I Dreamt of Hope

Chapter 3

I laid there, my body numb, the lights blinding my vision. A constant beeping in the background left me utterly annoyed with the world. I felt a sense of relief when a shadow started to come over the light, I let out a small sigh and for a moment that's all I heard was my own breath. A voice started to talk, almost as if they were trying to talk to me.

 "Can you hear me?" They seemed to ask. Everything seemed like shapes and shadows. "Can you see me?" A voice called from the shadow. 

I slowly moved my eyes to focus; I saw a smile, a genuine smile. I could tell it was a man, he looked at my face then my arm. I followed his glance to see my arm torn to shreds. I laid my head back down wishing I was back in the dark. As it hit the pillow it felt like I was almost falling again. I could see blood running from my face, I opened my mouth just the slightest and blood seemed to pool in. I tried to force myself to spit it out but I couldn't move. The shadow came back into the light blocking it so I could see. I felt a touch, that same soft-touch I did before it touched my face as it whipped away some of the blood. The beeping in the background seemed to get faster. My eyes were focused on the light, afraid to see whoever was standing by me, I was afraid to look in there eyes to see something I might regret. My mouth was so dry I couldn't even tell I had swallowed blood. I heard a bit of an echoey chuckle. 

"I bet that tasted grow." 

I wanted to smile but for some reason, it felt like I didn't know how. I took a breath, beeping constantly my thoughts seemed to run with the tempo of it. Maybe this wasn't so bad, maybe I was going to recover. Then with that single happy thought in my head, the light above me went out. The shouting echoed through my head as a gun went off next to my head. It was clear there was a firefight as I just laid there once again waiting to die. I felt something drop on top of me, my torso started to feel wet, I was shot and couldn't feel it yet, my death would just be me bleeding out as I stayed conscious. I lifted my hand to feel where the blood was coming from and as it slid across my body it hit something my fingers gripped around it; then realizing it was a hand a sigh of relief swept over me knowing the blood wasn't mine. I could feel another heart beating slower than mine, I realized that the person laying on me was still alive. I don't know if I was a very comforting person or not but I moved my arm over enough so my hand could feel for something, anything, I gripped onto what I thought was scissors I moved my hand to see if I could feel him still on me. When I could feel his hair I ran my hand down his face to feel his neck, I touched it letting him know I was there and to help calm him down. I was laying myself; lifeless in what I took to be a hospital bed. People dead around me, someone out there still shooting and I did the only thing I thought was right... 

I brought him peace.