Chimera

Chapter 4

She ached.

It was the first sensation that came to mind, a bone-numbing pain that stemmed from her veins. The girl felt like she had been hit by a bus. Her muscle fibers and bones stung as if they were being stitched back together by dull needles.

Emry's awareness floated through the dark of her consciousness like an aimless jellyfish, unable to affect its own movement. Images of the day before her treatment passed by her in a nonsensical collage. As always, the pain from the treatment washed away the details.

For once, her head was silent. The voices were nowhere to be found, leaving her alone to entertain herself and get a grip on the pain.

She fought to focus on a sight, sound, feeling. Anything that might distract her or drag her from the darkness. There was nothing more dangerous than being alone with her thoughts for too long.

Her mind was a mass of self-loathing and contempt. It was filled with memories of her failures: watching other child around her shift, washing out of warrior training the first day, quitting school because she couldn't keep up with her absences. Failure to keep up physically, mentally, socially with her peers. Every time she failed herself it created an even larger gap between who she wanted to be and who she was capable of being.

It was no wonder she stopped trying.

Her ears finally picked up a slight buzz from the ceiling cut through the beeps and clicks of monitoring equipment. Emry focused on the sound, allowing it to bring her out of the depths of unconsciousness.

As the girl gained awareness, she felt the thin cotton sheet tucked along her body from her shoulders to her toes. It itched against her cool skin.

Artificial light filtered through eyelids she could not yet open.

She could feel the pressure of needles in her veins, a necessary evil due to the extended length of her unconsciousness. Tubes and wires ran the length of her arms and poked from Emry's chest. Some monitored her state while others fed her fluids, food, and medication.

Stage one of recovery complete. Emry could feel her body.

If only she could move.

To an observer, nothing had changed. Her limbs remained stationary, the cadence of the monitoring equipment beating with a slow, steady rhythm. Oxygen and blood pressure readings didn't adjust.

The girl focused on completing the next stage of the process. Moving.

Despite her efforts, not a single digit or eyelid fluttered. Her limbs remained still, weighted like lead. Emry's mind was strong enough to return, but her body was too weak to escape the coma-like stasis it needed to heal. The boredom was almost as bad as waiting in the nothingness of her mind.

The misery of her monotony was interrupted by the click of the door. She heard the shuffling of feet and felt the flow of air on her skin.

"It's already been ten days. I'm getting tired of waiting." A female voice said. The girl didn't recognize the woman.

"I already told you, it could be much longer before she wakes. Her recovery time has increased almost exponentially over the last few injections." Bellos said. "It took her nearly a week to recover from the last one."

Emry wanted to move, to comfort him. He sounded stressed, on edge. It wasn't his fault she was weak and her body was failing him.

"I've read the data. That is why I'm here to evaluate the situation." said the woman. "I can't properly do that without speaking to her." She sounded confident, powerful, everything Emry was not.