Your Fall

White Pills

"Ms. Y/Ln," your head feels like a block of cement. Your neck is sore and your eyesight is too blurry to help you distinguish that this is your living space. The smell of thick blood that you feel bathed in is the only hint of where you are.

"Do you have any idea who did this?" The rustling around you seems distant. The lady standing in front of you seems miles away. Only the pounding in your head seemingly of someone mining the stone in your skull is the only thing that is close in any sense of the word.

"Do you know why anyone would want to do this?" Your lips are dry, tasting of bile. The bottom one is cracked from falling in the hallway. Your teeth feel scraped and not yours, like a loose tooth about to come out. You graze your teeth over your bottom lip.

"Ms. Y/Ln? Can you hear me?" Your neck tightens as you attempt to breathe through your nose. The mucus curdles blocking and choking your nose both physically and with the scent of sickness. You cough spitting up whatever is left in your stomach.

"Please bring back the nurse!" The blurred shape moves to the right. You try to follow but the sickly glowing red overflows your vision.

"I'm right here. What's happened?" This voice is closer to you. Calmer. Sweeter. The blur moves to bend in front of you. A bright light hits your eyes. Warm fingers burn your neck until the only thing you can feel is your heartbeat shifting your veins and organs within your body.

"She puked again. And also hasn't reacted to anything."

"She's in shock. Trying to process everything." Your head feels detached from your body.

"How long will that take? We have no answers as to what happened here and the only one who could give us a hint has become mute." Your arms and legs are just immobile weights that do not feel like they belong to you.

"We all deal with shock differently. She needs to rest. I will bring her to the medical area and keep her under observation."

"Good luck getting her to move. She looks more like a statue than a person."

"Then I'll carry her." The blur moves from facing you to the other figure in front of you. "Please show some respect. Her parents are just now being carried out of the door of her home."

"My apologies. I am just trying to get to the bottom of this. And we are going to have to discuss options for her living situation." A ringing in your head tunes in and out adding to the distance between you and the room.

"Well, now is not the time." You feel your legs being swung and a warm arm slide beneath your arms. "But when it comes time, I hope you will show a bit more empathy." You can no longer feel the couch under you.

You start to feel dizzy from the smell of blood and quick movement of the blurs around you, like your world, is spinning out around you. Slowly your mind melts away and you feel your neck give way and your head lull. Then nothing except the feeling of the person holding you.

~

"Doctor, she's waking up."

"Good." You hear shuffling from somewhere near you and the clattering metal against metal rings in your ears. The air smells likes novocaine. Your heavy limbs try to move but stay glued down to what feels like a slightly hard bed. "Nurse, will you plea-"

"N no.." You didn't realize you spoke out loud until both of the blurs move in your direction.

"Y/n, we're here to help okay. We gave you a sedative early that you are slowly coming off of. How do you feel?" A small groan reminds you of how sore your throat is.

"Well, that's better than nothing I suppose." A small laugh fills your ears. You blink a few times and start to make out more than blurs. Two people stand in front of you. One with long brown hair and the other with shorter blonde hair. You lean your head back and close your eyes as the room starts to spin slightly around you. You feel a hand rest on your arm.

"Don't worry, the dizziness will subside shortly." You nod your head and squeeze your eyes tight as you feel the thudding steps echo in your head. Your chest burns as your breath quickens.

"Y/n. Y/n we need you to calm down." Your throat clenches and your breathing becomes ragged. Your mother's scream sounds like it just happened. "Nurse, get me a dosage of benzodiazepines."

You groan groggily as you feel a pinch in your inner arm. You remember a few more moments of screaming and the footsteps then nothing takes over your mind once more.

~

Your eyes slowly open, fluttering close before opening again. Dim light seeps into your eyesight and after a few moments, you recognize the smell of dirt that always stuck to your mother.

You slowly raise your head and sweep your gaze over the small room. The closet is still partially open and half of the bed is still made. You turn your head and see a folded note on one of the uneven tables beside the bed. Reaching out, you take them in your grasp and slowly open it.

Dear Ms. Y/Ln,

My apologies for the recent events you have had to ordeal with over the past few days. Depending on when you wake up it has been two or three days since your parents' accident.

"Accident?" Your eyebrows twitch together and you sloppily slide off the bed and to the ground. You place the note on the table and delicately shift the covers back to how your mother used to tuck the folded upper sheets beneath the pillows.

You grab the note and shakily move to the other room of the small living area. You cautiously move around the left side of the worn-out couch watching the floor to see if any of the sickly red liquid splashed this far and was missed to be cleaned up. But everything is how it should be. Clean. Untouched. Like nothing happened. Like your parents never laid on the ground with their lives seeping out of them.

With a deep breath, you sit on the edge of the cushion and reopen the letter.

We have decided that as it is best for your recovery you will be able to stay in your living quarters at this time. There are a few tasks you must follow in order to keep living there, however.

Please rest for the next few days but then return back to classes. A regular schedule will help you in recovery.

It is necessary that you partake in a part-time occupation as another way of keeping you on a schedule to aid in your recovery. Your parents' Agro Station positions should be beneficial as you are already accustomed to the work environment and job.

You will be checked on regularly at 7:00, before school, 12:00, during lunch break, and 19:00, after your daily work shift to watch your mental state and make sure that you are safe and healthy.

Under doctor's orders, you have been given a bottle of alprazolam for anxiety as a way to help you acclimate the best you can into daily life. Please find that we left the pill bottle on the counter in your bathroom.

Again apologies for what you have been going through. We will update you if there is any update of your parents' accide-

You fold up the paper and crumple it, allowing it to fall on the floor. You run your hands through your hair and feel the greasy snarls entangle your fingers. Closing your eyes you lean down and rest your head in your hands.

After a few unsteady breaths, you stand from the couch and make your way to the bathroom.

You turn on the shower. While the water warms, you look at yourself in the mirror. Your eyes are bloodshot and your hair is sticking up in all directions. For a moment you think you see your father's brown doe eyes, but they are gone a heartbeat later.

You lean on the sink and let your head fall as you try to steady your breathing. A small white bottle catches your eyes. You reach over and open it to reveal white oval pills. With shaky hands you get a few pills out of the bottle and slowly shift the unneeded amount back into the bottle.

Looking once more in the mirror you close your eyes and put the pill in your mouth before leaning down, turning on the faucet and taking a few gulps of water to help swallow.