The Waitress

18 - Still Coping

She gasped, her eyes flying open. There was red in her vision. More orange. The more she looked at it, the more it changed until suddenly it wasn't red or orange, but white.

There was a loud beeping somewhere to her right, and she widened her eyes, eyebrows creased in fear as the beeping got louder and louder and faster and faster. She didn't know where she was; all she remembered was fire. It raked at the corners of her mind painfully, etching the agony into scars that would last for a lifetime and more.

There was something on her face; something covering her mouth. Her vision was blurry so she couldn't see anything but white, but the thing on her face – a mask of some sorts – was helping her... breathe. But why did she need help breathing?

She began to panic as her eyes slowly adjusted to the white, making everything clearer by the second. There was a roof; she was looking up at a roof. Her gaze flickered downwards, her heart thumping fast. The roof was attached to a wall to her left, which was also attached to a window. Beyond the glass of the window it was bright and blurry; she didn't bother trying to adjust to that.

Her eyes suddenly caught onto someone; a figure, with a face and a nose. They had eyes as well; two of them, in fact.

"Ms. Dalton?" the figure asked, calmness in its voice. "Ms. Dalton, can you hear me?"

She focused on breathing slowly. Panicking was no good, she knew this, so she instead focused on controlling the oxygen in her lungs. She breathed out slowly and calmly, and the figure nodded her head with a gentle smile. Oh, her mind was clearing out; the figure was a woman, with hair and everything.

"That's it dear, just breathe," the woman told her. "Now, Ms. Dalton; nod if you can hear me."

Who was Ms. Dalton? Was that her? Was that her name? But that didn't sound right; Dalton didn't sound right to her. But she nodded nonetheless, slowly and uncertainly but definitely.

The woman tilted her head to one side. "I know this is all a bit confusing for you, okay? You're in a hospital; can you nod if you remember what happened?"

She hesitated, then shook her head. She hardly knew her first name, and apparently, her surname was 'Dalton'. What was a Dalton? Was it an animal?

"That's alright," the woman murmured, looking down at her clipboard. "It will come back to you, just give it time. I'm going to go consult your doctor; I'll be leaving you now. I think your brother wanted to see you anyway, so I'll let him in to keep you company."

She didn't say anything. Did she have a brother? If so, maybe he could tell her what was going on. Maybe he could tell her what had happened and why she was being called some kind of Dalton animal.

The woman left. She lay in the comfortable bed, and then reached her hand up to her face. She felt a mask, something big and firm that clung to the bottom half of her face. The air it provided was refreshing, but she took it off nonetheless. The air around her was still breathable.

Another figure wandered into the room; there were curtains, but they were pushed to the wall by the figure who'd made themselves known to her.

"Oh, you're awake," the figure said, scratching his head. Oh, there you go; it was a man. He was young, good-looking. For some reason, he seemed nervous.

She frowned and looked down at herself. "Uh," she murmured, her voice muffled and croaky. "I'm pretty sure this is what it feels like." She looked up again as the young guy sat in the chair beside her, and something flashed through her mind; an image of the same person, sitting in a... bus? She blinked sharply as more images filtered in and out; some of a couple that looked old enough to be her parents, and some looked young enough to be her siblings. And then she looked at the young guy sitting in front of her, and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.