War Zones and Paradise

Chapter Five, Part One - Romeo and Juliet

"Mom?"

I ran forward, further into the void of nothingness. All around I could hear her voice, the endless, echoing whisper that called my name, and told me to run.

"Run from what? I-I can't see you! Mom!"

Frantic, I turned around and around, walking on the black, breathing in the black, lost and aching in the darkness. I hurt all over. The pain was never-ending.

"Careful," cautioned a different, louder voice. "Can she see the light?"

I opened my eyes, floating into a mist of flashing white.

"Hey, look! She's coming to! She's coming to!"

"Aaliyah!"

"Aaliyah, look into the camera, darling! The camera!"

Groggy from pain and confusion, I heard the voices, saw the faces swimming in and out, but none of them was familiar. I tried to speak, coughing violently on the blockage in my throat. Reaching up, I felt the tube in my mouth - and panicked.

Suddenly, I was falling all over again...

I felt the bounce, heard the crunch of my own body as it thudded against the ground.

Dizzy, tripped out of my mind on the pain and shock, I watched the legs headed toward me, fingertips weakly tracing the boot in my face...

Darkness.

This time, when I floated from the in-between, I knew it wasn't a dream.

Tyler was standing at the foot of my bed, arguing with a man in a long white coat. Something was in nose was blowing cold air that dried out my throat, and something else was beeping constantly in my ear. Sitting up at an angle, I turned my head to the right, staring at the heart monitor, drowning in it's rhythm...

"Paparazzi? In my girlfriend's hospital room? And you're 'sorry'? Are you kidding me? It's disgusting! I want the name of the nurse who dismissed security. You fire or her or I'll sue when those pictures come out." 

"Mr. Moore, I can assure you--"

"I don't want you to assure me. Aaliyah almost died. I want you to do it. Now."

"Tyler... Don't." Stunned to silence, he and the doctor could only stare. Breath hitching from the pain, I sat up, with the progress of a snail. "Where?" I could only whisper. My throat was on fire.

Tyler came to my side, pulling up a chair. "Weill Cornell." He took my hand, pressing it to his lips as he closed his eyes. His tears dripped on my skin. "Jesus Christ, you scared the fucking shit out of me."

I groaned. "My throat."

Tyler exhaled. "You had a breathing tube." His chin wobbled as he exhaled. 

I faltered, struggling to swallow. "Why am I floating?"

"That would be the drugs." Tyler's laugh was hollow with relief. He squeezed my hand, the other brushing the hair from my face.

Licking my lips, I winced at the stinging cracks. "What happened?"

"I don't know," he whispered back, red eyes swollen and filling with new tears. "The doctors say you fell."

"Off the balcony..." I started, closing my eyes at the jolt in my stomach as I relived the moment I had slipped...

The sliding glass door opened and closed...

"A'keem?"

Tyler stood, leaning over the hospital bed and kissing my forehead. 

"Miss Preston?" I could hear the doctor, but the tears blurred his outline. "My name is Doctor Bell. I'm the attending physician, and you're at the hospital okay?"