MORTAL ✰ ISAAC LAHEY

[CHAPTER 25]

A dream

It felt like a dream — it didn't feel real at all. She could've sworn the chances of her looking down at her hands would show more than 10 fingers. Dreams were always like that. There was always a minute detail that stood out from everything else. There was always something that screamed look at me, I'm in the wrong place.

When her eyelids opened gradually, the world was revealed to her. At first, everything felt hazy, but a few blinks changed that.

She thought she was dreaming. She must've been dreaming. How else would you wake up in an unfamiliar bed with a feeling of déjà vu? How else could you explain something that seemed so terribly intangible?

There was no way it could be real, but the moment was so clear that Skye was doubting herself. It almost felt real, but it could've been her mind playing tricks on her as well.

She woke up alone. The bed beneath her was soft, but it was too foreign to be hers. The sheets were a dull white and lacked the incredibly soft texture she had grown used to. They were dull and used, and so were the walls — a painted white with a soft blue trim.

One wall was glass from floor to ceiling and included a door. However, beside her, there was a table that was more of a nightstand, a few chairs, and a decorative table underneath the window with an empty square vase. A small TV hung high on the wall across from her, but it looked too small and far away to be used regularly.

A monotonous beeping alert stole away her attention. It was rhythmic, sharp, and close, maybe even beside her.

When Skye realized what the noise was, she realized where she was. It was a heart monitor, a constant measure of life, frequently owned by hospitals.

She was in a hospital, and she didn't understand why.

An IV was tangled in the sheets and connected to her veins. Cords and tubes trickled from the machines scattered around her, but she didn't recognize what they were for.

Except for one — a clear tube that was jammed into her nostrils.

She hadn't even noticed it until then. It was consistently pumping oxygen into her lungs, but she didn't even feel it. She didn't feel a thing.

Nothing hurt. Instead of the bursts of pain she expected, there was only numbness. She felt it coursing through her dark veins and spreading to every inch of her body. It was almost euphoric, but it was a bliss that came at a price.

Am I dead? Skye wondered, the question slowly slipping from her lips because she was afraid of the answer. It was hard to grasp the concept of being dead, mostly because it would mean so much more than just being dead.

Oh god, what about Scott? What about mom? What are they feeling right now? Where are they? Where am I? Why —

Suddenly, Skye was breathing heavily. Her chest felt heavy from her racing heart and her stomach was swirling enough to make her feel dizzy. If she hadn't already been laying down, she was sure she'd fall to the floor in an instance.

As her heart sped up, so did the beeping of the monitor beside her. It was a sharp influx of sound before it suddenly dropped in speed and ferocity.

Quick and heavy steps sounded on the floor outside the room before a door was opened and different nurses decked in shrubs flooded the room. The flurry of activity was accompanied by several doctors with white coats fluttering behind them and different tools in their hands.

Skye took a step back from the excitement, but then realized that something was wrong. She had woken up in the hospital bed with a breathing tube shoved down her nostrils, but suddenly, she wasn't even on the bed. She was beside it, standing awkwardly over her own body.