To be so lucky {H.S.} ✔️

Chapter 18

When I opened my eyes, brought back to consciousness by an annoying beeping sound, everything around me was white.

Too white.

Definitely too bright.

Feeling disoriented, I tried to focus my eyes on my surroundings. Slowly, a white chair took form before my eyes, then a cabinet, then the bottom half of the bed I was lying in. Next, I noticed the sheets, something embroidered in small, blue letters. Squinting my eyes, in a herculean effort, I tried to read the words.

Emanuel Medical Center.

Why the hell was I in a hospital? The beeping sound was getting louder, and I grunted, covering my face with my hands.

"What the..." There was something attached to the back of my right hand. A transparent tube, covered by white gauze. I fumbled with the gauze, trying to get rid of it.

"Hey, hey, don't do that!" A male nurse entered the room, quickly jogging to stop my hands from doing any damage. "You'll hurt yourself."

"What am I doing here? What happened?"

"First things first... How are you feeling? You hit your head pretty hard."

"Hit my head where?"

"What about my question?" He was a nice person, I could see it in his caring caramel eyes. But he was getting on my nerves.

"I'm feeling just peachy. Now, why am I here?"

His smile never faltered. "What do you remember?"

I tried to focus, rebuilding my last steps. "I was at my friend's house, then driving home while talking to my boyfriend on the phone. Then I was on my couch, and my dog..." Slowly images of last night assaulted my brain, the beeping sound getting even louder, and faster. "Oh my god."

"Hey, easy, easy..." The nurse guy was trying to calm me down, with little to no success.

There was nothing he could do that would erase the gruesome image that assaulted my brain. An image of my back porch, speckled with something that looked an awful lot like blood. The image of a grizzly dummy, tied to the balcony, Ben's picture stuck to his face. But amidst all of that, what had truly frightened me were the words, written in red letters, on my door's glass surface: 'Do you remember me?'.

"I don't want to give you another sedative, Nina. I really don't. But you have to breathe and try to calm down, or you're giving me no other choice." Nurse guy was trying to be nice. I clenched my fists, fighting hard to slow my heartbeat down. Years of practice with anxiety attacks were finally paying off.

"Good girl. Now, your friends are out in the hall, and one of them is extremely hysterical. If you promise to behave, if you promise to try to keep calm, I will let them in."

"I promise."

Nurse guy smiled at me, having another look at my medical charts. "I'll be right back."

"Thank you..." I checked the tag on his uniform, "Randall."

Randall smiled at me, leaving the room. Not long after, Ava and Charles stormed in.

"Nina! Oh my god, Nina. I'm going to kill you for scaring me like that!" I guess Ava was the hysterical friend, then.

"Ava... Come on. Chill." We could always count on Charles to be the voice of reason.

With a deep breath, Ava approached my bed, placing a cold hand on my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

I closed my eyes, fighting back the tears. "Weird. I feel weird. And scared."