Behind The Mask

Chapter 6

"Aaron," I heard a voice calling my name at the end of the dark tunnel I was traveling down. My eyes suddenly burst open and back to life. I could feel a painful stinging in the side of my neck and reached up to feel all the marks that had been left by the rope. The feeling of my fingers made the red marks sting with pain. I looked around me and, although everything was blurry, I could see a few people gathered around me. 

It appeared I was the back of a moving van that was a dull white color. I could make out a short women's face with brown curls that glistened in the blazing sun. Her extraordinary beauty reminded me of John's mother and what she would think of me now. How could I have been so stupid? I wasn't being abused, or living like a homeless man. One look at my mom was all it took for me to be suicidle? 

God,I am dumb. Tears flooded my eyes and the gritty residue of them was wiped away in a wave of sadness. "Hang in there," one of the nurses crowded around me said. I tried to respond, but when I opened my mouth, blood flooded out of my injured neck. I struggled to breath before finally gasping in a long breath. I promised myself not to try to talk again. The world spun around me and I slowly felt myself drifting off to sleep, after all, it had been awhile since I had the luxury of sleep. 

Then, my heavy eye lids slowly shut leaving me drifting away from all the commotion around me. I woke up some time later and my neck felt a lot better, so that was a good thing, but my emotional state was still on the edge of insanity. This hospital still brought back memories of guns and blood. The last moments of my mom played over and over in my mind until I could take it any more.

 I shut my mind off and buried my head in a pillow, the overwhelming comfort caused me to shut my eyes and try to take a nap. I was cut short by a knock on the door and then the squeaky hinges swinging open revealing two tall doctors. They slowly approached me, trying to see what my reaction would be. I just stayed on my bed and tried to close my eyes, attempting to convince myself it was all one bad dream. 

But, when I opened my eyes the same grim hospital remained in my eyes. The two doctors now stood directly in front of me and I could see they both had brown hair and one had a slight curl to the end of his hair. One had blue eyes while the other had emerald green eyes that glisened even in the little amount of sunlight coming in from the window. They talked to me in such a hushed voice that I could barely tell what they were saying, but I was able to hear enough words to understand they were trying to ask me if I was okay. 

My neck still only aloud me to make very few noises, none of them being words so I just had to sit there and deal with the fact that the two doctors probably thought I was being incredibly rude. Eventually, they extanged glances and walked out of the room in disgust. I itches my neck only to scrape off some of the dried blood and have fresh blood start seeping out again. I could only hope that things would get better from now on, then again, I don't think they could get much worse. 

Another doctor walked in, then quickly put a mask on my face. I drifted off to sleep and went into a place that was truely mine, my dreams. I woke up later and, although my eyes were heavy, I forced them awake because I had already wasted enough time sleeping today. An alarm went off inside the hospital, but was quickly shut off. It was probably just a mistake. Someone probably pressed the button on accident and quickly turned it off. 

I shrugged it off and tried not to think about it. But, it could have also been a criminal who shut it off. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I barely noticed the masked criminal standing in my doorway, with John's mom in one hand and a gun in the other.