Remission [H.S. MATURE AU]

1.

Ahhhhh. I was so excited to publish it. So that's the first chapter of the sequel, where a lot of things will be explained, so a lot of your doubts will be cleared with it. Hope you enjoy and I'm excited to know what you think xx

SCARLETT

I had waited and hoped for so long to finally see the light again and now, that I'm blinded by lights everywhere, I can't keep my eyes open to look directly at it. I can feel it though. I had missed its warmth on the skin. I had been woken up by that warmth and for a second I thought that, after all, I hadn't woken up at all. That it was just another dream. I used to dream a lot and all my dreams looked the same; scary sometimes, full of hope others and in both cases, after them, I had never felt more hopeless. So when I saw that light and someone behind that light I just thought it was another dream, until the burning feeling of that light hitting me right in the face made me understood that maybe, after all, this time, it wasn't just a dream. Now, on a stretcher, all I see is light again. Artificial light, this time. Being pointed at my face by the small torches of the doctors, while I'm being transported down a corridor. I don't feel in pain anymore, but that's probably because of the morphine they've injected in my body on the road toward the hospital. The last thing I see, before passing out, is another light.

When I open my eyes again, my first reaction in seeing a stranger woman at the right of my bed is to slightly jump, but I quickly force myself to calm down when I recognize her nurse uniform. I quickly look around, not recognizing the place at all. The lights have been reduced, it's very dark in part, and I wonder if it's for the condition of my eyes. I can see a policeman on the door of my room and I don't know if it makes me feel calmer or the exact opposite. Whoever did that to me is still out there. My chest starts to lower and lift very quickly and once again I try to control my breath.

"Where am I?" I ask, before the nurse in the room, who's realized I am awake now, can say anything at all. She lightly smiles at me. I can see the pity in her eyes, mixed with that smile, but the truth is that I was the one to get myself in this situation, I don't deserve anyone's pity.

"You're at the Warren Memorial Hospital in Front Royal. You're fine, you're safe. Your family is on the way." She tells me with a kind smile and a tone of voice that is supposed to make me feel safe. The machine I'm attached too starts making a weird noise, matching the confusion and anxious state I feel in right now at the mention of my family. I'm safe, I've been found, I feel relieved, but at the same time I've never felt more terrified in my life. On the door, I immediately notice a man in his 50s, with a beige raincoat, that looks at me as if I was some sort of ghost. "Do you feel like talking to the police right now?" The nurse asks again. There's concern on her face, seeing how agitated I already am, but asking it's probably her job. I give the man behind her a scared look and I quickly shake my head, hugging tight the sheets against my chest.

"Miss, I know you've been going through a lot but we have a man in jail for your murder and a body that looks like yours that apparently is not yours." I feel my heart start rushing again in my chest and I quickly shake my head, not understanding any of what he's saying. I find myself shaking, trying to block any kind of memory from my head and I can feel my breath coming out in shaky puffs. I can see the nurse immediately glaring at him at his words, that probably wasn't supposed to tell me.

"P-people think I'm dead?" I shakily ask to the nurse, instead that to the detective, but she just looks at him with that mix of sadness and pity without answering, because she probably doesn't know what to say.

"Yes, Miss." The detective answers at her place and I feel my heart hurt in realization. My fist closes around the fabric of my white sheet and I try to focus on the sound of my breath, to keep it regular and to remain calm.