Romancing the Demon Lady

Chapter 023: Asleep or Dead

Chapter 023: Asleep or Dead

            Ouch.

             Those were my famous last words before I blacked out into oblivion. After that, I was pretty confident of the fact that I was dead.

            Or was I?

            Obviously, I was not. However, that was the first thought that popped into my unconscious mind before I had the mind to realize that I was still very much alive but not really kicking. Well, even though I was still breathing for the most part, I also couldn't ignore the fact that I was also badly bruised, severely broken and unluckily comatose for an indefinite period of time. Let's just say that the chances of my becoming a permanent vegetable were much higher compared to a zombie apocalypse ever happening. And that was certainly not a good thing.

            With all the injuries I was somewhat aware I may have sustained from the car crash, I was kind of surprised and amazed that I did not feel any pain at all. Of course, I've read or heard somewhere before that the human brain could only tolerate so much pain that it would need to completely shut down as a fail-safe device to protect the human body from enduring all of it. I've always wondered if that were true but I guess I should begin to learn the lesson of being careful for whatever it is that I wish for.

            In the end, I was still alive but not really living. I could have likened myself to a zombie but that would make me bloody, ugly and decaying. Safe to say, when you're on a comatose state, you're almost as good as dead but you're breathing loud enough not to get buried six feet under.

            Don't get me wrong, I was both relieved and grateful to know that I was still breathing and had full control of my thoughts and feelings. However, likewise, I was terrified of being locked like a prisoner inside my own mind, unable to voice out my feelings and move even my tiniest finger. I just couldn't wait to wake up again but then again, I'm also dreading the moment I could finally see light flash before my eyes.

            To be honest, I was quite afraid to see myself. How bad was it?

             "How bad is it?"

             It was almost I could feel the billions of my neurons rapidly firing up at the sound of his familiar voice. Byron's voice, though I sensed was full concern, had the same deep and slightly husky tone that matched perfectly with his adorable English accent. Just hearing him so close to me, I wanted to jump up and reach out to him but it was too futile. My mind was too far away from my body. I didn't have any control at all.

             "Pretty bad," I heard my older brother Aiden answer to him. With the clarity of his words, I imagined him seating very close to me and maybe even holding my hand. Too bad, I couldn't feel any of it.

            "Broken ribs, punctured lung, and slight damage to the liver and kidneys. Her organs almost failed but they managed to patch them up on time," Evan described my case in detail.

            "But that's not really the problem. The trauma to her brain was very severe. They operated on her already. They say they've done what they could and that all we could do now is wait."

            "It's been more than twenty-four hours," Byron stated with dread and worry. "How long are we supposed to wait?"

            "As long as it takes," I heard Caleb's voice of firm resolve from a distance.

            Perhaps Byron was nodding lightly when he replied, "Mage is a fighter. She'll come back to us. To all of us."

            To me.  The way his voice seemed to silently linger on made me feel as if those were his words that he wanted to say to me next. The way his thumb drew small circles on the back of my hand said as much.