Beauty of the Dark

Chapter 4

          "Lucy? Are you awake?" Aunt Sarah's voice was filled with urgency. And she was much too groggy to deal with urgency right now. Her eyes were crusty with sleep and she felt as though she'd been hit with a tone of bricks in the chest. "Nurse!" Her Aunt yelled. Lucy wished she'd be quiet, her head was pounding and the last thing she needed was loud noises, or bright lights. Which there seemed to be a lot of wherever she was. 

          A nurse in a brightly colored scrubs stood above her. Lucy rolled over to look at her. "Miss Colde, how do you feel?" 

          "Um, groggy." She said in a raspy voice. "Can I get some water?" Her eyes started to close again, she was so exausted. 

          "I'm sorry, dear, but we can't. Your scheduled for a CT as soon as you wake up, so now that your awake we can go." 

          "Huh?" 

          "Do you need help standing?"

          "What?" Lucy questioned, her mind thouroghly scrambled. The nurse didn't interrogate her anymore. She helped Lucy to sit up, and then gently lifter her to her feet by her elbows. She looked down to find herself in a hospital gown. Her hair was lank and stringy against her face. Lucy's legs were weak and she was latched on to the nurse's arm just to stay standing. "I'm alright," She said sharply to her Aunt who was now standing and trying to hold Lucy up as well. She noticed Aunt Sarah had a couple bandages on her face, but nothing more.

          "I think I'm okay." Lucy let go of the nurse, who in trade handed her a pair of hospital slippers. She sat back down on the bed and wearily slipped on the shoes. "How long was I asleep?"

          "It's four o'clock." Her Aunt said. Lucy had felt like she'd been asleep much longer then two hours. "And it's Sunday." 

          "Sunday?" Her eyes were wide with disbelief. It had been Friday when the crash had happened. Lucy couldn't remember a thing after being in the accident. After shaking away her surprise at the date, she asked, "How bad am I?" 

          "There's no broken bones or any sprains, just some bruises and an out of place shoulder." The nurse in green and blue scrubs continued, "We're doing the CT scan to check for a brain injury or internal bleeding." Aunt Sarah didn't say anything, she just stood by like a piece of furniture. 

          "Do we go now?" 

          "Yes, dear." The nurse grabbed her elbow and lead her out the door. 

          They walked down a hallway with many rooms branching off of it. The walls were a dull white and the linoleum a pale blue. The colors of the hospital matched her hospital gown almost exactly. Aunt Sarah followed behind them, her black suede heels clacking steadily. "Where's Uncle Jim?" Lucy was wondering why she hadn't called him to tell him she'd woken up. 

          "At work."

          Lucy turned her head to look at her. "Aren't you going to call him or something?" Aunt Sarah looked bewildered at the thought of calling her husband.

          "No. He'll come here right after work to see you." It was strange, the way she'd been acting lately. Even before the car had been t-boned. Lucy pondered over this while still trying to keep up with the nurse at a slow and shuffling pace. 

          Although she still felt heavily drugged and numbed in places, in other places a pain was starting to emerge. She noticed sluggishly her right arm was covered in bruises that scaled from utterly black to a faded greenish yellow. That was the side the car had hit from. Her mind flashed to the first impact. She remembered the car skidding across the road, the airbag inflating and then how she had screamed. It had been terrifying.