[Elliot POV]
Sometimes, I wonder about how my life would have turned out if things had gone differently.
Life didn't have to go exactly according to my plans but it would have been nice if something, anything, went my way for once.
Take that the multiple previous phone calls to my family, which translates to my father badgering me non-stop about how I had failed him countless times over the course of my twenty six years of existence.
Out of all of the times he had to call me before, of course the one time I try to stand up for myself, something shitty happens to me.
Because the Universe, God, or any other immortal deity wouldn't want me to actually have a normal relationship with my father or my stepmother, nevermind my step-siblings who had nothing to do with the dysfunctional aspects of our non-blended family.
That same deity also wouldn't want me to have normal relationships that weren't connected through blood lines alone, ones with people that I admired, liked or maybe even loved at some point.
Hell, I'd even take relationships with ones I despised but no, I wasn't even allowed that.
My life was just one large shit can full of shit worms that were half dead or mostly dying and once I tried to clean out those worms, only more were shoved down the can until the can had nothing left to choose other than the path that would lead to its inevitable implosion.
And while I would normally say that the inevitable implosion wouldn't be for quite some time, I knew the basic blunt truth.
To be frankly honest, that implosion was going to be the size of an atomic bomb that blew up my life and shattered me into a thousand little bloody pieces of body parts and organs and none of it was going to be pretty nor beautiful in the slightest bit.
And that implosion was going to happen soon and there was nothing I could do about it.
But back to the present moment, I also knew that if there had been a slim chance of that phone call never taking place, whether I didn't answer it or perhaps George kept me on the line longer then he previously did so, maybe things could have been different for my current outcome, as it may seem.
Although I had no current proof that things may have turned out in another, slightly more positive way, I just knew that deep down, maybe there may have been a chance that I could have continued to live a semi normal, albeit bothersome and oddly content, life had I not stepped out into that thunderstorm and stormed off towards my place of work much like the thunder that rumbled ominously above my head.
The earth shaking storm should have been a clear enough warning to turn back around and have Margot drive me to the hospital for my next shift, it should have been enough of a warning siren going off inside my head to make me stop in my tracks and know when it was time for me to ask for help.
But like I've always done before, I soldiered on and that was my undoing, my downfall, my breaking point.
When the lightning flashed brightly in the dark clouds that loomed over my head like a beacon of bright light from the heavens above before the lightning bolt struck me down to the ground and I fell heavily onto the cold, wet sidewalk, the red apple that lay within my hand rolling from my fingers and onto the road with a thud.
White hot pain like none other burst through my veins, striking me down with a vengeance like an ax murderer that was coming to kill me and I could barely breathe as I stared up at the dark sky above me.
My skin was vibrating and shaking as electricity bolts jumped through my blood cells and wove through the neuron pathways inside my brain like an infectious disease jumping from one host to another with no difficulty in the least bit.
It was as if I was on fire, melting from the inside out, and the agony was so unbearable that I couldn't even open my mouth to scream or cry out for help, no matter how much I wanted to.
I could feel my body convulsing against the wet pavement but I couldn't stop the seizures, the next images that would be burned into the back of my mind coming in waves of vagueness muddled with the agonizing pain of a slow, burning death.
Having an almost out of body experience as I half saw Margot scream when she found me, her voice muffled behind the ringing inside my head as she struggled to move me into the car while she called the hospital to prepare for an emergency gurney to be presented in the ER for me.
Groans of pain left my lips with exhaustion as my body thumped limply across the backseat of the car, my eyelids fluttering shut before opening a few times as Margot sped down the slick nearly empty road towards the hospital.
I could hear her telling me that everything was alright, that I was going to be okay but I couldn't find it in myself to believe her.
Soon, I heard the sound of a car door clicking open and then, I felt strange pairs of multiple hands lifting me up and moving me onto the heavily weight metal gurney, my breathing shallow as I fought against the onslaught of vicious, bone and flesh eating pain, against the wave of overwhelming fatigue as I struggled to keep my eyes open and focus my blurry gaze on my best friend who was rushing to keep up beside the unfamiliar masked nurses and doctors who were wielding me away with great speed and rushed behavior.
Voices faded in and out with the jagged sharpness of a knife cutting through thin air but I kept my focus on Margot, knowing somewhere in the back of my mind that I needed to see her because I was dying.
Quickly.
And I didn't want to go into the Great Beyond without her by my side.
"We have a young female here, approximately mid to late twenties, third degree burns are visible on neck, chest, abdomen and waist, cause of diagnosis is unclear at the moment…"
"Wait a second…Isn't that Doctor Blakely?"
"Oh my God! It is her! Fuck, she looks like shit…"
The voices that were unfamiliar to my ears were drowned out beyond the ringing that vibrated throughout my skull as the barest of noises that I could make to articulate the incredible amount of pain that I was in, the hint of a gasping whimper, escaped my lungs and Margot peered down at me with tears in her own eyes, her hands reaching out to grasp onto mine, the bubbling flesh that was melting away from my bones as blood rushed to the surface making her face pale as she visibly fought to keep from puking her guts out at the sight of her best friend literally melting away before her very eyes.
"Hey, kid…You're gonna be okay, I-I promise. You're strong, Ellie, I know you are. You're gonna be okay."
She kept promising me these words but I knew them to not be true, not when I could feel myself beginning to die as I was being wheeled into the nearest available operating room just down the hallway from the ER.
Whirling sounds from nearby machines made me want to look and see what the doctors were doing but I couldn't move, it was as if somebody had pinned my body down and was not letting me go anytime soon.
Gurgling sounds coming from my throat could be heard across the room as my body began to seize and spasm violently, the violent shaking only heightening the immense amount of pain I was in as white foam began to bubble up and push over the corners of my mouth while my eyes bleed droplets of burning hot red blood that would have streaked my face had the bones not been melting beneath the surface.
"Hurry! She's starting to code! Get me those paddles immediately!"
The only doctor on call that would be able to operate on me, an older gentleman who I've only seen maybe once or twice in the ER for the total number of years I've been working at the hospital, was panicking as he and the crazy number of nurses tried their hardest to sedate my spasming body but their relentless efforts were futile in the end as my vision began to narrow and the edges became dotted with black and red.
I could feel the pain overshadowing any sort of fear I had and then, everything mysteriously stopped as darkness encompassed my senses and a strange sensation bolted across my skin, feeling much like the lightning that struck me down earlier but it was hard to describe.
I should have felt weighed down as I was at the brink of death on the operating table but strangely enough, I felt as if I was floating on a cloud instead.
There was no pain anymore and I felt weirdly warm as a warm light burned behind my closed eyes, as if the gentle light wasn't trying to suffocate me like the pain had been doing earlier.
Instead, the pain almost instantly subsided as I felt the softest breeze brush over my skin before there was suddenly a gentle voice that I haven't heard in many, many years that floated through my ears, the feminine tone to the voice stilling my already motionless body.
"Ellie….My baby girl…"
Mom.
That was her voice.
I could hear her speaking to me but how?
If I had any energy left in my body, I would have cried at the surreal bliss that surrounded my senses, at the glow that emitted from outside of my own body full of flesh and bones, the warmth from the glow setting ablaze my own now chilled and lifeless flesh.
My ears were still ringing with Margot's voice as she called out to me, at the doctors and nurses who confirmed my time of death just as I had done before with other patients and I wanted to scream at them suddenly.
Could they not understand that I was still alive but now trapped within my own mind, my spirit caught between the physical and spiritual planes as it could not decide which one it belonged to anymore?
But then, just as I was about to leave this physical plane of existence, that warm glow from before turned into a shimmering light and then, it sank into my lifeless body before it burst outwards into the room with a blast strong enough to shake the industrial white operating room walls, knocking down anything and anyone within its path as my spine arched and a breath of life giving air was forced into my lungs.
My eyes flew open and then, I was right back where I should have always been in the first place.
Back to resting inside my body.
But I heard her voice…I heard Mom.
She was calling out for me…Was that just a hallucination?
Or was it…something else entirely?
Wondering if I was beginning to hallucinate, the doctors, nurses and even Margot stared down at me with both amazement and fear complicating their otherwise stone cold facial expressions and when their gazes dropped down to the rest of my body, my own eyes glanced downwards to see what they were staring at and that's when I realized why they were looking at me like I was a freak.
My body was normal again.
My flesh and bones weren't melting anymore.
I wasn't oozing blood everywhere.
My organs weren't on display for anyone to come up and see.
I was back to being normal.
But my mind couldn't handle it.
Next thing I knew, everything went dark again as the fear and anxiety burning a deep hole inside my gut consumed me and this time, I welcomed the dark distraction.
Because I had no idea what this meant for me now.
Because I didn't know if I had hallucinated the whole damn thing or not.
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-Ro♥️