Eclipsed Star

Chapter Twenty

JAKE POV 

The last thing I remembered was falling into a dark hole that I thought was heavy, wavering sleep. But that darkness swallowed me whole. I heard voices I couldn't answer before grey and white images flashed before my eyes.

We were in the car. Mom's ringtone cried and I remembered her answering it before speaking in Quileute, our native language. I could barely understand a word she spoke as she spoke so quickly. All I knew it was dad on the other end of the line. I could hear his voice. They had been doing that all morning... arguing.... I looked ahead and across the road. There stood a deer. Everything was a blotted out blur after that.

I gasped awake like I had been dreaming a nightmare, one I couldn't wake up from. It had felt like I had been trapped under water, unable to breathe or see. It'd been impossible to know which way was up, which way was down. I remembered having heard Roman's voice but I was unable to answer and then his voice disappeared, replaced, drowned out by a hundred others I couldn't place.

My chest rose and fell as I stared up at the ceiling that spun before focusing. I didn't remember the room being this dark. I must have been out for hours. Night was slowly setting in. Something cold was lying on my forehead. When I pulled it off, I found it had been an icy gel pack.

My palms lay against the blankets, shaking before clenching. It was then I realized the IV had been taken out, because the needle hadn't stabbed into my hand when my hands fisted, but something lightly gripped my finger.

As the world slowly came back to me, I glanced down to see some kind of machine connected to my index finger. I couldn't remember what it recorded. My blood pressure and heart rate, I think. I remembered its soft, rubbery grip.

Slowly, I slid to sit in the middle of the bed and sucked in a breath as my hand shot up to my chest when a stabbing pain raced through it like a zap of lightning. My head felt heavy. My muscles ached. If I ever had a guess of what it felt like to be hit by a truck, these feelings that I currently felt would be what I'd use describe it, without actually knowing.

Panic suddenly struck me. "Roman?" I said and rolled on to my side, coughing hard as I hoped he'd be curled up beside me, but all I saw was Embry awaken in the corner chair with dad beside him by the door. Dad had the same serious expression as earlier this morning, only now he looked mad too. His jaw pulled tight, eyebrows pulled together... What'd gone on?

My first thought was to ask where Roman was, but with dad there, I couldn't just blurt that out without him shooting me more accusations.

"You okay Jake?" Embry asked with the softest tone I'd ever heard him use. He slowly elevated his weight off the chair to move and stand beside the bed. I longed for Roman's arms to be round me.

"What happened?" I coughed again as more lightning shot through my chest. The air felt thick and stuffy. My gaze went from Embry to dad, who still hadn't looked up. I didn't know why he'd even come to see me after this morning. He'd made it pretty clear he didn't accept who I hung out with.

Embry's eyes had been on dad before he looked back to me when it became evident dad wasn't talking. "You had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics and a high temperature so you blacked out. They didn't know what was going on. We almost lost you."

"That'd explain why the IV feels like it's been ripped out." I glanced down to my left hand and saw a small square piece of gauze taped over the middle of my hand. Under it, a dark purple and blue bruise coloured my skin. "Where's Roman?"

Silence fell over the room. Embry looked to dad and sighed.

"He left, Jacob," dad mumbled with a deep tone.