Soul Stitched (book one)

Chapter 17: Cashmere

I woke up. Pain surged through me. My bones felt like they were melting. My head ached like never before. It burned and felt like it was being stabbed with a thousand knives. I groaned. The world was spinning. My vision was blurred and I saw spots everywhere. I was about to touch my hand to my head, when I saw that the sun on my palm was glowing. It got brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding and I couldn't bare to look. Then the light died, and it went back to normal skin color. I didn't even have time to think about it because of the pain in my body. "Where am I?" And that's when it hit me. Mac. Jain. Their house. The fire.

Everything came back. I remembered the fun moments I spent with Mac. When she told me about Rosie, and how had woken up surrounded by smoke. When I had crashed through the window as the fire chased me. After that, it was all a blur. I looked all around me. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon. No one was in sight, but I could hear car horns in the distance. To my left was a road, and I was on a sidewalk. To my right was...was...no. No! I tried to get up but I fell back down. I cried out in pain. I crawled the best I could over to all that was left of Mac's house- bricks and burnt wood. It had totally collapsed and caved in. It was only about ten feet tall. I went through a giant opening in the wall and gasped. There was nothing but charred wood. There were no stairs. No second floor. Just the sky. I couldn't help crying. I had run away, I had been so alone for so long, and then I had finally found a home...and now it was gone. Mac and Miss Jain...I began to sob. I could have helped them. I should have been dead. Somehow I hadn't gotten burned alive, and that fall? No way I could have survived that! But there I was, in the middle of my burned down home, crying like a baby. I didn't care. Life was hopeless. No mater how hard I tried, nothing went right. Now two innocent people had died. I just couldn't take it anymore.

Once I was able to pull myself together (I was still crying, but I wasn't acting like a two year old anymore), I looked around a bit. I made my way over to the other side of the ruins, right underneath where Mac's room shuld've been. And then I saw it. Under a big pile of burned wood, I thought I saw...color. I crawled over and moved the wood. I gasped. I picked up a piece of wood that wasn't like the rest. It was in a rectangle shape, and in the middle was shattered glass, covering a picture of Rosie. I took the picture out. The top right corner was burned off, but the picture was still in good shape. It was the same photo that Mac had been crying over. Somehow it survived the fire, probably because it was surrounded by glass. I held it gently, and slipped it into my pocket. It was the only memory I had left.

I got away from what used to be my home. I looked for a doctor's office, and finally found one. I was able to get through the door before collapsing on the floor. Several doctors rushed over to me. My vision blurred, and my head ached. I felt like I was suffocating. I was placed on a bed, but then the bed was moving. My eyes tried to shut so I let them. I was surrounded by darkness.

When I woke up, I was in a...hospital? What was I doing here? I didn't need a- suddenly pain shot through my body like rockets. My head burned, and my body ached. Okay...I needed a hospital. "Look, she's awake." said a voice. There was a breathing mask on my face. "Hello, my name is Dr. Anne. You were brought here immediately yesterday. You almost died, your lungs were filled with smoke. We had to get it out, which is why you have on a breathing mask. I'm sorry, but you have a major concussion and a broken leg. You'll have to stay in the hospital for a while. We wanted to contact your parents, but you didn't have a cell phone on you. In a couple of hours, when we can take off your breathing mask, maybe you can tell us what happened? But for now, you need rest." said the doctor. She left the room and I fell asleep.

When I woke up, the breathing mask was no longer on me, but I could feel a tight bandage around my head. A doctor walked in and I tried to sit up. "Oh, no no no! You lie down! Are you hungry? I brought you some mac and cheese and chocolate pudding." She said. My favorite. I nodded and she placed the tray on a table. She rolled it over to me and fed me. It was kind of embarrassing for the fact that I was twelve years old, but I didn't care. I could barely even move my arms.

She finished feeding me, and I told her everything about the fire. How I had just woken up and it was there. I had no idea how it had started. She pondered that, then said. "Yes, I heard about that fire on the news. But you said you lived with two other people...they never mentioned finding any survivors." My eyes began to water. Of course they hadn't found any survivors. That fire was huge.

I had to stay in the hospital for a week, but I didn't really care. I had nothing better to do, and everyone was so nice. I ate mac and cheese and chocolate pudding all day long while I watched Psych on TV. At the same time, my body was healing, so it was a huge bargain.

On Friday, Dr. Anne came in and told me I was in good shape. I could go. She said my concussion was almost gone, but I still had to keep the bandage on my head. The smoke in my lungs had been cleared out, and my broken leg needed a cast. I also needed crutches, which she gave me after she helped me out of bed. "So your family, do you know what you're going to do? I mean, you're an orphan now..." said the doctor. "Oh, I'm fine. I have an uncle who lives a couple blocks down. I can just go with him." I lied. The doctor smiled. "Well, how nice to have family near. Does he know about the fire? He hasn't come to the hospital to see you." She said. "Oh, a, he, a, was out of town. Yeah, he was gone for work, but he got back this morning. Don't worry, we'll figure things out." I said. "Alright, I'll walk you out." I paused. "What about the fee, I mean I did eat a lot of chocolate pudding-" She cut me off. "Don't worry. Why do you think people pay taxes? For emergencies like these." She said.

As we walked through the halls, me on my crutches. I could see people through the windows in their rooms. Sometimes I even stopped to look at the sad situation someone was in. I could hardly feel bad for myself anymore.

Then we passed a certain room that was different from the rest. The walls were glass, and there were two doors. One to enter a small area. A couple of feet in front of it was another door that led into a room with a man lying on a bed. The man had his eyes open, and they seemed to be glowing red. I could tell he was in pain, he was gripping onto the sides of the bed, as if trying to hold onto something and not forget. I thought I saw strange markings on his neck, something like stitches..? He had a rash on his skin and his veins pulsed. Everything about him screamed sick, and deadly. I don't even know how to explain what I saw.

The doctor saw me staring, and said, "It's a virus, we think. We've never had anything like it before. Until we know anything more, we're keeping it in isolation. There's been on other case, in North Carolina. He had the same symptoms this man has here. He had a daughter, Aqua, who now has no father, the poor girl." I didn't know why, but this seemed important. "Can I speak to this...Aqua?"