Lucifer [Louis] [On Hold]

22 | L o s t

Dedicated to @chlo_chlo_16 for the lovely comment!

Apprehension consumed Melanie before she even opened her eyes. 

There was definitely something wrong, something off that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She was no stranger to feeling restless, though nothing had ever felt quite like this - nothing had ever felt so ... eerie. 

When she finally garnered enough courage to view her surroundings, she only felt more on edge to a find herself lying beneath a bright light.

The ceiling above her was familiar. She had spent days counting the cracks above her hospital bed when the TV had grown tiresome and her collection of books had been read back to front - there was only so long you could keep yourself occupied while in the hospital. 

And that's when she remembered.

Oh no, was her first thought as she pushed herself up from where she lay. Everything was how she had last seen it - the crisp, sterilised room with the obnoxious amount of 'get well soon' cards laden on her bedside table as well as flowers in every stage of life, her clothes folded neatly on the chair across the room and the small box of mints she enjoyed so much, courtesy of her son Tristan.

Tristan. Jenny. 

Panic settled in at the lack of visitors around her. There was always at least one by her side. Where was her family? They always visited her, almost every single day unless work intervened. There were times when she had been asleep but could still feel their presence in the room and it had been a comfort. Now she was so concerned that she was struggling to push herself out of her bed.

She stepped into her slippers and ripped the needles from her arm, oblivious to the beeps of protest the heart monitor let out. She couldn't care less. All she knew was that she had to find her family. They had to be somewhere close. 

"Hello?" she called out. No reply came and as she stumbled her way across to the door and threw it open, she almost cried out when she noticed the lack of nurses, of visitors, of life in general. "Hello? Is there anyone here?"

The only reply was her echo, reverberating down the empty hall. 

To her left sat the empty reception desk, littered in papers and loose stationery. They looked as if they had been in the middle of being sorted, only there was no one around to do the sorting. 

Melanie reached forward and grabbed the phone off of the cradle and began to frantically dial her children's numbers. The line was dead before she'd even finished dialling. 

Then she was crying. Crying out of panic, frustration and fear.

She hadn't been left to her own devices in so long. For as long as she could remember, she'd always had her family and friends around to support her and her carers in later years. So where were they all now, when she needed them the most?

For a moment, Melanie just stared at the phone, listening to the dead line sound away like an alarm. Then something else caught her attention.

The phone fell from her grasp and clattered against the surface of the desk as she inspected her fingers, her knuckles, and further up her arm. There was no sign of how the years had matured her body, no visible wrinkle or age spot in sight. Talking of sight, she realised that despite not wearing her round spectacles, her eyesight was perfect, like she were seeing through new eyes for the first time in years.

And that's what was missing, she realised - the years. Melanie was an old woman and yet she was living in the body of a young one, with smooth and slightly blemished skin that most youngsters adorned, as if all the decades had been a dream.