Chapter Thirteen

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"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."
~ Henry David Thoreau

Track 13; Black Sands by Shelby Merry

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NOVEMBER 20TH, 20XX
DAY 15
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON

The last few days have been awful for you. The realization that Sanji, your childhood friend, had familial ties with your captor put you through multiple out-of-body experiences. They were bad enough that you were physically outside of your body, watching yourself slowly heal while Yonji loomed at your side. Since your attempt to escape with help from that nurse, he had kept a much closer eye on you. He slept when you did, and when you woke up for brief moments of time, you always found him staring at you. It was creepy, but it wasn't like you could do anything about it.

You hadn't been able to leave the hospital as soon as the doctor had said, and your expected three-day stay had turned into four. You were begging to whatever higher power that existed that you didn't have to stay here any longer. Your fever had taken a bit longer to ebb away than expected since it was working overtime on healing your ankle as well. When your days spent in the hospital finally turned to five, your care team wandered inside. Before today you had been unable to stay awake for more than 90 minutes at a time and would sleep anywhere from two to eight hours before waking up again. The group of doctors were thrilled to discover that you had been lucid for three and a half hours at this point, a new record for you.

"How are you feeling, (Y/N)?" The main doctor, who you now understand had performed your surgery, asked you.

You were adamant on Vinsmoke not being your last name, even if you recognized it now. You opted to ignore them when they referred to you as such. Yonji couldn't get you to acknowledge them either, so it didn't take long for them to give in for you to cooperate with treatment.

"Ready to go home." While in all reality you meant back to Minnesota, you knew they figured you were talking about wherever you 'lived' with Yonji. Your answer was blunt. Over the last day or two they'd slowly been weaning you off of your antibiotics and switching from morphine to prescription opioids to manage your pain. Needless to say, the pulsing in your ankle made you cranky and your patience thin. Not to mention that you were becoming extremely restless.

"We'll take a look at that ankle and decide on where to go from there, alright? If everything looks good I can have you discharged tonight."

That last sentence should have filled you with joy. You had expected your heart to soar with those words, yet it didn't even skip a beat. An unfamiliar numbness filled your chest instead, making you anxious. Did the room dim a little bit? You heard your own breath echo in your ears. This was the answer you were looking for, right? You couldn't take your eyes off of the speckled panel ceiling, hyper focused on that numbness in your chest when your leg started being lowered. What was this feeling?

Your entire body hummed in relief when your leg was finally settled gently onto a slanted memory foam cushion shaped similar to a wide yet shallow trapezoid. You were guided to sit up by a resident surgeon, and you did so to let them elevate the upper half of your bed to support your back. You watched and chewed on your lower lip when that same resident used the tiniest pair of scissors you had ever seen to slice through the wrapping protecting your ankle. Her hands were careful and precise, moving slow in order to cut one layer at a time. You flash back to that unsteady nurse from a few nights ago changing out your intravenous drip when Yonji steps up to your side.

You hadn't seen her since that night. Did she ask to be taken off of your team? Or did Yonji have something to do with it? You just hoped she still had that piece of paper with a name and number on it. Actually, now that you thought about it, who's name had you written down again? Did the number you wrote underneath even match the name? Knowing your luck, she wouldn't do anything about it, especially since you hadn't seen her.

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