The Unkillable Girl - [ONC 2024]

5. I see you

The darkness faded as Amelia's soul nestled back inside her body. When her eyes fluttered open, she could feel herself choking. Her hands thrashed around her face in a wild panic until her fingertips connected with a tube that was sticking out from her mouth.

She tightly grasped the tube and tugged on it. Coughing and spluttering as the tube slid out from her throat. She sat up to the sound of alarms going off loudly all around her.

With her mind full of foggy confusion, Amelia looked around. She found herself in a large, dimly lit room filled with two rows of hospital beds and machines. Next to her, a ventilator was flashing red and beeping loudly.

At the end of the room, the doors crashed open and a nurse came rushing in.

"Page Dr Parker," she called out over her shoulder, before she carried on into the room.

The nurse switched off the alarms before turning to look at Amelia.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay? We didn't expect you to wake up so soon."

Amelia tried to reply, but her brain was still made of spaghetti.

"I was sent back," she said, in a slurred voice.

Another figure approached her through the darkness. An older woman, wearing a white coat. She had a bright light in her hand, which she shined in Amelia's eyes. Flicking side to side as she stared at her.

"Do you remember how you got here?" Dr Parker asked. "You fell from the roof, you should have died."

The bright light that was flashing in her eyes made it harder for Amelia to think. "Can't die. I'm immortal."

"Well, we can sometimes feel like that when we are younger and take unnecessary risks," said Dr Parker, as she turned to look at the screens next to the bed.

"No, really," Amelia said, forcefully. She had to fight through the fog to make the doctor understand. "My soul got blocked on the path to heaven. It's not my time for judgement, the angel sent me back. He told me I'm immortal now."

Dr Parker turned and peered over the top of her glasses at Amelia. "You actually believe you are immortal. That's why you were on the roof?"

"Yes! I'm on a mission from God."

"I see..." Dr Parker said, before she turned to whisper to the nurse. "Can you page Dr Stone for a psych consult."

"Well, maybe it wasn't actually God. I'm not sure He knows about me," said Amelia, as she laid back down in the bed. "Well, I mean obviously He knows about me, He's like omnipotent or whatever. I just mean like it wasn't Him that sent me back to earth, it was this other guy. I don't think he was an angel, but he was dressed in white, so I'm not sure."

"Okay. You just settle down and we will take care of you," said Dr Parker.

"Yeah, yeah... Oh, you're right. I need to get my strength back if I'm going to be a hero."

"Yes, well you can do that just as soon as we have made sure you are safe," said Dr Parker.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city...

A tuneful voice cut through billowing clouds of steam. The bright melody echoed and reverberated off the bathroom walls, and made the sound deeper and richer.

The singing ended abruptly at the same time as the stream of water was turned off. The clouds of steam dissipated slightly as Darius stepped out of the shower.

Droplets of water trickled down over his dark skin as he stepped out onto the cold floor. Their path downwards twisted and turned over his toned musculature. The droplets tickled and caressed his skin as they danced their way down his legs to the floor.

Darius silently cursed the condensation on the mirror that prevented him from the chance to gaze at his enticing reflection.

But was it wrong to find yourself so attractive? Darius didn't really care. He thought he was hot, and every other guy agreed. And probably a lot of women would think the same, but he wasn't really interested in them.

All the hours in the gym had paid off. To look at him now it was like Michaelangelo's David had been carved from obsidian rather than marble. The perfect specimen of manhood.

Darius was interrupted from his reverie by the sound of the phone ringing from the next room. He quickly wrapped a towel around his waist, then hurried out the bathroom. He had to answer it as soon as possible, it could be his agent calling.

He picked up the phone and saw it was a number he didn't recognise. Disappointedly, he answered anyway.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Darius Daniels? We have you down as next of kin for Miss Amelia Jones."

"Err, yes. That's right," said Darius.

Of course, the hospital, he thought. It made sense that they would contact him. And the fact that he was still listed as Amelia's next of kin, it triggered a memory for him.

A year earlier, when Amelia had first moved into the apartment across the hall from him. She had somehow managed to put her hand through the bathroom mirror. When Darius had taken her to the hospital, he had to help fill out the forms for her. She had told him that she didn't have any family, so Darius just wrote his own name down for her emergency contact. They had been good friends ever since.

"Is Amelia ok?" Darius asked.

The last time he had seen her was two days ago, when she had fallen off the roof. By the time he got down, she had been rushed off to the emergency room. He had stayed in the waiting area until the next morning while she was moved to the ICU. But then she wasn't allowed visitors while she was in there, so the nurse had told him to go home.

"She's just regained consciousness. We are in the process of moving her from the ICU and into a secure ward now. We just needed you as her next of kin to come in and sign some forms."

"So she's okay? Can I come see her?" Darius asked, with a touch of concern.

"Physically she seems unhurt, apart from a fractured wrist. But we have some concerns that she might be a danger to herself, that's why we want to keep her in hospital for a while longer."

Darius quickly thought back to the last time he had seen Amelia. Some of the things she had said had been a bit weird, and the way she had climbed over the fence without thinking of the danger.

"You want to have her committed?" he asked.

"If you could just come back to the hospital, we would prefer to discuss these things in person."

Darius paused thoughtfully for a moment. "I'll see you soon," he said.

After tossing his phone to the side, Darius sat on the couch in quiet contemplation. That conversation had sounded serious. It made him worried. Amelia had always been accident prone, but this was something different.

There was something in her past that she had never opened up about. Something that had happened to her before she had moved to California. But anytime he had tried to ask, she had always changed the subject. Now he regretted the fact that he had never been brave enough to push her to tell the truth.

Had this darkness now bubbled up to the surface, Darius wondered. And if it had, did he really have to be the one responsible for deciding if she should be committed? The thought weighed heavy on his shoulders.

Darius stood up and sighed. He couldn't really avoid this. He had to go to the hospital now and help Amelia in any way she needed.

Shaking his head, Darius headed off to his bedroom to get dressed.