Awakening (Awakening, #1)

Chapter 5

The world is spinning. I can't control it. I can't do anything about anything.

There's blood everywhere. 

Drink.

Go ahead.

Drink.

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I wake up on the cold, hard hospital floor. The world keeps fading in and out. I don't know what's real anymore. 

I'm not sure I want to.

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"Hey," I hear the voice of an angel say to me. The angel's voice is so feather light, I feel like it's calling out to me; telling me, letting me know that it's okay. Everything in the world is perfectly okay. 

"Wake up," the angel says again as he or she gently pushes me back and forth. I'm probably on a cloud up in heaven with all of the nurses, doctors, surgeons and everyone else I found in Wayview Memorial. Maybe even mom if she was called in for work that day. Or Sam, if he was there, too.

It's like the angel is rocking me back and forth in her gentle arms. I established that the angel is in fact, a she. Her voice is so perfect and light. She can keep me company until I drift off into my final resting place, wherever that might be. And I'm ready. 

This feeling is so calming, I just let it consume me.

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I roar loudly as I feel an ax, or cleaver go directly into my chest. I'm up on my feet in a second. But as I look at the knife, I am surprised to see that it isn't a knife after all. It's a syringe full of some mysterious liquid. I collapse on the ground, but not before I'm greeted by the angel face to face. Then everything fades to black once again.

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"Damnit, Eli. I could have handled that, and you know it." I hear a voice identical to the angel's say to an unknown male voice. I'm not awake, but I feel like I am. Like my subconscious is on full throttle, and I don't even need to have an eye open. I feel...different. 

More. 

I can smell this rank, putrid stench and I scrunch up my nose. I slowly peel my eyelids open with much determination, and I try to stand, but I'm bound up by something. Handcuffs?  Duct tape, maybe? I try and yank whatever is keeping me in this uncomfortable position, but to no avail.

"I wouldn't." The feather soft voice trails down the stairs. I then realize two things. I'm in a basement, and their conversation took place upstairs. And I heard them all the way down here through the thick walls of this basement.

A beautiful girl.

"Yeah. So don't." A guy says from behind her. 

The girl is stunning. She looks at me with her deep, cornflower blue eyes. They remind me of the ocean. I slowly look at her starting from the top of her head, and down her shoulders where her wavy, dark, chocolate brown hair cascades down to her ribcage. And I hear it.

However it's possible, I don't know. But I hear it. 

Buh-bum. Bum-bum. Buh-buh-bum.

"You should-," I pause to clear my throat. It's so dry and scratchy, but I don't pay it any attention. "You should, uh. Get that checked." I sniff and shake my sweaty hair out of my face.

"Get what checked?" she asks. She gives me this intrigued look, like I'm a thousand piece puzzle that was purposely sold to her and missing only one piece. The one piece that would make all of the work it took to finish the puzzle worth while.

"Your heart murmur. You have an irregular beat." I tell her.

I remember when mom was in nursing school, she used me as her guinea pig when she had to try different things, like finding a pulse on a patient, blood pressure, irregular heart murmurs. I had an irregular beat when I was younger, but it wasn't bad like this angel's was.

Anyone else would probably be in a complete panic if they were in a situation like mine. But I'm not scared. If anything, I feel more safe than in danger. The guy that followed Angel down here scoffs.

"This is golden," he says. "He's laying it on pretty thick huh?" He shakes his head.

Angel looks at him and just rolls her eyes. I sense that Guy has something against me. Even though we've never met before. This leads me to believe that they're together or something. He's acting like he's trying to assert his status as the leader or as something other than just some guy. But Angel doesn't seem to care. She continues to look at me like I'm a shiny new toy. And I don't mind it one bit.

Guy laughs again. Angel speaks "I'm Violet. This is Elijah." She gestures at Guy. But since Guy now has a name, he can't be called Guy anymore. But Angel is still Angel. Because that's exactly what she is, an angel; and Elijah seems like he might need help figuring this out.

"Do you know what happened to you?" Angel asks.

That's the million dollar question.