what would happen if I was caught.