Sincerely, Emily ✓

11 • Wake Up

IT WAS ALWAYS a scary thing when you woke up in a hospital bed.

It was scarier when you woke up to a bunch of people staring at you.

I instantly sat back up in bed, panicked. All eyes were trained on me and I didn't even know any of these people. Had they been staring at me this whole time? Who did they think I was? A freaking artefact?!

"Whoa!" One of the doctors called. "Calm down, girl. We were checking up on you."

"Where's Mom?" I asked, looking around frantically. "I need to see my mom!"

"Someone get her mom!" The doctor ordered, and all of them literally ran to the door at the same time. Like a damn stampede. It was a miracle the doors didn't go crashing down. 

One of them didn't make it, however, because the doctor — now I recognised as Dr. Grey — grabbed him by the collar before he could escape. The second doctor gulped, and tried to soothe out his coat once Dr. Grey let go of his tight grip.

It felt like forever, but at last Mom went in the doors, looking. . . nervous?

"Emily," she said quietly, stepping forward.

All I wanted to do was to stand up and run to her, but my instincts told me that if I did, I would fall my ass off. What the hell happened to me?

"Mom," I let out instead. "What happened? Why am I here?"

She frowned. "You don't remember?"

"I. . ." Come on, think, Emily! "I was with Raph, Jessie, Tom, Jake and Oliver. . . we were playing baseball."

"That's all you remember?"

I tried to search for something, anything. . . "Yeah."

Mom searched every inch of my face; looking for what, I didn't know. Then she said, "You fell, honey. You tripped and fell, and you hit your head too hard. It happened a few hours ago."

A few hours ago? I was out for a few hours? Oh, God. Was that considered okay or too long? I was feeling fine, but my whole body felt weird, like something wasn't quite —

"But that's not the only thing that happened."

I watched her as she whispered a few words to Dr. Grey, who watched me with a sympathetic look. He nodded to her then ordered the other doctor to leave.

"Mom," I whispered cautiously. Something was wrong. "Tell me."

"Well." She sat down by the edge of the bed. "After you hit your head, you weren't regaining full conscious. Oliver and the others said that you tried to get up, but you couldn't. They tried to help you, but you were becoming. . . limp. Like you just gave up."

Dr. Grey cleared his throat. "Your muscles were getting too weak, and on top of that, you had a bad head injury," he spoke carefully. "Both your body and mind were preoccupied with pain and discomfort, so you couldn't think straight. And then you lost your consciousness."

I was speechless. Frozen. Pale. How could I not remember falling down and blacking out like that? 

"So. . . does this mean I can get out of the hospital now? I'm okay now, right?" Despite being told that troubling story, I hated hospitals. It reminded me that all the sick and soon-to-be-dead were all gathered in one hollowed place. It was depressing.

"That's the problem, sweetie." Mom's voice was sad. "You're not okay." Her voice cracked. "Some of your muscles are already paralysed. It's your legs."