Chapter 23: Drifting

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  Ideas and sensations came to me in flashes. A prick in the arm, the sting of something offensive being forced into my veins. The concept of pain slipped into my head, but it meant nothing to me. Oddly, I knew that it should mean something despite my lapse in understanding. More things popped into my head, more messages of pain and the idea to move my arm away from what was causing the pain, but I had no desire to do so. I was comfortable and happy. The messages bombarded me for minutes more then went silent.

  A scream ripped its way out of my throat. I didn't know why.

  Everything faded to white and the sound of static. A few voices faded in and out of the foggy noise, but it was like they weren't speaking English. Maybe they weren't, how was I suppose to know? More noise filtered in, gradually becoming clearer.

  "(Y/N)? (Y/N)?" An unfamiliar voice asked for what seemed the millionth time.

  "Huh?" I managed to groan out. My tongue felt like a thick piece of useless meat, the rest of me felt like that too.

  "Oh, good. You're awake," The voice said again. It sounded like a she, a young she. I imagine her blonde, a charmingly crooked face with hazel eyes and naturally blonde hair. She probably had it pulled back in a bun, but she was one of those girls that actually looked good with a slicked-back low bun.

  My eyes slide open and immediately wanted to close again.

  "Welcome back to the waking world," The 'she' popped into view. She matched my mental image to a 't' but for a unique gold nose ring that looped through tiny holes in her nose twice.

  "Mine name's Greta," she smiled, scribbling information from beeping machines beside me onto a clipboard.

  "What-what happened?" I managed to get out around my tongue that now only felt 50% useless.

  She paused and look up to the left; she was about to lie to me. "You hit you're head getting out of bed when you were severely exhausted and were unconscious for about 15 hours.

  "Oh," I muttered. I tried to lift my hand up to rub my head, but there was a resistance.

  "Why am I strapped to my bed?" I asked, testing my legs and finding them secured too.

  "Just a precaution to make sure you didn't get up when you were unattended. We couldn't have anyone getting hurt again," She said, telling the truth this time.

  "Can you unstrap me now?" I asked.

  "Let me just confirm a few things with your doctor before doing so," She said, flashing me a quick smile, "It'll just be a moment."

  The second I heard the door click shut I was moving. I sat up, straining against the straps. It turned out that they were just velcro and I pulled out of them easily. I flexed my wrists and ankles, waiting for a throbbing headache to come, but it never did.

  "Okay," I mumbled to myself as I tested my feet. Excepting to be wearing a hospital gown of some sorts, I was surprised to me in a hoodie and leggings.

  "Okay, what do I do?" I said again.

  "Find Peter," was the easy answer I came up with.

  I went to the door and pressed my ear to it. Hearing no voices, I dared to push it open. it swung silently open and revealed an empty hallway. After checking both ways, I stepped out into it. I wasn't sure where to go from there, so I just followed my gut and went left.

  I followed the twisting corridor until another fork; I went right. This continued for a long time, or so it felt. Me picking a random direction with no real reason. It seemed to be going well until I hit a dead end. There was a door at the end, dim light sifting through the prison-door-esc window in the door.

  I approached it slowly. Part of me expected something to jump out from nowhere and tackle me, but nothing of the sort happened. I peered through the window, but it was too dark in the room to make out anything other than a formed huddled in the far corner.  I tested the handle, feeling the resistnace of a lock at first, then it gave way and the door swung wide.

  The figure jolted to attention. He pulled himself to his feet and had his hands up and ready to fight.

  As more light filtered into the room, I  could see more of his features.

  "Peter?" I asked, immediately dreading my words because what if I just jinxed it?

  He dropped his hands. "(Y/N)?"

  As if like magnets, we fell into each other's arms. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and he tangled his fingers in my hair. 

  "Thank God you're okay," he whispered, squeezing me tight. After he said that, I realized that I hadn't noticed what kind of condition he was in. I pulled back a little and looked him over.

  He was still in his suit, but it was peppered with holes and I could see bruises.

  "I couldn't say the same for you. Are you okay?" I asked, getting lost in his brown eyes.

  "I've been better, but that doesn't matter right now. We have to get out," He said.

  I nodded. 

  "I can't think of any exists I've seen the few times I've been out of this room," He continued. I nodded.

  "Hey, (Y/N), are you with me?" He asked gently, gripping my shoulders and trying to find my gaze. I nodded, my mind drifting like the dust in the air.

  "Come on, (Y/N), snap out of it," He said, still gently, and shook my a little.

  "Huh?" I snapped back to reality.

  "Do you know where any exists are?"

  "N-no," I mumbled and shook my head.

  "You're not okay," he said mostly to himself.

  I shook my head.

  I could see the look on Peter's face- scared and unsure but determined- but it wasn't registering my head why he would feel like that. I racked my head for any reason, anything that could calm him. Never would I want Peter to feel anything but joy or any other positive emotion.

  "(Y/N)?" He said, but he sounded far away. He was right in front of me though.

  "Stay with me here," He said again, panic seeping into his voice, "You can't do this right now, please, just a few more minutes and we'll be on our way out of here."

  I wanted to stay awake and help him, but I wanted more to just sleep. Give in to the urge that had been increasingly hard to ignore. It pounded stronger in the back of my head every second.

  "Sorry," I murmured.

  "No," Peter objected, "No-"

  My mind drifted off to nowhere.


__________

  Once again, I'm going to apologize for sucking tremendously at updating. But hi, school and a job mixed with piano lessons I have to practice for don't leave much room for writing. Inspiration or motivation are few and far between on the weekends when I'm tired, still work, and just want to watch Netflix. So sorry.

  But I do have a fan acc now for Tom Holland. @Tomhollandscurls on Instagram if you're interested. I suck at that too and I need to find decent stuff to post. But if yall wanna follow it, be my guest.

~Natalie <3

  



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