Percabeth Oneshots

Comatose

•very unrealistic, i have no medical training

I won't deny it; I know a lot. Sometimes, knowing a lot can be good, like when you're taking a challenging math test or taking an advanced-level class. Other times, knowledge can act as more of a curse than a blessing, like when you're in a coma and know everything going on around you. Every tear your parents have shed. Every spoken word filled with hopelessness. Every time someone broke down after being informed of the possibility you would never wake up. Every prayer. Every beep of the monitor.

Everything. And you can't do anything, but listen.

Once upon a time, I would've never been able to describe what happened in comatose. But that was before I made the stupid decision of getting in the car with my friend's drunk girlfriend. Despite being told not to, teenagers drink. Teenagers party. Teenagers do life-threatening actions.

Then they're taught their lesson.

The cops show up, parents discipline, karma strikes. And karma was the most brutal of all. Cops will simply arrest you or, if you're lucky and/or privileged, write you off with a heavy warning. Parents ground their children and take away their cell phones. Karma, however, when it caught up to you, it hit you and it hit hard.

And trust me, when I say hard, I mean hard.

I was never stopped by a cop or scolded by my parents. Instead, Karma formed in the shape of a hill as my friend's girlfriend drove too fast. She lost control of the car due to her intoxication, and we flipped. Over and over again. My friend died instantly, bleeding out from the glass in his head.

I overheard the nurses telling my parents that he didn't suffer. It was completely painless for him. But that didn't stop that the hurt that came from losing a lifelong friend. It didn't stop the fact that he was dead. He was still gone, and that hurt by itself.

Of course, karma couldn't end my lesson there.

I didn't fall into my coma on impact. With my shattered arm, I reached over to grab my phone to dial the emergency number my parents drilled into as a young child. Just as I had finished giving my location to the operator, the world started spinning before it darkened. I fought my heavy eyelids as the operator told me to stay awake; the ambulance would be there soon.

As the sirens arrived, my consciousness left.

Now, I lie in an uncomfortable hospital bed with a constant beeping to the right of me, unable to  wake even to daylight. Or annoying boys that come into hospital rooms to disrupt my quiet.

"—s Annabeth Chase's room." I heard Sally, the main nurse who took care of my case, say to someone. Despite never having an actual conversation with Nurse Jackson, I have never met someone filled with more kindness than her.

All of our conversations were completely one-sided, but listening to someone just talk to me about their day was significantly better than listening to the blubbering messes begging me to wake up. You would think it was nice for someone to care so deeply for you, but all it reminded me of what was out of my reach.

"She's sleeping," a masculine voice said, not knowing how to properly whisper as his voice reached a decibel level similar to that of a construction site. "We shouldn't be in here, we could wake her up!"

At that point, I knew Sally rolled her eyes. "Be as loud as you want, it'd be a miracle if you could wake her up. She's in a coma, Percy. We don't know the full story, but Miss Chase was in a car accident. Drunk driver. They drove way too fast down a hill, then flipped over before running into a tree. A male passenger was pronounced dead on the scene, while Annabeth fell into a coma."