Comatose

Part Six

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Don Mealer Children's Hospital

January 17th, 2022

1:00 AM

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Elle awoke suddenly, sitting straight up with a gasp.

She was back in the strange room she had seen a few days ago, except there was more furniture in it now. The biggest difference were two armchairs next to the bed she was in. In them sat a man and a woman. The man had brown hair and a small, aged face. He was in a polo and a nice pair of khaki shorts. The woman looked like a spitting image of Elle. Everything from her perfectly round dimples, to her small hands with nails that were painted with a ruby red nail polish.

The man held the woman's hand. They were both asleep, and the woman had her head pillowed on the man's shoulder.

An alarm sounded in the room, and the lights turned on. They were so bright that Elle closed her eyes and covered them with the back of her hand.

She heard a set of moans as a sudden sound of rushed footsteps permeated the quiet room.

"She's awake! Quick, let's get her off of life support and get her some oxygen!" Someone shouted. The voice was strange and firm. Whoever it was, they were definitely in charge. "And for heaven's sakes, dim those lights! They are probably blinding the poor girl!"

The lights dimmed, and Elle slowly opened her eyes. They were watering and she blinked a few times to clear her vision.

In front of her were three new people, and they all were beaming.

Elle recognized one of them as the man in white scrubs. His hair wasn't as neat as before, and a large pair of dorky glasses rested crookedly on his nose. He came close to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey there!" He smiled with a wide, toothy grin, "We are gonna take this tube out of your throat so you can speak, okay? I just need you to relax, it shouldn't hurt, but if it does, give my hand a squeeze and we'll stop," The man held out his hand and smiled again. It was a sincere smile, and it made the corners of his eyes crinkle.

Elle looked at him reluctantly, but he was being so kind. She didn't fully trust him, but she needed to get this thing out of her throat regardless, and she probably couldn't do the best job herself. She decided to take his hand.

One of the other people stood next to the kind man and lightly grabbed her chin. She was a dark skinned woman, and her hair was beautifully braided and tied back in a ponytail. She wore a frosty orange lipstick that complemented her dark eyes, and her hands were absurdly cold.

The woman pulled the tube out of Elle's throat with ease. In fact, Elle didn't feel a thing.

"Good job, Kiddo," The kind man said, squeezing her hand slightly before standing up and taking his hand away. "I'm Dr.Kate," He smiled that wide, goofy grin, once more. He gestured to the dark skinned woman, "That is Nurse Amalia, and that over there is Dr. Barrymore."

The other person was at the back of the room, messing with a computer. He looked up and smiled at the mention of his name.

Nurse Amalia reached up behind Elle's head and grabbed an oxygen tube. "Now, this is gonna tickle when I turn it on, but it will help you breathe until you are fully able to do it on your own again, okay?" She carefully placed the nose piece below Elle's nostrils and tucked the rest of the tubing behind Elle's ears. "Put that in your nose where it's comfortable, and then I'll tighten it so it doesn't slip down your face."

Elle reached up and grabbed the tube gingerly with her fingers, placing it in her nose. Nurse Amalia was right, it did tickle. After the Nurse tightened the tube, she walked over to Dr.Barrymore.

"Where...where am I?" Elle croaked. Her voice coming out hoarse.

"Can I please talk to my daughter?" Someone interrupted.

Elle had completely forgotten about the two people on the other side of her. She looked over and realized that both of them had woken up. Tears were pouring down the both of their faces.

"Yes of course, sir. We are going to continue some more routine tests before we leave you alone with her though," Dr.Kate said cheerfully.

"Yes, of course. Whatever you need to do to make sure our Lele is okay," said the man. "Lele, baby, we were so worried about you."

Elle looked around, "Who is Lele? Who are you? Where am I?"

"Lele, it's us, your mom and dad. Don't you remember, baby? You were in a bad car crash. You hit your head really hard, and you've been asleep for seven days, we thought we had lost you. Thank the lord that you're awake. We were so scared."

The woman reached her hand out and gripped Elle's with all her might. "Thank goodness you're okay-"

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea who you are. I don't know any of you people," Elle said, pulling her hand away from the woman's, "And my name is Elle. Not Lele."

The woman burst into tears again, burying her face in her hands. The man leaned over to her and slowly rubbed her back, shushing her and telling her to calm down. "They told us this might happen remember? We just have to be patient," he whispered.

Suddenly, memories flashed back into Elle's mind.

The needles...

The screaming...

The torture...

Kaleb holding her in his lap...

Where was Kaleb? She had made it here, maybe he had too.

"Kaleb," Elle croaked, "I need to speak to Kaleb."

The woman, who was supposedly Elle's mom, looked up with a sniff. "Kaleb? Honey, you're brother is long gone. He didn't survive the crash-"

Elle exploded, "No! Not my brother, but the one I called Kaleb. I gave him that name, and I...I left him all alone! I left him alone in that horrible place..." Elle hiccupped, and rubbed away her tears with the back of her hand.

"Honey, what horrible place? You've been here the entire time, it must have all been a dream," Her mom said.

"No! It wasn't a dream...It couldn't all be a dream. Kaleb he was real! I...left him there...I left him there and I had no choice," Elle was sobbing.

Quickly, both of her parents stood up and wrapped their arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Shush, baby it's okay, you're safe now," Her dad whispered.

They stayed like that, hugging each other and crying, for a very long time.

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