Picture This (Niall Horan Trilogy)

-Waking up to reality [Chapter 9]

Minute beeping was slurring in the air that held an uneasy stench of cleaning agents. I sucked in a thick, and fogged breath of the aroma feeling it poison at my insides, foreign as it did so. The sheets that I was clearly led on were scratchy and rough against my bare legs, and as I shifted, I felt a sharp pain shoot through my right ankle. I winced at the pain and kept myself still, in fear of the pain returning. My head was whirring with a million blurred thoughts, at first, it was confusion, I didn’t know where I was, what had happened, and why my ankle was hurting so much. But then it focused on the puncturing feelings in my gut and legs, almost a droning ache.

Sight was the only way to gain some knowledge, so I carefully forced my eye-lid to open; they felt heavy, as did everything else.

“Guys, I think she’s awake!”

The voice I recognised as Louis exclaimed into the dense air. The noise hurt my head, but it faded out, as if someone had given me some instant painkillers.

“Wha-“

My questioning was cut short, as my voice box refused to output words. My throat was aching and my head spinning, it didn’t feel like I had the energy to look at all the confused and pained faces staring back at me, I didn’t even know if they were real. I could only see Zayn beside me, his eyes tired, as if he hadn’t slept in a while. I found my fingers doing strange motions, but it seemed to work as Zayn passed me a cup of water. It didn’t matter to me what the state was of the liquid, it just felt so nice to feel something moist and cool flood through my drained system.

“Go get someone.”

Someone said, but I couldn’t pin it to a name. And I didn’t really care.

“Put Niall out of his misery as well while you’re at it!”

Someone, who had to be Harry, added. The mention of Niall’s name snapped me to brief attention and I felt a slight craving for him to be here wash over me. But I wasn’t going to ask for anything, his presence was inevitable. But this was short lived, as a crowd of women in blue uniforms rushed in pinning me back down the bed and bombarding me with pointless questions that only received muffles in response. I could feel a few frames of the waves and lack of oxygen fading back in, but they dipped in and out, blurred.

After having numerous things stuck onto me and more pointless remarks thrown at me, I was told to stay still and calm, and soon everyone would have to leave. I didn’t exactly know who everyone was, so I looked around the room, it almost hurt to move my gaze around. It was all the same faces I’d been used to these past few weeks, which was in a way settling, but I still kind of craved for things to be back. Right now, I couldn’t find the motivation to pretend I was completely content with living with those boys. My sister was there too, her head resting on Zayn’s shoulder, her skin tainted with dried tears. It was only as I shifted to the left, that I looked at the blonde haired boy staring back at me with lost eyes and scruffy hair. His eyes searched mine for what felt like forever, and it was almost as if it was impossible to drag my gaze away.

The atmosphere felt weird. Almost like I shouldn’t be there, or I was half there, watching in on the bland and wistful scene before me. It felt like I was looking in on what could have been, although I knew this wasn’t true. I was there, waiting for something to happen. It was the reality folding me back in, but how I ad exited in the first place, was blurred.

“How are you feeling babe?”

Of course, it was Zayn’s voice first. But the harmless flirty remarks and cheeky grins he normally gave me, were gone, replaced by something which I could not place. I looked at him, his dark eyes boring into mine, I could feel everyone else’s eyes on me too, as if I was about to give a full diagnosis of myself.