ELBINA

Chapter 19

My hands and feet are cold.

Freezing to me exact, I crunched them trying to warm them up, feeling the crispness of the duvet and bed.

There's something uncomfortable in my arm, a tightness which only got sorer as I clenched my fists.

Shuffling in the room made me open my eyes but they stuck together with eye gunk. My throat was dry and abrasive when I tried to swallow making me wince. Altogether I felt like shit.

I wiped the thick gunk out of the corners of my eyes to let me fully open them to the white room. Hand sanitisers and a sink in the corner and a window into a hallway with half-closed blinds, I craned my neck to the side to see a nurse fiddling with the machine beside me. No one else was in the room and I tried to remember what happened before I got here.

I was training with Lucas.

Did I get hit too hard or something?

There was only the source of the artificial light above me and the residual light from the hallway coming in through part of the window.

The hospital seemed incredibly quiet, so I presumed it was late at night or early morning. Glancing back up at the nurse I tried to speak but only a quiet squeak escaped. The nurse jumped bringing a hand up to her chest in shock briefly cursing in fright.

"Oh my god, you scared me." I tried to clear my throat and closed my eyes in pain. I really needed some water.

"How are you feeling? Is there any pain?" I just nodded my head in response because I don't think I could speak even if I wanted to.

I tried to let out some half sounding words and she got the gist that I had a major case of dry mouth. She walked over to the sink after picking up a plastic cup from the side table and filled it with water. She helped me slowly sit up which made me hiss at the pain shooting across my body. Tears brimmed my eyelids whilst she handed me the water and gently helped me tip it into my mouth. Never has water felt so good.

After I finished gulping the water, I could answer her questions to which she said she needed a doctor to be able to give me more pain medication. After examining me and noticing the swelling in my arm with the IV drip she removed it all and switched it to my other arm. It was then that she left, and I was stuck staring around the room too afraid to move.

Finally, the nurse came back in with a doctor but at this point, I was sweating slightly from the pain I was in.

"Hello Miss Reemer, glad to see you awake. Okay, so the nurse told me you are experiencing pain?" I nodded in response, gritting my teeth.

"Whereabouts does it hurt and on a scale of one to ten how bad is the pain?" Scrunching my face, I told him my back and ribs before breathing out slowly again.

"Ermm. Probably a 9." He nodded, stepping closer to the bed and examining my arm where the IV had been in.

They chat to eachother for a second or two, and I close my eyes just desperate to feel comfortable for a moment.

"Right okay, Ella. I am going to give you some strong painkillers now and this should make you feel a lot better, but you will feel very drowsy. Then we can get you on some regular pain medications after to keep you more comfortable." I thanked him, watching him carefully whilst he worked.

It wasn't long before I was feeling the ease of pain and the sweat began to dry off.

"What time is it?" The nurse checked her fob watch and smiled.

"It is 4:40 am, I finish at 7 am so if you need anything before then, don't hesitate to push this button and myself or one of the other nurses on staff will come straight through." I only nodded at her with a tight smile.