love, emma | j.brooks

one

ALL HE HEARD was the sound of the heart-monitor. Which meant his heart was still beating. He was alive. The second thing he realised was the satin white sheets that looked nothing like the patterned ones that normally sat on his bed. These sheets felt stale and uncomfortable, unlike the ones he owned which were worn in and felt like clouds.

He knew he was in the hospital. When someone wakes up they usually wonder where they are. They would blink repeatedly and start to panic, and then the heart monitor would start beeping erratically with their heart beat. Then, finally, they would come to their senses and realise its just a hospital. But this boy's case was different. He opened his eyes and saw the white ceiling, and he knew. He knew he was in hospital so there was no need for the panic. Instead, he wanted to know how he got here in the first place.

He looked around for a clue as to how he got here. A sign, a person, a letter. But to no avail did he find anything that could calm his thunderous thoughts pounding through his skull.

He thought about pressing the red panic button on top of his bed to summon a nurse, but he didn't want anyone to panic over him. He was fine. He was alive. He was fine.

He didn't have to wait for anyone much longer, the noise of the food trolley coming inside of his spacious hospital room was being heard. He sat up straighter in his bed, wincing at the sharp pain that would be inflicted throughout his head. He wondered why his head hurt so much, but figured it was part of the reason why he was in the hospital in the first place.

"Oh, hello darling. It seems that you've woken up." the sweet sounding nurse had exclaimed when she saw Jai sitting up. She seemed to be a nice lady; she looked to be middle-aged and always smiled no matter what the situation.

Jai wanted to ask her how he got here, but he couldn't find the words. It was like his voice was literally stuck inside his vocal cords.

"Oh, sweetie. Here's some water for you, you must need it after being out for nearly two days."

His eyebrows shot up in astonishment. Two days of being fully unconscious. Jai could feel his chest tighten at the thought. Gratefully, he took the plastic cup of water and quickly drained it. After clearing his throat a couple times, he started to speak with a slight gruffness in his voice.

"How did I get here?"

The nurse blinked blankly, and squinted at Jai with a peculiar look. Her eyes then widened as she seemed to realise something, probably something important that had to do with him.

Soon, she was muttering words that Jai wasn't able to understand and it started to worry him. She paced in front of his bed with a hand on her head and was evidently stressed. He was about to ask what was wrong when she briskly walked out of the door.

Blinking back his surprise, the boy just laid back into his stiff, uncomfortable bed sheets that felt like cardboard more than anything comforting.

-•-

He woke up again, but this time with the sounds of voices in the room. His eyesight was blurry and his head still ached constantly, like a dull thud was thumping through his skull. The voices seemed to quiet down as they noticed the boy stirring.

A hysterical woman with long black hair and tears that overflowed her cheeks like streams, quickly ran over to his bedside and hugged him tightly to her chest. She was sobbing and shook, making the boy shake with her which only added to the pain in his head. He knew this was his mother, and he couldn't be more relived that she was here with him.

"I never want you to do anything like that again," the woman cried in between sobs. There were two other boys stood a fair length away behind her with tears staining their cheeks. The boy's two brothers gave him a gentle wave, letting their mom take all the time she needed.

"Mom, I'm okay. Really." Jai took his mom into his arms and let her cry into his shoulder.

"I was so worried.." she continued to cry, repeating the same statement over and over. Each time felt like a stab to his heart making him feel guiltier by the second.

"You had us scared there for a while, Jai." his brother spoke up. Jai's mother finally calmed down and was sitting on the chair closest to Jai, wiping the last remaining tears on her cheeks.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." He said, although he didn't know what he was apologising for.

"Yeah bud, we thought we lost you this time." His older brother muttered, which only sparked Jai's interests even more. Almost lost him? How?

Instead of asking, Jai just nodded his head slowly. He didn't want to worry his family further by asking questions he should already know.

"Look who's woken up." A lulling voice, sounding softer than cotton candy, spoke up from the door. It was the doctor who was adorned in the typical all white outfit doctors wear. She held a clipboard to her chest, and smiled down at Jai.

"How are you feeling, Jai?" the doctor asked, as she checked on the heart moniter and took some notes.

"I'm feeling okay," He mumbled. In truth, Jai wasn't feeling close to okay. His skull throbbed and his eyes were drowsy. He felt the crippling feeling of anxiety building it's way into his stomach. Jai was far from okay.

"That's lovely to hear! If you keep recovering so well, you'll be going home in no time." The doctor says, looking towards Jai with a smile that didn't seem to settle with him. Or maybe the drugs were still wearing off, who knew.

"Now Jai, we need you to answer a few questions, just to make sure everything's alright."

Jai nodded to the doctor, and sat up straighter in his uncomfortable bed.

"Are you experiencing any pain in your head?" The doctor speculates and looks closely at Jai.

He swallows, nodding. "Yeah. A lot of headaches."

"Would you say they were severe headaches?"

"Uhm, yeah. Pretty severe."

The doctor's expression contorted into one of concern as she took notes. Jai could feel himself get nervous. All he wanted was for all of this to be over.

"Jai, do you know why you're here today?" the doctor asked.

This was it, he thought. This was going to clear up everything.

"No, I don't."

The doctor nodded solemnly, and continued to jot down notes. She hadn't spoken another word, which looked to be a bad sign to Jai.

"Well Jai," she finally says, "it looks like you've got a mild case of amnesia."

Jai blinked. His face was in complete disbelief. Amnesia? How was that even possible? He was able to remember everything, up until the cause of him being here.

"Amnesia? How severe?" His mom asked from beside him. The tears were gathering up on the rims of her eyes again, and Jai could tell she was trying everything not to fall apart.

"I don't know yet, but probably not too bad considering he still remembers his family. We just need to run some tests and keep him here for a little while longer than expected." the doctor smiled at the family and walked out the door.

Jai looked down at his fingers thoughtfully. What did he do that was bad enough to give him amnesia? Did he fall? Was he hit in the head hard enough to be this way? The possibilities were countless, and Jai didn't want to think about any of it. All he wanted to do was to lay down and sleep all of his troubles away.

"Hey, dude, it's not that bad. It could've been worse." Jai looks up at his older brother and gives him a weak smile. He was right, it could've been worse.

"We'll let you get some rest, hun. See you tomorrow, okay?" Jai's mom whispered delicately, as she hugged her son tightly trying to keep herself strong and put him back together.

The brothers shared hugs and soon enough, Jai's family was walking out of his room and he was left alone.

hii! so im really excited for this story and i cant wait to get into writing this full time. so basically how the layout works is this chapter is basically the introduction and the coming ones are jai's present life/ a letter / the past. itll make more sense once you see the next chapter trust me :-)

love you guys and dont forget to vote and comment !