Brass Skies vol 2 (Draft)

Hope Must Die Part 11

Pain. Lots of pain. And voices. Lots of voices. Lots of light too.

Slowly, the young woman opened her eyes. She squinted at the bright bluish-white light glaring down from her from the adjustable wall-hung gas lamp with a mirror above her.

She blinked a few times from the light, but also from the incontinently. Her last memories were of being shot in the chest. No one could survive that. Not from the kind of gun used. She would assume she was dead, but she couldn't imagine being in this much pain after death. Well maybe I was sent to hell, she thought darkly. Lord knows I certainly committed enough sins to deserve being here.

She experimented with trying to set up, but the pain was so bad she was forced to give up and lay convulsing and screaming from the sheer agony.

"Easy there," a comforting, feminine, voice said. "I wouldn't suggest getting up just yet, Miss Charity. You had quite the traumatic experience."

"Am I in hell?" Hope asked softly.

"Hell? No, though I could see how it might feel that way," a pretty young woman came into view holding a bottle and a syringe. She pulled out the syringe from the bottle. "Just something for the pain," she explained before sticking Hope in the arm. Hope felt a slight burning for a moment, then slowly a slight disconnected feeling. The pain grew much more bearable.

"No, you're in Saint Mercy's," the young nurse continued. A nice young man from India brought you in after you were struck and run over by a cab. You're really lucky to be alive. As it is, you have a couple of broken ribs, but the doctors say you should be feeling better in a few days and be right as rain in a few weeks. You were incredibly lucky."

"Hit by a cab? You mean I wasn't shot?" Hope asked softly, confusion rolling through her.

"Shot? Oh goodness gracious no," the nurse shook her head. "Granted there was a lot of blood on you when you were brought in, but the gentleman said most of it was from the gash on your head. Though some of it was from where one of the wires in your corset had pierced your breast."

The nurse winced in sympathy. "Nothing serious; probably won't even leave a scar, but you're going to be very tender there for a while and that's on top of the tenderness you'll already be feeling from the broken ribs. I would say stay away from corsets for a while, but they would help bind your ribs."

Hope nodded, still trying to take everything in. The nurse took Hopes temperature, adjusted the catheter that Hope hadn't even realized she had, offered her some water, and then turned to leave.

"Oh wait," she said turning back around. "The man that brought you in said to give this to you, Miss Charity. He said it might clear up any questions you have about the accident." She opened a drawer in the nightstand beside the bed and pulled out a letter handing it to Hope.

Hope waited until the nurse left and then opened it

Dear Charity MacDuinn,

I am writing this on behalf of the son of our king, my partner, Leopold, as well as myself. I can only assume you have many questions. I will attempt my utmost to answer some of them. Suffice to say that you have been given a new lease on life.

Hope Callaghan was officially killed while attempting to escape after having somehow incapacitated her drivers and orchestrating an accident involving the transport she happened to be in at the time. While you may remember her being shot with a survivable if extremely painful mixture of bags of blood and beans, I assure you that in reality she was hit with a fatal spray of scatter shot. It was most definitely instantly fatal.

As her listed next of kin, you will of course be forwarded the bulk of her known belongings. Unfortunately, there are some items that can not be forwarded due to their nature. Also there are some items that are in the possession of agencies not of our own, so we will be unable to release those items to you as well. I hope you can understand.

Due to the fatal nature of Hope's activities and the dangers associated with interacting with her associates and acquaintances, we strongly urge you to not follow in her footsteps or reacquaint yourself with her social circles anytime in the near future.

Finally, we know of your propensity to take on acting rolls. We strongly suggest that you do not do so for a moderate period of time. There are many reasons for this and I will not go into them. Suffice to say we will be watching you and will take steps to curb this propensity if we deem it necessary.

I know I already said "Finally" but as I was writing this, George just handed me something that you dropped last night that he stated you would want. I am inclosing it with this letter. He and I have already forgotten that it exists.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck, Charity.

Yours truly,

Jeremy Wilkes

Hope quickly picked the envelope back up and peered inside. Stuck against the side of the envelope was avery familiar picture. She pulled it out and held it to her lips. Having the possession of the picture achieved what the pain from her injuries could not and her cheeks became streaked with the rapidly falling tears.