Shift

The Hospital

Her eyes flew open to bright fluorescent lights. There was a pounding in her head and a tube in her arm. She winced as she sat up, blinking through blurred vision, head wobbling heavily. A high-pitched ringing pierced her ears and she could practically feel the blood rushing through her veins. The taste of blood flooded her mouth, her nose filled with a bitter, earthy scent, and she could feel each individual organ inside her body working.

"Scarlet," a voice said.

She turned, startled by the sudden presence. "Adrian?" Her panicking ceased immediately when she saw his face. He looked exhausted, all pale and scruffy, his face lined with worry.

"Hi," he said, coming toward her. "How are you feeling?"

"What are you doing here?" Scarlet asked. She looked frantically around the room as her head cleared. "Where is here? What—Why—" Her mind reeled.

"Shh," said Adrian, "calm down." He gripped her hand tightly. "You're okay, you're in the hospital, but you're fine."

"How are you here?"

"I came as soon as they brought you in." Adrian gazed at her, but Scarlet's expression remained blank. "I'm still your emergency contact," he explained.

"What?" Scarlet stared at Adrian's face, trying to find a clue that this was all just a dream. She searched for something that was off, something that didn't belong, as she always did when she found herself inside a nightmare. She couldn't remember what happened to her, why she was in the hospital.

"Why am I here?" she asked, though she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Adrian took a deep breath. "What's the last thing you remember?"

She tried to think. The first and last thing she remembered was waking up in that hospital bed. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think. She remembered the Halloween party, the coffee pot, Will... As she retraced her steps in her mind, it all started barreling back to her. Paul, the knife, something about wolves in Andrew's Bay.

Wolves. Everything went into fast forward, whizzing past the memory of crying in the doorway of her dad's bedroom, past riding in Penny's car, past the photograph and the drinks and the fire, to the wolves. The sound of ripping and tearing, teeth-gnashing, growling, and snarling. The crackling of screams and crunching bones. She could still smell the soil that lodged itself underneath her fingernails as she clawed at the cold, damp ground. The bitter smell of blood so heavy she could taste it.

"Scarlet." Adrian's concerned voice drifted into her ears.

"Penny," she said. Scarlet stared down at the shining linoleum floor. "Where's Penny? And Heather, and Gina?"

Adrian pinched his lips together, his nostrils flaring. He really hadn't wanted to be the one to tell her all of this. 

"I'm so sorry, Scarlet," he said. His voice trembled and he struggled to look her in the eyes. He clasped both of her hands between his. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, they didn't make it."

"What? What do you mean they didn't make it?"

"I mean, they're gone." Adrian set his jaw and tried again. "They're... dead."

The room spun around Scarlet, and her stomach turned with it. She tried to wipe away the memories, the echoes of her friends' screams, but they stayed. Her mind was overwhelmed with a tornado of emotions and gruesome images from Halloween night.

"No," she said. Tears erupted from her eyes. "Not Penny. I don't care about the other two. But Penny." Scarlet shook her head, trying not to cry and failing.

"Don't say that," Adrian said.

"I don't care! Just not Penny. Please." Her heart beat rapidly, almost too fast, and her palms began to sweat. She couldn't remember a time when she'd felt this angry. It wasn't fair. She closed her eyes and tried, with every fiber of her being, to go back in time and change everything. "Not Penny," she whispered, over and over.

"I'm so sorry, Scarlet." Adrian offered what he could, though he knew there was nothing he could say that would make her feel better.

"It's not fair," she said. Finally, she gave in to the tears and fell forward, collapsing into Adrian's chest. "She was so good. She was the good one."

"I know," Adrian whispered, stroking his friend's hair.

"It should have been me," Scarlet said. "I'm worth nothing, and she's everything. I wish it was me instead."

"Stop it," he said. "Just stop talking before you say something really stupid. Call me biased, but I'm glad you survived."

Scarlet buried her face into the crook of Adrian's neck and cried.