Aslan Callenreese
15 (and 17) Aug. 2018
Opening my eyes doesn't feel like waking up.
My head feels foggy, my thoughts all scrambled and upside down. My thoughts aren't the only things that are completely twisted and turned, but my vision is also warped.
I look into a dark room, but my vision is white and blurred at the edges. But even though everything is very out of focus, I almost immediately recognized the black haired nurse sitting by my bed.
He's cradling a cup of coffee, and his eyes seem to be ringed with black circles.
How late it is? I wonder, when I realize that my room must be pitch black because the curtains are drawn, which they almost only do during the night. Why is Eiji still here?
I open my mouth, hoping to ask him what on earth he's still doing in the hospital; he should be lying in bed and sleeping for hours by now, or I think so at least. No sound comes out of my mouth, just a faint breathing that Eiji seems to hear.
He looks up and his eyes meet mine almost right away.
He leans closer, whispering, "You're awake, Ash?" before laying his hand on my shoulder. His touch is barely noticeable, but I hear his voice loud and clear. I also manage to nod; I'm able to move.
Eiji's face, I would kill to see it again; he looks so happy, so relieved, before uttering a cheerful "yes!". At first I'm a little confused about why he's so glad about me waking up in the middle of the night, but then everything that happened a few hours ago hits me.
I could've died.
I was brought under general anesthesia and I could've passed away because of it. Of course Eiji's happy to see that I'm awake and responding. And I share the same happiness as him now that I know that I pulled through, that I survived a surgery that could've been fatal.
"You must be exhausted," Eiji says after a while. "Do you want to rest a little longer?"
I close my eyes briefly, inhaling the air that's clearly coming from a mask; I'm not tired enough to want to deal with my nightmares just yet. When I open my eyes, my vision is less blurred and I'm able to see Eiji better. He's glaring into my eyes, awaiting an answer.
I focus all my strength on my voice and manage to whisper, "Read to me." It hurts to speak and for a second I don't have the slightest clue whether Eiji even heard me or not.
Fortunately he nods and grabs one of the books that Shorter and he got me for my birthday. It's one of the first fictional stories I'll be reading, and I'm curious to what makes people love these books more than non-fiction. Eiji bought it because it has an audio book, but Eiji doesn't take the headphones and MP3-player from my cabinet.
Instead he sits down beside my bed, opens the books and clears his throat. "Dusty, empty shoe boxes, stacked taller and wider than her slim body, wobbled as she presses her back against them, tucking her bony knees into her chest." His reading voice is softer than his normal speaking volume, giving the scene something tense. "Breathe. Just breathe. Breathe. Wedged in the back of the dingy closet, she didn't dare make a sound as she sucked her lower lip between her teeth."
I wonder which book it is, since the letters on the cover are too blurry to read. I also wonder if he's read this book before, but I doubt he has since he sometimes seems to stumble over certain words.
"Focusing on forcing every grimy breath into her lungs, she felt tears well in her eyes."
Eiji glances up at me, and as our eyes meet he smiles lightly; it's so cute when he does that and his cheeks turn all pink and there's little dimples in his cheeks.
YOU ARE READING
Fate Carries You Away; Drifting Further and Further
Fanfiction"You call it B1 or by its long Latin name. And me? I call it how my brother called it; Banana Fish." ❀ Medical attention and drugs are just for a more comfortable road to death. Ash has been at the hospital for long enough to know they won't lengthe...
