Guardians and Angels

Chapter 18: Rapunzel

Drowning in an impending darkness, I felt my senses awaken before the rest of me did. With my eyes remaining shut, I began taking in my surroundings.

A loud and tedious beeping pulsed a high frequency into my ears and the air around me reeked of stale bleach. My head and body were stiff and achy, yet felt numb with a tingling sensation. My eyes fluttered open, only to be blinded by the brightly lit room. There were several white lights that hung above me in the foreign room I was placed in--Wait, where am I?

That thought alerted my senses completely and my gaze fell down to look at myself. I was wearing a strange gown that I know for certain I didn't own, my arm had a needle bulging out of it, connecting me to the beeping machines and pumping a strange liquid into my veins. An out-of-place contraption was placed on my pointer finger and on my wrist was a plastic bracelet that had my name on it.

Weird gowns, beeping machines, plastic bracelet, the smell of bleach... Am I in a hospital?

To confirm my assumption, I looked around the room for more clues concerning my whereabouts. I was laid down in a hospital bed with a thin blanket covering me. The room was spacious enough- in my opinion at least- and was vacant except for the few chairs and cabinets that lined the outskirts of the room, a small TV was placed up on the wall so that I could look at it, and a bathroom was in the corner of the room.

I began to panic. Why am I in a hospital? What's going on? Where's Flynn? What happened to me?

My fear receded once I saw a familiar figure sitting on a couch next to the window. He had his head in between his hands, gripping his sparkling white hair, as he leaned forward on his knees with his foot tapping impatiently on the floor.

"Jack..." I croaked out in a hoarse voice.

He might as well have gotten whiplash from how fast his head turned at the mention of his name. The distress on his face was instantly replaced with relief when his eyes met mine. "Hey," he spoke softly as he got up from the couch and made his way over to me. "How're you feeling, Princess?"

I cracked the faintest and laziest smile I could. "My throat feels like I drank out of the Great Salt Lake, and I'm really craving some food right now," I joked, though my voice was still a little raspy.

This made him chuckle lowly and shake his head at me. "Why does that not surprise me?" He grabbed a water bottle with a pink bendy straw in it and handed it to me.

I took tiny sips and felt the cool liquid soothe away the coarseness in my throat. I hadn't realized how thirsty I really was until almost half the water bottle was empty in only one gulp.

"Can I cash in that pizza now?" I asked.

He gave me a small smile. "We'll talk to the nurse later and see what they have."

"But hospital food sucks."

He playfully narrowed his eyes at me.

We fell into a palpable silence that hung in the air, stiff with tension. His eyes penetrated into me with a look I couldn't quite comprehend. He seemed on edge. His mouth would open as if he were going to say something, but then he'd quickly shut it once again.

"Jack?"

"What all do you remember?" he asked breathily.

I thought for a moment as a revision of my memories played in my head like a movie. My face fell into despair from my recollection.

"Everything," I told him. "I remember playing laser tag with you guys. I remember walking home with Merida and then Flynn taking me to his house, and-and..." I broke off for a moment, trying to repress the emotions that were starting to surface. "I-I remember all the horrible, nasty things he did to me, but then, I guess I blacked out."