I suppose waking up in intensive care wasn't the best way to start my day. I was hooked up to various machines with an oxygen mask covering my face. I had electrical pads strapped to my head and arms, leading to a large machine which had started to beep. I also made a note that I had large leather restraints over my arms, the buckles feeling heavy and cold against my skin.
"You're alive still?" The male doctor walked in and said, looking rather shocked. He came over and took off my oxygen mask and stared at the array of monitors that surrounded my bed. "This is rather unexpected."
"What do you mean by that?" My voice came out as a croak to start with, causing me to begin a mini coughing fit until it had cleared.
"Well, you've been here for about ten months." He looked at me with a bored expression like he'd have given this talk to several patients before, which I highly doubted. "We thought you'd die in your sleep or something like some of the others have."
"Ten months?" I repeated, trying to sit up before remembering the restraints which were tightly placed around my hands. "And what do you mean by others?"
"Yeah, someone found you unconscious in your apartment after the particle accelerator exploded. We assume it was caused by the explosion, but we're not sure. I'll call someone in to remove some of the equipment from you and to do a health check. We'll notify the visitor that you've been having over the past few months that you've woken up so she should be here relatively soon." The doctor said, looking like he was just about to fall to sleep.
"Has my sister been in to see me at all? I'm not sure what happened to her before the accelerator exploded because she was driving and wouldn't pick up her phone and-" I began to ramble, looking worried as there were a few sympathy cards and bunches of wilted flowers scattered around the room.
"Can you confirm that you are Miss Emily Stone?" The doctor asked.
"It's Doctor Emily Stone," I heavily emphasised as I hated it when people dropped my doctorate title.
"And your sister is Eve Stone?" He asked, looking longingly between the door and I.
"Yes, yes she is. What's happened?"
"Oh, I think she was one of the casualties of the disaster, sorry about that."
"You think? You better check because if that's my sister you're talking about..." I shouted, my voice wavering as I was trying hard not to swear my head off at the incompetence of this man.
"Sorry, I know she was one, I had to sign the death certificate." The doctor left the room, not bothering to undo my restraints. He almost seemed bored and unfazed at how many people he's had to tell that their loved ones had passed.
"Oh my God," I sobbed, tears freely falling down my cheeks while my hands were still restrained, preventing me from wiping them away. My brain almost couldn't comprehend the matter at first, like it was in shock itself. I felt the tips of my fingers and the end of my toes go numb as my arms started shaking with shock. My body felt as if half of it had been ripped from me as I felt pins and needles shooting through my limbs.
My throat began to catch as I erupted into a coughing fit of sobs. I had no way to stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks or hide my emotions behind my hands since they were still restrained. It was strange since you would've thought that I was feeling like I'd lost my other half, that I was feeling half empty.
But, to some extent, I didn't. I didn't feel like she was missing. It felt as if she was still here, somewhere. The wave of isolation and abandonment that I had felt at first had completely disappeared as if my brain had decided that it wasn't going to feel any kind of grief or sense of loss at all. It didn't feel like she was dead at all.
A nurse, almost as snooty as the doctor, came in without saying a word and started to remove my restraints and unhooked the electrical pads from my stomach and head. I instantly began to wipe my face to try and stop the ever-flowing stream of tears, which proved pointless. The nurse dropped a checklist on my lap and pointed to the boxes using her pen, handed me a tissue and waited. I looked down at the list, trying to read the small print through the tears.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being the lowest and ten being the highest, how would your rate you physical pain? If above five please state why." It read. I really felt like telling her to fuck right off, but I thought it would be better just to get it out of the way and could act as a distraction.
The rest of the questions were fairly routine and just as strange and insensitive as the first. Thankfully, the mute nurse left promptly after I finished my questionnaire. I took a chance to look around the room, which smelt incredibly clinical. There was a bunch of flowers sat on the table opposite my bed, which looked fairly new, but perhaps a few days old by the drooping. There was nothing else significant in the room, apart from the two visitors who suddenly burst through my door.
"Oh my god, Emily! You're awake!" I heard a lady squeal. Two people, a man and a woman, quickly dashed into the private medical room as I had to blink my eyes hard to focus on the details of their faces.
"Iris and Barry?" I choked out. I didn't even know who I was expecting to arrive. Maybe my brain hadn't registered that it wouldn't be Eve running through the doors and giving me a hug. Maybe I thought that my dad would at least have visited, left a letter or something, but I guess I was giving him too much credit.
"Oh, I see they've already told you about Eve." I just about managed to nod. Both of them moved to my side as Iris put her arm around me, rubbing circles across my back to try and calm me down.
"I've-I missed her funeral, didn't I? At least say that my grandparents flew over."
"I don't think I saw them there. Your dad didn't say much in his eulogy and what he did say didn't seem to match up to how we thought she was. He nearly said your name instead of Eve's," Iris summarised, looking at Barry before moving her gaze back to me.
"That son of a bitch! How dare he show his face at her funeral, how dare he!" Wrapping my head around this whole situation was bad enough, let alone having my useless, waste of oxygen, carbon life-form of a father screw up her funeral.
"What's wrong with your dad?" Barry asked worry etched over his face.
"He hasn't spoken to Eve or I for seven years since my mum's accident," I said rather bitterly to convey my intense hatred for the man who supposedly gave me life.
"That sucks, Em," he replied, still looking just as worried.
"How did you guys know I was in this hospital?" I asked, quickly changing the subject from my parents. Everybody had daddy issues, right?
"Well, Barry was injured too, and he was in one of the other rooms across the corridor. I saw you in here so they let me start to visit you since nobody had come to see you and it had been a few months since you were admitted," Iris said with a sympathetic look on her face. I shuffled around on the bed, bringing my knees up to my chest and propping my chin up on them.
"Nobody came?" I looked over to her as it had finally dawned on me that not only was Eve gone, but she was one of my only friends.
"They said that they had called your dad, but he never came." How kind of him, it's not every day that you fall into a life-threatening coma or anything.
"You were injured too?" I tried to change the subject from my parents, again, as I began to feel all kinds of weird emotions, which I doubted I was ready to comprehend.
"Funnily enough, I was in a coma too, and I only woke up a few weeks ago. I'm okay now, though, and since Iris told me that she had been visiting you, I've been coming along, if that's all right," he replied, giving me a smile.
"I'm glad you're okay and that you took the time to come and see me. So, um, would you mind filling me in on what's happened over the past few months?" I asked, tilting my head between Iris and Barry.
"Well, I prepared a handy booklet for when you woke up so it should give you a pretty good idea," Iris stately very proudly as she handed the booklet to me. I opened it curiously and looked at the pictures and flicked back to the most recent pages, reading about an unknown hero named 'the Streak.'
"The Streak? What does he do, run around naked to scare the villains away?" Barry looked away from me; his head hung down as if he was disappointed at my reaction as Iris just laughed at my statement.
The doctor came back into the room and told me that as long as I took it easy, I could be taken home if I had some assistance. Usually, Eve would have made Mum's chicken soup for when I was ill, but I guess I'll have to make it myself from now on.
"I'm sure Dad will let you stay in the spare room for a while, just while you get better, right Barry?" Iris said.
"Joe came to visit along with Iris a few times so he knows you from what Iris has mentioned," Barry confirmed.
"You guys are so sweet, even though I've only met you twice." I gushed at both of the people sat next to me, leaning on both of them in an attempt of an awkward side hug.
"It's okay, I guess Iris and I just feel like we've known you forever since we've been visiting," Barry said.
"I understand. Also, do you know why I had restraints on?" I asked, looking down at the red marks on my wrists.
"The doctors said that you had been having seizures so they kept you restrained in case you accidentally hurt yourself or a member of staff. They said it wasn't something that they usually see, but it can happen occasionally," Iris explained, looking down at my slightly bruised wrists.
"Oh, I see," I mumbled into my knees.
"It's good to hear you talk again, Em," Barry said, trying to lighten the solemn mood.
"Yeah, it's great to see you guys again, even after everything that's happened. I appreciate that you went to Eve's funeral."
"I brought some spare clothes of mine for you to change into before we go to your place to pick some stuff up if you want," Iris said as she put a bag full of what looked like simple lounge clothes.
"That would be amazing, thank you both so much," I smiled.
"We'll go and wait outside for you, and we'll sort everything out." I nodded to the pair as they scooted from the bed and out of the room.
I swiftly got changed into Iris's clothes, which happened to be extremely short on my lanky frame. I wasn't worried since what should be an oversized hoodie was of a normal size on my body, and the leggings were grazing above my ankles. Iris and Barry then ushered me out of the hospital, giving me the belongings which I came in with and pushed me straight into a cab before directing Iris to my apartment. Thankfully, I had used Iris's phone to ring my neighbour and ask for her to use her spare keys to open the door since I didn't have my keys or phone with me. Barry said that he had something else to deal with, so he would meet us back at Iris's house.
Walking into my apartment seemed strange at first. The window had been repaired, and things had been minimally tidied since my absence. The first thing I did was to walk into Eve's room as if I was expecting her to be doing a headstand against the headboard of her bed, claiming that she was trying out some crazy new yoga trend. It just all seemed too surreal at the moment.
I pulled out Eve's suitcase and packed some of her things into it before zipping it up and walking into my room and collecting things that I would need, including getting changed into some of my clothes that fit me better. I made a B-line to my lab to find that it had been completely cleared with a letter addressed to me placed on my desk in the centre of the room. I carefully opened the letter, my eyes skimming over the words until I reached the actual news, "Unfortunately, we have terminated your position at Mercury Labs due to ill health."
"For God's sake, that's all I need," I muttered to myself as I stashed the letter away in the front pocket of my case.
"Hey, what's up, you look a tad-," Iris asked, but I interrupted her from annoyance at what I had read.
"Annoyed? Yeah, I got fired from Mercury Labs because I fell into a coma. Oh God, this means that stupid Benson will be taking over my research division. Argh, it'll never get finished now, and I was so close!"
"What was your research for?" Iris inquired conversationally.
"My team and I were leading a research investigation into how to cure, or at least reduce the effects of 'locked-in' syndrome. There are so many people who need this, but now it seems like it will never get completed unless I beg for my job back," I sighed. How was I supposed to help now?
"I have a feeling that you've not had the best day so far."
"You would be correct in assuming that," I replied, smiling weakly at her.
"Don't worry we'll get you all settled and you'll be feeling better in no time."
"Thanks, Iris."
"Oh, is that the time? I'm sorry, Emily, but I've got work in half an hour. Here's the address to our house and a number to call for a cab," she said, her voice rushed as she grabbed a post-it note and scribbled down her address.
"It's all right, Iris. I appreciate this, thank you so much," I reassured as she nodded and headed towards the door as I followed her to show her out.
"I'll see you later, bye!"
I walked back into my flat to check on how quickly my phone had been charging since my make of phone was notoriously known for losing their battery very quickly. Messages from all people I'd ever known flooded into my phone with one from my father, which I avoided like the plague.
The majority of the messages were offering their condolences about Eve's death and wished me a speedy recovery, although, it seemed a little strange to have the sheer volume of messages on my phone.
The message from Dad wasn't very long at all but contained the same lack of emotion as usual. I don't even know why he would send me a text, knowing that I was in a pretty serious and long term coma. It read, "Hello Emilia; I have recently heard of your sister's passing," note that he didn't even say her name, or refer to her as his daughter, "and will offer my condolences. From, Dad." I began to laugh at his careless attitude to the fact that one of his children had died.
"Emily?" I heard out of nowhere. I stopped in my tracks, dropping my phone on the sofa as I stood up and looked around the room. My head began to pound and tingle just like it did when Eve and I connected.
"Hello?"
"Em, it's me." The voice sounded in my head.
"It can't be, you're-you died?" I looked around, seeing nobody else in my apartment.
"I know I did, genius. I'm talking to you from the dead." Eve ended in a weird voice, trying to imitate a ghost.
"What? What the hell, Eve?"
"No, no, I'm not in hell. I made it to heaven even though I stole your car that one time but anyway, yeah apparently you can hear me now. I've been trying to talk to you for like, ten months but apparently, some religious guy said you were in a coma? And something about me causing your seizures and stuff because I was trying to wake you up."
"Woah, woah, woah, Eve, calm it, Kermit. So, just to clarify, you first tried to contact me ten months ago, as soon as you died, when the particle accelerator exploded and when I went into a coma."
"Yeah, sounds about right."
"And at the same time, in Central City, after the incident, God knows how many people were affected by it, but now, this Streak fellow has developed superpowers a few months after it happened. Does that sounds like a coincidence to you?"
"Oh my God, my sister has superpowers. I'm so jealous!"
Just as I started to get the hang of talking to 'dead Eve' through my thoughts, my head began to pound even more and the 'twin tingle' took over my head. It was like she was dying all over again and as I could feel myself going faint. I guessed my body wasn't used to using my powers yet as I tried to cling onto the couch as I could feel the rest of my body going numb as I crumbled to the floor, again.
A/N
Holla @ u Eve - nice 2 see ya g
Anyway, so stuff might not happen for a bit because she has to be re-introduced to life now that it's all changed.
See you on the dark side,
Charis xo