Alone

Chapter 1

I woke up panting. My body laden with sweat. I couldn't move, my whole body was immobilised with pain. I let out a strangled sob and a fountain of blood spurted out of my mouth. Then everything went black.

I woke up in a bed that did not belong to me. The crisp white sheets were scratchy and uncomfortable. I was also wearing some kind of gown. My eyes adjusted to the harsh light and I saw my mum sitting beside my bed, her eyes filled with tears. A male nurse walked into the room, looking grave. I must've looked worried because he smiled reassuringly at me. "Could I please have a word with Mrs Herbert?" He asked looking at mum. She nodded and followed him out the room.

I looked around the hospital room. There was a complicated looking machine in a corner that was attached to my hand, I'm pretty sure that it was pulsing some sort of fluid into my bloodstream. There were also various patches covering several areas on my left leg which ached. For some reason I was having a lot of trouble breathing, my lungs felt strained and I felt like I needed to cough but was unable for some reason.

The nurse and mum entered. Mum looked grief stricken, tears falling silently from her eyes and her hand covering her mouth. The nurse still looked grim. He kneeled down beside me. "Grace, it turns out you have a very serious disease that has not been identified yet. We haven't had any cases of this before and we will do our best to try and cure you" he spoke gently.

My heart dropped. My mind was still processing the information slowly. Me? Why me? There were 7.5 billion people in the world, and I had an unknown disease. It wasn't fair. I looked up and saw the nurse and mum looking at me looking worried. I nodded shakily, the nurse and mum exchanged a glance and the nurse left the room, leaving me and mum alone.

I could see mums lower lip trembling, trying her hardest not to cry. "Wow" I said shakily. "This is unexpected" I said trying to steady my voice, the nurse returned and injected me some medicine into my arm which would get me to sleep. The last thing I saw was mums blurry face peering anxiously over me.

That night the first nightmare occurred. I was doing my hair in the mirror and blood spurted out of my mouth, but it didn't stop, blood just endlessly flowed and wouldn't stop. Then my body started twitching uncontrollably and I fell to the ground, blood still cascading from my mouth. That was when I woke up screaming.

The nightmares continued throughout the week. All the exact same, and every time I woke up screaming. Which triggered the nurses to come rushing in to see if I was alright. It was an endless cycle.

After spending a week in hospital I was getting extremely fatigued and bored. I wanted to go home so bad, I hadn't had any other "episodes" and i felt fine so i didn't know why i couldn't leave.