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Chapter Fifty Five

"Aristi, look! A polar bear!"

I sat up quickly, my eyes widening at the voice. For the strangest reason, I recognized it, but there wasn't a name. The world was black— an abyss of nothing— before a flash of colors danced around me. My eyes shut tightly, and I waited until the brightness was toned down from behind my hands. Looking up, I saw a man wearing a brown trench coat and a pair of raggedy old boots. I could barely sense our surroundings, but it seemed like maybe something along the lines of a hiking trail. A woman was standing beside me, but the two ignored my presence, as if I wasn't there. She was wearing something similar to the man's outfit, only with a backpack on her shoulders.

"H-Hold on..!" She exclaimed in a hushed whisper, her tone wary. "You should quiet down before we scare it..!"

She quietly walked up beside him, and the couple watched the polar bear wander around the clearing in front of them. It was clearer to me that we were in a forest, and I was right about the hiking trail that snaked up the slope. I didn't have energy to sit up, so I stayed laying down on the ground.

He had called her Aristi.

Was I seeing a memory of some sort that belonged to her?

"Maybe we should go back now," Aristi suggested, turning around. The man peered over his shoulder and looked at her, his eyes sparkling. "It's better to leave the polar bear in peace. And besides, we're not even supposed to be out here."

"Can't we stay out a little longer?" He asked, although he followed after her, reaching for her hand. I noticed the small flinch to her figure as he held it, and she peered up at him. He smiled. "Just five more minutes?"

"You really are too much for this world," she sighed heavily. Her cheeks were the slightest shade redder, and she said, "If anything, your actions are too dangerous and lead to way too many consequences for you to handle." Her pace quickened, leaving his hand bare, but she glanced over at him with a teasing smile. "C'mon. Be the adult you are and have some priorities for once."

"You're so mean, Aristi."

"I know. But it's for your safety because your decision-making is horrible."

Groggily, I felt my eyes slowly open, seeing a white blanket above me, covering my face. A heart monitor quickly jumpstarted, as if it wasn't beeping when I was unconscious. I attempted to sit up, only to realize that my muscles wouldn't listen to me. Peering to my right, an open window let in a soft breeze through the thin blanket, and I saw Mom laying down in her own bed, miscellaneous contraptions around her. Two doctors were standing around her with the Blood Assassin knife in hand, reading a sheet of paper.

If the letter is there, where's Papa?

The door to the hospital room opened, and a nurse poked his head through the small gap. The female doctor turned over to him, letting the other read the letter over again, and the nurse said, "We found someone with a high tier Healing attribute. He said he'll be right over in five to ten minutes."

"We can't get him here any quicker?" The doctor pried, a worried tone in her voice.

The nurse shook his head, just as conflicted by the unfortunate circumstances. "No. All teleportation units at the police station have used up their energy when an evacuation was called for on the main road earlier today by Meredith Tanner." He disappeared for just a second before poking his head back in the room. He added in quietly, "And her father, with the highest tier of the Time attribute in the surrounding town, isn't handling the situation too well right now."

The doctor nodded visibly, comprehending the information. "If this is the best we can do, we'll just have to work with it."

I let out a small whimper when hearing Papa's condition, attracting her attention. She turned to look down at me, just noticing that the heart monitor had started, and immediately rushed to my side, pulling the blanket off my face. The light blinded me for just a second before I could see again, and the doctor's eyes widened.

"Charles, get Meredith's father!" She exclaimed, looking up at the nurse who stood at the door. Her hand held my face, only reminding me of my mother, and I felt my eyes tearing up as a lump appeared in my throat. "She's alive! Tell Tristan his daughter is alive!" The nurse nodded quickly, leaving the door ajar as he fled down the hall. The other doctor just began to put down the items in his hand before the one in front of me said, "Ron, I need you to get the others that brought her here. We need to refile her status in the records, assuming they didn't go through yet."

"Got it!"

As he left, the doctor turned to look down at me, a small and gentle smile on her face as she whispered, "Can you hear me, dear? You're awake, right?"

Ignoring the pain shooting up my spine, I nodded slowly, crying my heart out as she pulled away the oxygen mask that hung beside my face. She sat beside me for the next minute or two, and even if it didn't seem like a long time, her comforting me felt like a millennium. Her hand continued to wipe away my tears, and her sweet whispers made my heart pound stronger and stronger.

"Everything's going to be alright now," she insisted, her voice confident in her words. "You don't need to cry, Meredith."