Chapter 29

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The first thing I heard were voices. They began to grow louder and louder, sounding garbled until I was finally able to make out what they were saying.

"...How long she's been out again?" The first voice I heard was asking.

A quiet sigh. "About three days now."

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat, then silence again.

"Our hope with the medically induced coma is that her body would have an easier time healing, but I also don't want to get your hopes up. Your daughter really took a beating out there on the road, followed by the poison too. Her skull was fractured when she fell and her leg was broke when she got hit by that car."

It sounded as if someone was now... crying?

"So what exactly are you saying, doctor?"

"What I'm saying, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng, is that there is a chance your daughter may never wake up. We will do everything we can, but we need her to fight just as hard."

"But she..." The voice cracked with another sob. "She has to wake up. She has to. She can't just... j-just..."

I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't, as though bricks were weighing down my eyelids. It hurt to even try to move, but I had to stop the crying, I had to help. I needed to open my eyes.

I don't know how long I fought to see, but I was met with a blinding light as my eyelids finally slid open. I groaned from the pain that shot across my cheeks as I winced. There must have been something wrong with my face.

I was in a small, cramped room, on a narrow bed with scratchy sheets. A hospital bed, I quickly realized. The walls were a shade of white that seemed faded from years of patients coming in and out. There was a mess of machines surrounding the bed that were making all sorts of noises, my left leg was covered in a cast and propped up on a pillow. There was an assortment of tubes taped all over my right hand, and something was binding my chest, making it difficult to breathe.

Slumped over in a chair beside the bed, fast asleep, was my mother, looking disheveled and far from put-together woman I knew her to be. Lying on the couch underneath the window was my father, looking just as exhausted as my mother, even while he was unconscious.

I tried to move my hand to reach out and touch my mom's arm, but that was even more difficult than opening my eyes had been.

It took several moments of telling my brain that I needed to move my mouth to be able to speak. When everything somehow managed to click into place and I could actually get a sound out, my voice sounded raspy and out of use.

"M-M-Mom..."

My mother's eyes flew open and she shot up like a rocket in her chair, lunging forward to grasp my hand. "Oh, thank God, Marinette, you're awake," she gasped. "You've been out for days, I thought— Tom! Tom, wake up!"

She reached around and slapped my dad on the leg, giving him a shake. "Marinette's awake!"

My dad sat up immediately, blinking the sleep from his eyes. A look of total relief spread across his face as he looked at me. "You're awake," he said, quickly getting to his feet, coming to the bedside. "It's so good to see your eyes open, Marinette."

I was even more confused now. "Was I asleep for a long time?" I asked slowly.

My dad sighed, reaching out to gently place his hand over mine. "About three days now."

"Honey..." My mom squeezed my hand gently. I didn't tell her that it hurt. It seemed to be doing something to calm her down. "You were poisoned and then a car... it..."

𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐑, miraculous auOnde as histórias ganham vida. Descobre agora