Black as Day (ON HIATUS)

Chapter Eleven- Shadow-man

My eyes opened, squinting in the light. I threw my arm over my face, groaning in protest as the bright moonlight streamed in through the window. I let out a long sigh as my body relaxed into the mattress. I stretched out my ankles, then legs, working my way up through my body. I groaned again and dropped my head back down onto the pillow, pulling the blankets farther up my shoulders.

For a small moment of bliss, I'd forgotten where I was before it all came rushing back at me. My body ached in protest at the thought of getting up and facing the first real day in this place. Just a few more minutes would be fine, right?

I curled my fingers around the pillow's edge. It was nice and warm under the blankets. I could feel the cold air of the room brushing up against the skin of my neck, and I snuggled further into the sheets. My heart beat slowed, and I reckoned that I could fall asleep again. My eyes were still tired and I knew I should get up, but another hour wouldn't hurt.

I could feel my mind drifting towards sleep again. A contented smile crossed my lips, and somewhere in my sleep-fogged brain I registered I was going unconscious. I felt loose, almost floating, as I began to fall back into my dreams...

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I stumbled as I was thrust into the hospital hallway. It was the same sterile white, with the same sterile smell lingering in the air. Nurses and doctors alike bustled about busily. I abruptly got shoved into a wall, but just in time, too, because I gurney rushed past in the space I was a split second before. 

"Tragic, ain't it? Such potential in such a young man," I heard as it went past. I looked at the nurse, then back down at the stretcher she was wheeling down the hall. My heart stopped for a moment as I saw my own face staring back at me. Startled, I took a step back and watched at they passed into a room.

I shook my head in bewilderment. I placed my hand against the wall, supporting myself. What was going on? I started to walk back down the corridor, but in one step I was suddenly shoved into a screaming, fighting mob.

A hand shoved me, almost making me trip. ""Hey, watch it!" I snapped. The person that shoved me disappeared into the crowd. I got jostled this way and that as the people appeared to be fighting to go somewhere. Spinning around as the crowd surged around me, I managed to see where we were going.

There was a group of nurses carrying somebody down the hall. Whoever it was was flailing around, screaming to be let go. I frowned and began pushing through the masses, and fought my way closer to the girl in distress. I ducked an elbow as fighting began breaking out as people shoved to see the girl being carried.

I broke through the wall of people around her and moved along with the screaming crowd. I couldn't see her face, but she was kicking and yelling at the nurses. Noise barraged my ears, but I still faintly hear her say something.

"Make them stop, mommy." She stilled as she heard herself say it. I froze for a moment as well, a strong sense of deja vu washing over me. Why did that sound so familiar? My head started pounding as memories struggled to surface. There was- there was something- something I knew- something I had said? I saw her move out of the corner of my eye, her head turned and I saw my own terrified self being carried down the hall.

I didn't know how to react. She- or was it me?- didn't seem to register I was there. The group of nurses determinedly kept carrying my doppelganger through the screaming, fighting mob. I kept pace with them, pushing and shoving my way closer to my clone. What was going on?

The fighting continued to get worse as people fought to get closer. I hissed in annoyance when somebody punched my in the stomach, and keeled over. I gasped for breath, clutching at my stomach in pain. My headache intensified, and I started coughing as my lungs decided to work again.