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The first thing she registered was the immense pain in her chest and head, the next was her dry throat, and the last thing was the darkness.
Arabella couldn't even see her own hands in front of her, but she could hear and feel her phone buzzing somewhere close on the wet asphalt. It didn't emit any light however.
She used a couple of seconds fumbling around for it before she found it. "Hallo?"
"Arabella, hey, it's Karen! Raoul called me! I'm with your grandmother she's okay, we brought her to the hospital!" Arabella sighed relieved to hear those words.
"Thank god.."
"I uhm, I can't get ahold of Matt.. you haven't talked to him have you? Foggy is really worried.." Arabella coughed as she slowly sat up. "Wait, a-are you alright?"
"Actually, I went out to look for my abuela.." Arabella looked around her for any sources of light at all. "–Yea, Raoul told me. He's really worried too. You should give him a call.." Karen sounded concerned.
"The thing is, I took a short cut, and ended up in an alley nearby one of the explosions I think.." Arabella felt the knot in her throat tighten as she began crying. "I-I don't know where I am Karen, b-but it's really dark everywhere, and my phone screen is broken and I-I think the building must have collapsed.." She sniffled as she listened to a series of panicked muffled voices coming from her phone. "H-hallo?"
"Hey Bells, it's Foggy. Are you hurt?" Arabella let a hand softly touch the back of her head. It came away sticky. "I'm bleeding from my head, I think I hit it when the explosion happened. I-I can't see how bad it is." The sharp intake of air that Foggy came with wasn't reassuring at all.
"Do you have find my phone installed? If you can activate it, it'll be a lot quicker to find you." Foggy suggested. Arabella looked down to where her phone should've been lighting up the pitch black room for her. "I don't know if I can. The screen is broken. It's just black."
"Use the a.i system then." Arabella wanted to cry out in frustration. "Yea, alright, I'll try."
Arabella held the home button down till the sound indicating it was ready taking instructions came. "Activate, find my phone."
"Find my phone ac-ti-va-ted." Arabella smiled, when she realised she'd be safe soon. "Share location with Foggy."
"Location shared." The relieved sound that escaped Foggy made Arabella smile.
"I know where you are. I'll be there in a couple of minutes. Just hang in there." The beep that indicated Foggy had hung up sounded and Arabella tiredly breathed out.
"You okay?" Arabella turned around, frightened by the voice coming from somewhere in the darkness. "Who's there?!" She called out scrambling to her feet. Her balance was clearly put off by her lack of sight in the darkness.
"You can't see me?" The voice asked confused, Arabella furrowed her brows. "No it's pitch black in here how should I? D-do I know you?" She said clutching her phone tightly in her hand for some sense of security.
"Arabella, it's me, it's Matt."
"Matt?" Arabella repeated confused. "What're you doing here? Were you caught in the explosion as well? Are you hurt?" She asked quickly fumbling her way to where she heard his voice, relieved she wasn't alone in the darkness anymore.
"I'm alright. What about you?" He asked. Something about the way he asked made her worried. He sounded like he knew something she didn't. "I-Uh, my phone's screen is broken and I think I hit my head when the building collapsed, it's bleeding. But that's no surprise really, I was right by the explosion when it happened."
"Maybe you should sit down." Matt's right hand found her left upper arm giving it a soft squeeze. "What? Why? I'm not dizzy." Arabella stated looking in the spot she knew he stood in right in front of her.
Matt took a deep breath before he began trying to explain, "We're outside in an alleyway. The building didn't collapse." Arabella looked around with a raised eyebrow as fear began bubbling up in her chest. "Wha-.. but it's pitch black, Matt what do you mean it didn't collapse?" Arabella was only answered by silence as she wracked her brain for possible answers, none of them which where good.
As she stood there, she began noticing the cold breeze playing with her hair, and the sounds around her. It didn't sound or feel like a closed off room, it sounded and felt like outside.
Matt was right? But if he was right.. then..
"If we're outside then why can't I see you?" Arabella felt the lump in her throat tighten as she pushed Matt's hand off of her. "Matt, why can't I see you!" Arabella yelled panicked blinking and wiping at her eyes as she took a couple of stumbling steps backwards.
Matt listened to her erratic breathing as he slowly approached her, "Hey, it'll be alright. I'm right here.." Carefully he wrapped his arms around her, she thrashed for a second before going still and submitting as sobs racked through her body. He could taste the salt from her tears in the air and feel the vibrations from her heart beating violently and rapidly in her ribcage.
"Why I can't see."
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"It's caused by the swelling of her brain and the blood in the occipital lobe area. It's the back-part of the brain that does the seeing. The swelling is also squeezing her optic nerve." Raoul looked away from the doctor and through the glass door at a sleeping Arabella. He was worried sick about her. "But that means it's only temporary right?" His voice was shaking a bit and it made Chris hold him a little closer just to comfort.
The doctor sighed, "There's a possibility that she'll eventually be able to see again yes." It was almost like he didn't want to give them that little sliver of hope to hold onto Matt noted focusing on his somber tone.
"Do you know how long?" Matt asked his sunglass covered gaze angled down towards the floor. He felt the doctor's eyes scanning him.
Foggy had met Arabella and Matt halfway and absolutely panicked when Matt caught him up. The ER was an absolute mess of people who'd gotten hurt in the explosions in Hell's Kitchen. Luckily most injuries were smaller ones and Arabella had been taken in pretty quickly. The doctors were a bit confused though when Matt with his white cane in hand explained to them that she couldn't see.
"Weeks, months, it all depends on how well her body heals and if the swelling has caused any permanent damage." Elena let one of her bandaged hands cover her mouth in worry and sorrow over the doctor's reply. She didn't want her sweet little Bella to loose her sight, just the thought brought her to tears on her little girl's behalf.
"Shit." Raoul hissed kicking the ground in anger after a while. If Arabella lost her sight their whole career was ruined. The career they'd worked so hard for, everything would be ruined. And all he could was blame himself for not trying harder to keep her from running head first into danger. It was all his fault.
The doctor sighed yet again looking at the huge group of people standing outside this woman's door, all worried sick and each wondering if they could've done anything at all to prevent this situation they were now all standing in. "Your friend was lucky. Being in an explosion like that, she could've easily been brain dead the second her head hit the asphalt, or in a coma." He said trying to look on the bright side. But as soon as the words left his mouth, he realised they might not have been that positive.
"We know.." Foggy replied sadly. And he was right. They were all happy that nothing worse had happened. But Arabella wasn't out of the danger zone yet. Things could still go bad if the swelling or bleeding continued. "–when will she be discharged?" Karen asked seeming deep in thought.
The doctor looked at her surprised. "One or two days time probably. As I said earlier it depends on a lot of things. We have to make sure the swelling is actually going down and not getting worse. If we discharge her too early and it gets worse and she's not here where we can get to immediately operate on her and monitor it, she will die." Karen turned to Elena with a small smile and a bright lightbulb over her head. "Ms. Cardenas, I think we should arrange for her to stay with Matt when she's discharged. He can be a mentor of sorts, and then you can get to heal without having to look after another person as well."
"That's a great idea Karen!" Foggy stated excitedly. Elena nodded agreeing too before looking to Matt for his consent to this. Matt feeling their eyes on him quickly smiled. "Sure, I enjoyed her company before. How much more trouble could she be blind."
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Short chapter I know. But it's better than nothing, and next chapter is going to be so fun to write! Hope you enjoy!
This chapter is dedicated to Moonwolf.