Reapers - Thirteen Brothers

IX - The Day I died (2 of 2)

--XIII--

Come back. Come back to me.

The voice resounded inside my head like a lullaby for a long time. It was eventually replaced by high-pitched rhythmic beeping.

Hesitantly, I tried to move my little finger. It moved. Slowly, I opened my eyes and waited for them to adjust to the bright light from the ceiling.

At first, I thought it was a glowing door made of colorful lights like that one in my dream—the door to paradise. With a closer look, I realized that it was just a fluorescent lamp. More importantly, I found two sets of curious blue eyes looking back at me.

"Thank God!" Lindsay leaned to me and gave me a hug, her blond curls falling on my face.

She was in tears when we parted.

To my left, Carter fidgeted on his seat, looking uneasily at me. A relieved smile lit his face when I turned my head to him.

"You okay?" he asked.

I nodded smiling back as I tried to sit up.

Propping a pillow on my back, Lindsay gave me a hand and said, "I'll call your Dad," before disappearing behind the white door.

Carter shifted on his seat. "Aramis, I'm really sorry. I should've helped you first before I went looking for Lind—"

"What happened? Where are we?" I asked before he could finish.

His forehead crumpled. "You don't remember anything?"

I looked around. All I could see was plain white—white walls, white bed, white curtains and sparkly clean tiled floor. A painting of a crocus hung onto the wall right in front of my bed.

A long discomfited silence filled the room as I tried to gather my thoughts. The steady beep of the equipment connected to my chest was unnerving. An intravenous drip was fixed on the back of my left hand. It made me realize that we were in the hospital.

Finally, I cleared my throat and barely whispered, "I remember drowning."

Carter sighed deeply, his shoulders sagging. "When I found your body—I mean... when I found you in the pool, you weren't breathing. I tried CPR. I thought I—we lost you. You were..."

"Dead?" I croaked wearily.

Carter cringed at the mere word. All he could give me was a diffident nod.

Staring at the ceiling, I sagged back into my bed. "I remember that too."

His blue eyes widened then dropped to the floor. "It was a miracle, really. Vincent came ten minutes after I thought the CPR wasn't working anymore and—"

"Vincent?" I echoed, lost in deep thought.

Come back. Come to me.

His voice resounded in my head so many times I couldn't forget it even if I tried. It was him who called me back. It was because of him that I returned.

My thoughts raced, clouding my ability to think clearly. I wasn't sure what happened. How he did it. How I managed to come back.

Carter just nodded. "I don't know what he did but it was clearly more effective than my CPR."

Automatically, my eyes shifted to the door. I began to push myself up just to realize my arms felt like jelly. The strain made my chest hurt a bit. It was just then that I noticed the rawness of my throat, the dull throb inside my lungs.