I felt the soft blanket that was covering me, the pillow under my head. I tried to move and to my great surprise I did. I could feel everything now, my hands, feets, eyes. I paused for a moment becoming completely still and then tried to open my them.
I was scared they won't open, that they won't respond. The same hopelessness that I was surrounded with before will return.
But they opened. At first all I could see was white light and after a few seconds they closed again. The first thought that came to in my mind was am I finally dead? Is this it? Have I left everything behind? Everyone behind?
I tried to open them again and this time things started to come in focus, I could slightly make out the white sheet on me, the edge of the bed I was lying on, the door at the far corner. It took me few more minutes to finally be able to see everything.
I was alone in the room, I turned my head and saw a window at the left side, there was sunlight pouring in the room from it. The room was warm, I assume it is daytime. I looked at the side table, it was filled with medicines, flowers and get well soon cards. Looking around I figured the room wasn't huge, there was a couch next to the door two chairs on either side of my bed and an other door that I assume is the bathroom on the far right side.
I tried to get up, it took a lot of force, I felt pain in every part of my body and had to stop after every moment to regain my strength. Finally I managed to sit up, leaning against the pillow I took deep breaths to calm my racing heart. This was exhausting. I closed my eyes, listening to quiteness in the room when suddenly the door opened.
Dad walked in with a newspaper in his one hand and coffee in the other. He didn't look like my father at all, he looked so weak, I could see his bones even from here. There were huge bags under his eyes and the peace and calmness that always surrounded him was gone. I felt like crying seeing him like this.
He didn't notice me and first, he opened the door with his head down and closed it behind him. He walked over to the couch and placed the newspaper there. Still holding his coffee he turned towards me and stilled. His eyes widening as if he couldn't believe what he saw in front of him.
"Hi dad" I said. My voice coming out hoarse and light.
He didn't say a thing and walked towards me, he placed his coffee on the side table and not once stopped looking at me.
"Dad" I said again.
Wanting him to know that he wasn't dreaming, I don't know how many times he had dreamt it, me waking uo that even a reality now seems like a dream to him.
"Eva" he said finally.
His eyes filling up with tears and he came forward and hugged me. I could feel pain spreading everywhere due to his tight hug but I didn't say anything, I just hugged him with as much strength as I could.
"Oh God, thankyou" he said pulling away and kissing me on my forehead.
"Your finally up, I.....I cannot believe it...God I'm so happy your finally back. I was so scared" he said as tears fell out of his eyes.
"Its okay dad, I'm fine, everything will be okay now" I said wiping away his tears with my hand.
He hugged me again as I relaxes in his embraced realising how much I have missed it.
"I'll go call the doctor so he can check up on you, hopefully everything would be fine. And I'll go call your mom, ah wait till the twins see you" he said with a light laugh.
"I just dropped them off to the school, do you need anything?" He asked.
"Water" I said rubbing my neck, I was very thirsty.
"Of course" he said and went out to bring it for me.
I looked around the room, flashbacks of everything that happened coming back to me. I took in a deep breath thanking God, feeling lucky to have survived all that.
...............................
"No, mom that's enough" I said moving my head away.
"Eva open your mouth, just ten more bites I promise" she said bring the spoon towards me.
"Ten more bites?" I looked at her horrified.
"Yes! The doctor said you need to eat to get better and I made this myself for you" she said as I forcefully slid the soup down my throat, its warmth spreading in my stomach.
"Thats...thats it, I am not having another bite" I replied.
"Why? You don't like it?" She asked pouting.
"No mom its good, I just don't feel like eating anything"
She looked at me for a second and then finally put the bowl aside.
"I can't wait for you to come back home with you" she said with a warm smile.
"With you?"
"Yeah, you need someone with you 24/7 and your dad has to go to work so its only right that you should stay with me" she said brushing my hair lightly with her hands.
She had a smile on her face which slightly vanished when she looked at my expression.
"Don't worry, Millie and the twins will be with us too" she said.
"No but mom-" I said.
"What? You don't want to stay with me?" She asked, hurt visible on her face.
"Its not like that mom, I just want to go back to my home, to my room and dad would be gone for a few hours, I could-"
"Eight am in the morning to eight am at night is not a few hours" she said sternly.
"Then you could come over when he's not there-"
"Eva my desicion is final, I am not having another word about it, end of discussion." She said standing up.
I was about to say something else, something that might change her mind and she lets us stay with dad but the door flew open and the twins ran in.
"EVA" they shouted jumping on me.
"Slowly, carefully, we are going to act like we are human's" said my mom as they hugged me tightly.
At the door my dad walked in with Millie in his hands, a smile on his face. He gave Millie to me and I hugged her.
"I missed you" she said every word clearly.
I leaned back and lookes at the three of them. I was told I had gone for almost a month. They have grown up so much in that time, it made me realise how much I have missed.
"I missed you too" I said to Millie and kissed her before I could start crying.
Mom and dad came and sat on either side of me while the twins and Millie started talking all at once. Millie was telling me stories of her barbie dolls while the twins told me about their countless adventure, how they managed to fool the cafeteria women into giving them more food. I snuggled in between my family, closing my eyes as I listened to their voices and for the first time felt like a part of a whole family.
...............................
I had just come back from the washroom, even this much exertion was exhausting for me. I leaned back in the bed and took deeo breaths, my body was aching as the spot where I was shot started to hurt. I was so weak that you could see the whole pattern of veins in me.
The nurse who had come to check up on me and had helped me to go to the washroom was now gone. I was shot just below my heart. The doctor said I was lucky that I didn't get shot in the heart or head or spinal cord. There was bandages wrapped around where Rick had stabbed me with the knife on both arms. It was the huge amount of blood lost from here that caused me to stay unconsious for this long.
All in all I was lucky to have survived all this without a permenant injury of any sort.
I was about to drift off to sleep when the door burst open and my friends stepped in.
"Welcome back" they all shouted with big smiles on their faces.
I laughed looking at the balloons and party caps they were wearing. Ally was the first one to come hug me and of course she started to cry.
"I missed you so much" she said and held on to me for ten whole minutes before everyone started whining about their turn.
"You should have broken a leg instead of getting shot, I would have drawed such amazing things on your plast" said Claud as he hugged me.
"Ignore that" said Nina smiling.
"Its so good to have you back" she said as she hugged me tightly.
Mason sat next to me after hugging me, I placed my head on his shoulder as everyone sat around me.
"So? What did I miss?" I asked and they all started talking.
Mason and Ally are friends again, Miss Jean is finally getting married, Caroline has left again and surprisingly Ally and Drake are still together. After a while they all started talking among themselves, I leaned towards Ally who was sitting on my left side and whispered.
"Where is Drake?"
She turned to look at me and smiled.
"If you're asking about Carter then I don't know" she said with a smile.
I nodded, blushing slightly at being caught by her. It happens every single time.
"You know he was really worries about you, I never knew you meant this much to him" said Ally seriously.
I found a smile coming on my face as I remembered a sweet memory. The moment Carter said he loved me. Even though I wasn't fully awake and couldn't see him, I still remember everything about that moment. How he had cried and admitted to his feelings about me.
Cause that moment was supposed to be felt rather than seen.
"What are you smiling about?" Asked Ally a smile appearing on her face too.
"Its just good to be back" I said.
She nodded and hugged me for a hundreth time.
"It is really good to have you back"
As she pulled away the door to the room opened. We all looked in its direction and saw Carter standing in the dooway. His eyes travelling from everyone else and settling on me. The relief on his face eminent.
"Hey Carter, we were about to leave" said Ally standing up.
.................................
Maybe its my new found obsession with cliffhangers or I am scared to write Eva and Carter's part after last chapter. Anyways here you have a chapter in which Eva is FINALLY awake. We all have missed her haven't we?
Hope you like it and tell me what you think, your comments are officially my favourite thing in the world. I also want to thank you all for the love that you gave for the last chapter. It makes me soo happy.
Also how many of you think the end is near?? I won't say anything in fear I would give out too much.
COMMENT AND VOTE.