When I opened my eyes, the room was dark. The lights had been turned off and the only sound in the room was Zak snoring.
I looked to my side. There he was, holding my hand and resting his head on the edge of my bed. I looked around the room; Billy was in the corner, Aaron in the rocking chair, and Jay was nowhere to be seen.
I felt really groggy. I couldn't remember anything. I just sat there in the hospital bed trying to figure out why I was there in the first place. Then it dawned on me.
It was as if I had been hit with a wrecking ball full of memories. They all just came back at once. I could remember being taken, and being locked in the trunk, and the dessert, but I couldn't remember what happened that led to being in the hospital.
As I was trying to process everything, Jay walked into the room with his hands full of snacks. At first, he didn't even realize I was watching him, but when he opened the first bag of chips I broke the silence.
"Mind passing me one?" I asked. He immediately froze and slowly looked up. When he saw me smiling at him, a giant grin overcame his face.
"Charlie!" he yelled. The noise woke up the rest of the gang, Zak was last. When he rose his head up, he had drool all over his mouth.
I laughed. His eyes immediately widened when he saw me looking down at him.
"Charlie?" he asked. Then he realized he wasn't dreaming. "CHARLIE!" he screamed and tackled me in a hug. When I winced, he let go straight away.
"Oh shit, I didn't meant to-"
"What is going on?" even though I generally knew what had happened, there were a few parts of the story I couldn't remember.
He looked at me with a strange expression. "You- You don't remember?"
I blankly stared at him. "The last thing I remember is standing in the middle of a desert with Jeff pointing a gun at m-" I slowly trailed off and pulled down my hospital nightgown to expose the healing wound on my chest. The healing scar on my chest was the only confirmation I needed.
"He shot me? Wha- How?"
My heart rate raised a small amount due to me being upset.
"Okay. You need to calm down because the last thing I need to hear is that damn heart monitor beeping again"
I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Heart monitor? What are you talking about?"
He sighed and grabbed my hand. "You were shot in the desert. The bullet grazed your heart and collapsed your lung; you died Charlie, multiple times"
Now was when I got the chance to look around and see everyone faces. They all looked like they hadn't gotten a proper sleep in a very long time, and all had small stubbles growing on their faces. I just stared at them without saying a word.
"You died and came back to life, but nobody knew. You were in the morgue for seven hours before anyone discovered you were alive" I was star struck.
"I didn't think you were gonna wake up" he held my hand tighter. "I thought we had lost you forever"
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It had been a few hours since I had woken up, and all my doctors were shocked. After that, I was told they wanted to keep me under observation for a few days and that I had to stay in bed until then. Zak did not want to leave the room in fear that I would go into a coma again.
I was so sick of sitting in that damn bed, so once he got up to go to the washroom, I stood up and left. My legs had been a little stiff since the last time I used them; so walking was more difficult and much harder than usual.
As I wandered the corridors, something about walking around them seemed all too familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out why.
"Help me! Help me!" someone yelled throughout the halls.
I looked around me, but I couldn't see anyone that needed help.
"Please somebody help me!"
I looked at all the people who were in the same hallway as me, but they obviously weren't hearing the same thing that I was; they were just continuing on with whatever they were doing. I kept looking around me, and then I saw a little boy running down the hallway going to each person and asking if they could help him, but no one was acknowledging his presence. That was when he saw me, staring right at him. He ran up to me and stopped right in front of me.
"You can see me?" he asked. He was fiddling with the end of his dinosaur hospital gown with his tiny little fingers.
I nodded as she shyly looked up at me.
He had small tears forming in his brown eyes. "I'm lost. I can't find my mommy or daddy... Can you help me find them?"
I weakly smiled and nodded, then knelt down to his height. "Hold the end of my gown okay?" He nodded.
I had a small inclination of what was going on, but I had to be sure. The only way I was going to know was if I followed the alarms.
We went to the pediatric ward and followed the sound of the beeping. As we rounded a corner, we began to see multiple doctors running in and out of one particular room.
"That's my room!" the boy said excitedly. He let go of my gown and ran into his room, unaware of what was going on. I didn't even stop him; I just cautiously followed him and met him at the doorway. We watched as two parents held each other for dear life as they cried over their dying son. The father had his arms wrapped around the mother as she fought him. She was sobbing and screaming, but only a few tears ran down the fathers face as he looked away from the events occurring before them.
The two little boys before me looked different. The boy who was once holding my gown had golden brown hair and tan skin with glowing brown eyes. The boy in the bed was completely different. His hair was shaven on one side, exposing a fresh surgery scar. His skin was ghostly white, and his bones were far more evident.
"I thought it was a dream" he whispered. He walked up to his parents and hugged their legs, but they didn't even notice, they were too busy mourning. My heart dropped to my stomach in sadness. They had no idea that their little boy was right there, saying goodbye forever. I knew I had to say something no matter how crazy they thought it sounded.
"Excuse me" I interrupted. They just looked up at me with their red and swollen eyes.
"I don't want to sound crazy, but your son wants to say goodbye" They both just looked at me with blank stares. Then the mother abruptly stood up and marched over to me with her hand raised. Just as she was about to slap me, her son yelled the words pickles and raspberries, and so I just repeated them. She immediately paused, practically freezing mid-air.
"What did you just say?" yet another tear began to form in the corner of her eye.
"Uh, pickles and raspberries. Your son just told me to yell those two words" she fell to her knees right after that, her husband came to her rescue right away.
"What else did he say?" she asked.
I looked at him, and he told me exactly what to tell them. "He wanted to say that it was him who stole your ruby necklace from your jewelry box, he just wanted it because red was his favorite-"
"Color" she finished. I nodded.
"He said it's in his dinosaur bucket" she smiled at his hiding place.
"What else? What else is he saying?" she begged.
He walked up to his mother and stood right in front of her.
"I'm sorry mommy, but I have to go" he cried. The doorway to his room brightened and glowed. I watched as he reluctantly walked into it; the brightness vanishing along with him. You could immediately feel that he was gone.
I gave her a half-smile. "He loves you more than anything, but he has to go, he has to move on"
She began sobbing again. I knelt next to her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"He's safe now. He's not stuck here anymore" she looked up at me and sadly smiled.
"He was safe with me"
I opened my mouth to reply, but then I heard someone call my name.
"There you are Charlie!" Zak burst into the room. When he noticed the two parents sobbing and the dead boy in the hospital bed, his composure completely changed.
I nodded a goodbye, which the father returned. Then I walked out with Zak, but not before the mother stopped him and repeatedly pointed at me. I wanted to hear what they were saying, but I was too far away.
Zak then shook her hand, smiled, and walked toward me. "What was that about?" I asked.
"That doesn't matter right now, what matters is that you walked out. Have you forgotten that you were shot and just got out of a coma? Or did you not think?" he said angrily.
Saying he was mad was an understatement. He was obviously trying to play it cool as we walked back to my room, but his face was slowly turning red.
Once we made it back to my room he closed the door behind him. The look on his face terrified me and instantly sent me into a flashback of the night we spent at the Haunted Museum. I stepped away from him and cowered.
"Charlie?" he asked and stepped closer to me.
I stepped father back. "Please don't hurt me" I whimpered.
"Charlie what's going on? You know I would never hurt you" he said.
The fear I was experiencing caused a panic attack, and with that my heart began beating too fast for its weak self. I started blacking out when he instantly realized what was happening.
"Nurse! NURSE!" he called.
A nurse rushed in and helped me to my bed. She immediately reinserted me with the IV I had pulled out earlier and injected something else into its tube; then I blacked out to the sound of Zak's worried cries.