Conflicted (Brothers Conflict)

Chapter Six

It was night time, I was in the back seat of a car and we were moving, the streetlights flashed periodically overhead as we drove by them one by one. My vision wasn't very clear, things seemed kind of fuzzy. There was a flash of lights that looked like headlights flashing through the windshield of our car. Car horns honked furiously all around, I heard a woman scream just before the impact. Glass shattered all around me and I heard a baby crying over the sound of the crunching metal. People were screaming outside. Sirens echoed in the distance.

"Ema! Evie!....please be okay..." The woman's voice faded away.

I woke with a scream, my body jerked and I held back a swear as I felt a familiar sharp stabbing pain radiating all over my back.

"Evie?" Masaomi's voice sounded nearby, Ema must have corrected him about my name. He was in the chair at my bedside and his warm chocolate eyes were filled with concern, "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah. Sorry." My heart was pounding in my chest, breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, the pain in my spine was almost crippling and I had to blink furiously to keep the tears brimming in my eyes from falling.

Masaomi reached for a clean cloth from the bedside table and gently dabbed at the sweat on my brow, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." I clutched the kitten plush Natsume had given me closer to my chest as I tried to slow my breathing to normal. I hated feeling vulnerable and helpless in front of anyone.

Masaomi tried to talk about something different to respect my wishes, "That's cute, where did you get it?" He indicated my kitten.

"A friend brought it to me yesterday." I replied quietly.

"A boyfriend?" Masaomi mused causing my face to burn scarlet.

"W-what?" My voice cracked and my heart started to race causing one of the many machines connected to me to go crazy.

"Ah, sorry, I shouldn't have flustered you." Masaomi chuckled. "Would you like to try walking around for a bit?"

"Is that okay?" I asked unsure as my back throbbed.

"It helps with circulation, getting your blood flowing, and speeds up the recovery process. We always encourage it." He noted.

"Sure. I'd like that." My smile was strained. "Is anyone going to tell me how bad it is or am I just supposed to be left in the dark?"

Masaomi sighed, "We wanted to see how the recovery was going to see if our suspicions were correct or not. You fell on a lot of glass and some pieces were quite large, a piece got lodged between your vertebrae, one pierced a kidney, and you lost a lot of blood. Surgery was able to repair the damage to the kidney and we were able to safely remove the glass from your vertebrae. Your arm was burned pretty badly, its second degree, so I'm afraid scarring is inevitable."

Shit. "And your suspicions?"

"We weren't sure if there was any permanent damage to your spine. And won't know until you start some physical therapy."

My stomach churned, "So worst case scenario?"

"You wouldn't be able to do any extreme physical activities... like fighting."

No. That could not happen, I'd just gotten started in my professional career. I was going to be a character model and I qualified for the local pro league. "Likeliness?"