Spotlight

37

I'm going to add a trigger warning for this chapter and from now on, as some of it could be considered to be triggering... X

When I woke up, the only thing I could see was the white ceiling above me and the skirting boards that connected the room. My vision was blurry at first and I had no conscious feeling of where I was, until I heard the constant beeping from the machine next to me.

I shuffled uncomfortably in the thin sheets, until a curtain was drawn back and a nurse faced me with a clipboard that she tucked into the end of my bed.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. I noticed the wall behind her had a small crack in it, and it took me a few moments to understand what had happened before I woke up.

"I'm... okay... why am I here?" I asked. When I moved my hand I felt an ache in my wrist, and looked down to the bright scabs on my arm that consisted of where the fire had most likely made contact with my skin. Although my hands were sore, they weren't burnt too badly and I assumed the skin would make a recovery in due time. My feet were exposed, and they were badly burnt.

It wasn't until she pulled the entire curtain back that I noticed there was an occupied bed beside me.

"Who's that?" I whispered to the nurse. She began shaking her head.

"You don't have to whisper," she mumbled, "He's been out cold for days."

Days? How long had I been out for?

"How long have I been out for?" I asked, repeating my inner thoughts. She checked her digital watch and played with a few buttons before getting back to me.

"About two days, you were in the same state as him." I turned my head back to him and noticed that he had a pipe travelling down his throat. He too was connected to an IV that nourished his body.

"Do yourself a favor and don't get up!" the nurse sarcastically smiled. She removed the clipboard once more and signed the bottom of the sheet, before flicking over and writing a few notes. She then placed it back in it's holder and left the room. I looked around the room for the television remote for the small television that was placed on the wall in between our beds and noticed it was resting on the tray on the table between our beds.

I knew she told me not to get up, but they also told me not to run into a burning inferno. Maybe if I did what I was told for once I wouldn't get so hurt.

I quickly snuck out of my bed and softly walked over to the table, my feet padding on the cold floor. They hurt too much to move, but it was only for a moment. When I reached for the remote, my eyes snuck a quick look at the body on the bed. I couldn't help myself.

My heart wrenched when I saw a hand that was dark, and seemed as if it wasn't going to function. The fingertips were the only exposed skin, but the hand was wrapped in a bandage that was thick around the entire hand and led up to the wrist.

I noticed the fingernails has been burnt too, and the entire hand seemed entirely painful to whoever he was. I creeped back into my bed and turned the television on and fell back asleep to some old reruns of shows I watched growing up.

*************************

I woke up to a deep, dark scream that ruptured my insides. My entire bed moved when I sat up, to see

The man in the bed next to me was shaking furiously in his bed. The sirens within the hospital were going off as he was choking on the pipe down his throat.

When I tried to get up a plethora of nurses ran in, and I situated myself back into my bed. The red alarm above his bed was ringing and one of them reached for the wall to switch off the button. I stared at the roof to try and clear my mind of the dreadful sight of the man next to me. His hair was burnt, and so was his face. I wanted to forget the sound of him screaming in my sleep but it was still ringing in my ears.