The Winged beauty and The Tormented Beast

Chapter Seven

When the tears dry up, survival kicks in. I need to know where I am, how long they might keep me here. My gaze sweeps the room, hunting for clues, when a chill realization hits me. There's a void where there should be sensation—my legs. Panic, a living thing, thrashes in my chest. I can't feel my legs.

I reach out with a trembling hand and hit the call button next to the bed. The wait is a short eternity, my mind racing with questions, fears, and plans I need to make. I have to get out of here, have to find Tabby, have to—

The door opens, and a nurse walks in, his presence a calm in the eye of my storm. He's about my age, with soft grey eyes that carry a quiet understanding and brown hair that flops over his forehead.

I take a deep breath, trying to steady the tremor in my voice. "I can't feel my legs. Am I—?" The question dangles, too heavy to finish. But he's already nodding, a silent confirmation of my fears.

I'm in a new world now, bound to a wheelchair, but my resolve doesn't waver. I'm Kyle, I'm 21, and I have a mission that won't wait for grief or paralysis. I will find Tabby, no matter what it takes.

Lying in the sterile white of the hospital bed, the stiff sheets rustling with every shallow breath I take, the numbness where my legs should be feels like the cruelest joke. "Why can't I feel my legs?" The question slips out, laced not with fear for me, but for Tabby. How am I supposed to reach her if I'm stuck in this bed, if my legs won't carry me?

I'm not scared about not walking again for me. No, it's the way this paralysis throws a wrench into the urgent gears of my plans. How do you sprint across forests and fields to a hidden campsite when you can't even stand?

A dark thought creeps in. I've never ended a life—my life—on purpose before. But the option flashes in my mind like a warning light. If it means getting back to Tabby faster, should I? Would I? But the gamble is too great. I could come back as a baby, and that's time I can't afford to lose. Time Tabby doesn't have.

A bitter laugh almost escapes my lips, but it gets caught in the tightness of my throat. How did everything get so messed up? Why did I have to storm out of the tent like some sulky child? If only I'd stayed, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe Tabby and I would be on the road right now, far from anyone or anything that could hurt us.

But regrets are as useless as my legs at this moment. They won't bring Tabby back to me any faster. They won't heal the cold, empty space where sensation used to be. All I've got now are a dead man's memories, a body that's failed me, and a clock that's ticking down on Tabby's safety.

The hospital room feels like a prison now, the beeping of the heart monitor a timer on my inaction. I've got to think, got to plan. There's got to be a way out of this, a way to get back to her. Because if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I'm not giving up. Not on my watch. Not on Tabby's.

The nurse, catching the distant look in my eyes, inhales sharply—a breath that feels like the introduction to unwanted news. "Did the doctor not tell you?" he starts, and there's a note of apology in his voice. He glances away for a moment, as if gathering the strength to deliver a heavy blow. "That woman has too much on her plate..." he mutters under his breath, more to himself than to me.

"Well, you will be able to walk," he says, meeting my eyes again. "But it might take a while because you have shattered both your kneecaps and your ankles."

I blink. Walk? There's a chance?

He continues, detailing the damage in a clinical list that starts to blur together in my mind. "We gave you medicine to relieve the pain, and you will have to get surgery once you stabilize and—" His words keep coming, but I'm only half-listening now.

As he speaks, a dark temptation whispers to me. Would it be easier to just... end it? Start over? Maybe in a body that isn't broken? The thought is a siren call, sweet and deadly. I glance at the door, half-expecting the doctor to walk in at any moment and fill in the gaps the nurse is leaving. But the doorway remains empty.

When the nurse finally pauses, I gather that I'm in the United States. To my luck, I had just graduated college in England and was visiting for the winter, planning to go back. Which means I have a house in England. A house. A base. Somewhere to return to once I get Tabby. Sadly, it seems Kyle's family had visited him as a surprise, and then that is when everything went wrong. Such a small family, too.

For the first time since waking up, something like relief washes over me. It's not much, but it's a sliver of hope—a plan forming in the midst of chaos. I could get to that house, and from there, I could find Tabby.

As the nurse finishes up and checks some readings on a monitor, I let the reality sink in. I'm not stuck here. I'm not without options. The journey will be grueling, and the pain, once the medicine wears off, will be immense. But the thought of Tabby alone, waiting, expecting me to find her, fuels a newfound determination.

I'll walk again. I'll fly back to England. I'll make a new plan. And I'll find Tabby. No matter what it takes.

And, as it just so happens, it is close to where I died last but in a town over, hopefully Tabby decided to go to Paris. But I can only hope...