Before You Leave Me

18. Strangers In The Night

[A/N: The story is finished. I still have to write the Epilogue, but you can expect it all to be over by Saturday (which I think is great because my exams start next Monday so this is wonderful). There will be a chapter a day until that day 😁

Here's another chapter. Hope you like it :)]

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September 29th, 2022.

10:08pm

"Mr. Gonzalez"

There's a light blinding me, and an unknown voice in the distance calling my surname.

"Mr. Gonzalez, can you hear me?"

Yes, man, I can hear you. No need to shout at me.

My eyes are open, but still all I can see is that bright light right in front of my eyes.

"He can hear us"

Yes, I can hear you. Now stop shouting.

The bright light begins to fade and I can make out a silhouette barely a couple of centimetres away from me.

"Mr. Gonzalez, can you hear me?" the masculine voice asks again.

I try to answer but my mouth doesn't move and my throat does something that sounds like a walrus' mating sound.

"Do you understand what I'm saying, Mr. Gonzalez?"

I manage to nod, or something like that.

I can understand him and hear him, so please shut him up already. And also, wherever that horrible whistling is coming from, make it stop as well.

"I'm nurse Stevens" the male voice introduces himself, "You got into an accident, Mr. Gonzalez. You're currently at the St. Thomas Hospital. Can you wave for me, please?" he asks.

I pull a face and wave at him. 

"Wiggle your toes for me now, Mr. Gonzalez"

Eye-roll and toe-wiggling, anything to keep the nurse happy.

"That's an 11 on the GCS" he says, "all right, Mr. Gonzalez, I'm going to be taking you up for a CT scan. I'd like you to please be very still"

'Okay' I mean to say, but only the weakest of whimpers comes out.

The CT machine and everything that follows come to me in flashes, like in movies, with the small difference that apparently this is not a movie, but real life.

Before I'm even aware of it, I'm in another room with a couple of needles in my arms that have tubes with liquid draining in. Everything around me is still bright, but I don't know if it's because of my status or because of the fluorescent lights that illuminate the room.

Nurse Stevens said I got into an accident, didn't he?

I close my eyes and try to remember.

The second I do, the memories rush in: saying goodbye to Albert, walking in the rain, Albert's cry, the two headlights...

I open my eyes and look down at myself: My clothes are gone.

I hold back a gasp as I try to sit up and look at my outfit. I'm wearing one of those hospital gowns that ties on the back.