Amidst Crimson Kisses

Chapter One: The Beautiful Siren

Asher's POV (THIS IS THE FIRST DRAFT)

I reach over the hospital monitor to grab a handful of clothing as I draw in a deep breath of saltwater. The soft fabric illuminates like the Tuscan sunset after midday, draping on the floor in a cloud of silk. I inhale again, but this time the hospital fades as the agitated sea seeps into my mind. I remember pounding my fists against a glass surface until I sunk further into the ocean. I forced my eyes shut as pain surged up my spine like a volt of electricity.

Then in an instant, I was plunged into the water as sheer panic started to wrap around my limbs like a siren dragging me deeper into the darkness. I tried so hard not to breathe that I began to claw at the ocean as my heart raced inside my chest. That's when I was on the verge of losing consciousness, but I still couldn't breathe. I refused to inhale; in fact, even the thought of breathing ripped my soul in half.

In a moment, I looked up as a body hovered what felt like miles and miles above my own. The dress covered her like an eclipse, yet I saw her entirely. Her eyes were relaxed, and her arms became wings. Suddenly, the water invades my nostrils as my esophagus contracts. That's when it hits me as my shoulders retract, and my legs begin to lift.

I took a breath...for her.

For a while, I watched the ocean float around her in a wave of sapphire until she was already gone. Then I wonder how her dress is intact after escaping the restless waves of the ocean? And why is it here instead of encased on her spellbinding curves? I lower the gown as it leaves me mesmerized in pure thoughts of her grace until a knock interrupts my perception of her.

"I'm sorry, Asher," The Physician stalls as she glances at the garment between my fingertips. "Am I interrupting something? I could always come back."

I place the gown on the bed as I respond. "Lynn, did you bring my discharge forms?"

Lynn Torres hasn't lived to see a brain injury within these confined walls that she hasn't cured or even had to wash the last drop of blood from her hands as if death somehow seeps through the plastic. I know this because she has a scent. Sometimes it's in her eyes when the rain falls, or even in her voice as the crevices connect. We've become close in these last few months, and whereas I would've taken a bullet to avoid her presence, I was stranded. Over the previous three months, I've been drowning on this mattress as my body became my prison, and the nightmare isn't even over. Since I don't have the slightest clue of who I am anymore.

"Yes..." Lynn trails off. "You don't have to worry, little brother, we're not holding you hostage."

"Trust me; I stand 6 ft over you," — I emerge over her small stature, raising an eyebrow — "escaping isn't a problem. I'm just being civilized."

Lynn rolls her eyes before she breaks out in a bright smile. "Anyways, David and his wife are here to see you."

I glance at her as amazement waters her curious blue eyes. Ever since I woke up, I can tell by just looking at her that she fears the moment I walk out of those doors I'll be all alone. She pointed out that hospitals aren't only for sick people. If they were, then there wouldn't be a single waiting room, and every room from the first floor to the fifteenth wouldn't have two couch's next to one bed. The truth is she was right hospitals are one of the few places people express a longing for someone by just being there. In the past four months, I've only had one visitor, and it was Andre. He hasn't been here for a week, but when he came, he gave me this dress wrapped tightly in a box with my name written in cursive on the label.

Ever since then I've tried to figure out how her dress made it here, but she didn't. A piece of meaningless fabric finds its way into my hands, yet the beautiful girl that swims in my mind vanishes in the darkness. I even remember moments of caressing her body in my hands and the smile that often played on her lips. The way she would giggle in silence drove me insane because she was so damn perfect and she never even realized it. How am I supposed to hold her again when I can't even remember her name?