BrainDEAD

Chapter 2; Nobody Likes You When You're Dead

4 hours later...

Sarah awoke to a bright light hovering above her. White sheets blanketed her small, mousy frame, and she noted that she was dressed in a white hospital gown. She looked over and saw her usual clothes to her left, and with a small gasp noticed that everything was splattered with blood. She picked up her arm and removed it from her side, and saw a small tube connected with her elbow, clear fluid going straight into her bloodstream.

She felt extremely woozy and scatterbrained, completely drained.

"Ah! She's awake!" Somebody called from outside her room, and a tall middle-aged man entered the room, his green eyes bright, his salt-and-pepper hair wet.

"What am I doing here?" Sarah demanded to know, struggling into a sitting position, which only made her more dizzy, and produced a headache. She moved her hand to her face, covering her eyes from the bright light above her.

"We found you on Jackknife road, 'bout 4 hours ago. Brought you here." he told her, shrugging.

"Why am I in the hospital?"

"Ya' lost a lotta' blood, miss. I had to bring you here."

Blood...That stirred some memories. Her father, lying on the ground...dying...

"Where's my father!?" she suddenly shrieked, bolting upright. She tore away the sheets that covered her and flung her legs to the side. And then she saw the big, bloody bandage that covered her calf.

And that was when she fainted.

---

She awoke several hours later, still feeling dizzy and strange. But now there was a burning pain in her leg, around her left calf. She winced as a particularly painful throb shook through her.

"Awake again, I see? Do you need any painkillers?" the man was back again, this time holding a paper cup of water, or juice or something.

She shook her head, mustering all the energy she had to do so.

"What about some water?" he asked, offering the water to her.

"Sure..." she muttered, taking the cup, then took a sip. The water tasted like hospital, but she gulped it down anyway. She still had an IV plugged into her elbow. "Now where's my father?" she asked suddenly.

"Your father? He's...um..." the man seemed at a loss for words.

"Dead?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. The man nodded solemnly.

"But you're 18, correct? You'll be fine. You inherited a lot of money."

"I...I did?"

"Yeah, your father had a small fortune going for him."

"How do you know?"

"Oh, I'm the sherrif around here. You probably didn't know because I'm not in uniform. Aren't you that new family that bought the house on Charles Avenue?" he asked.

-more added 7/02/12-

"Yeah...why?"

"Just wondering," he told her, slipping his hands in his pocket. It could have been whatever they were pumping into her bloodstream, but he looked like he was playing with something in his pocket...though she had no idea what.

"Hey, why don't you get some rest? You need it, after what happened to you." the Sherriff told her, making a move to leave the room.

"No, hold on--what happened to me?" she asked before he left the room. "Don't you have that figured out yet?"

"I...uh...we don't actually know at the moment." he said, looking at the floor awkwardly. She guessed he was embarrassed that his unit hadn't discovered anything about the attackers yet.

"Well, what clues do you have?" she asked briskly, holding herself up with her elbows.

"You were drained almost to the point of death is what we know. Your father was drained completely. There are bite marks on your left calf. Your father had bite marks in his neck..."

"So, you think vampires?" she asked uncertainly.

"...Well, it would be stupid to say actual vampires, but vampire imitators...sure."

Sarah just looked at him, her face perplexed, her mind even more confused. Vampires? Vampire imitators? She shook her head. It was nonsense, that was all. There was even a possibility that she was imagining it all. 

She looked back to the sherriff. "I need some rest...you can go now."

 "Alright," he grunted, leaving the room.

Sarah lied there for a while, staring up at the pearly white ceiling. Her calf ached and she felt incredibly woozy, but if she just lied still, she didn't feel quite so awful, save for the throbbing waves of pain that came and went, eminating from her calf.

Slowly, she drifted off into a fitful sleep, one filled with arms that reached for her, monsters that bit into her neck and calves, and a dark, pouring rain that fell from the sky, droplets landing on her body.

---

She awoke for certain about 3 days later,  feeling much more refreshed and alive. She didn't feel quite so dizzy, nor in quite so much pain. But, unfortunately, she happened to awake whilst they were removing her stitches in her leg.

It wasn't so much a painful experience, much more frightening than painful, the way the nurse clipped the small black thread and pulled it out with her tweezers. It almost tickled, and she winced at the grotesque sensation.

She must have emitted some sort of squeal as the nurse pulled out the last of the stitches, because the nurse looked up and gave her a questioning glance. "It's not painful, is it?" she asked. "I'd have thought the wound had healed enough to not cause trouble..."

"Oh, no, it doesn't...it just sort of...tickles. It's disgusting." Sarah muttered, wincing at the thought.

"At least you're finally awake to feel it," the nurse told her. "You've been out for quite some time. Would you like something to eat?"

"That sounds lovely," Sarah told her, the thought of food, even icky hospital food, making her mouth water. Even though she'd been on an IV and had been getting all of her nutrients, she still wanted to taste something.

"I'll go get you some," the nurse told her, getting up out of her seat and leaving the room.

The nurse returned with a teal-blue tray, loaded with tons of food. From what Sarah could gather, there was jello, a grilled cheese sandwich, water, and fruit.