Leaving The Hospital

I sigh in relief as the nurse walks out of the room. After a long day of waiting, I have finally been discharged. I even thought the waiting would have stretched out till tomorrow. Thankfully, I was wrong.

With my mind no longer occupied with whether or not I would go home, I began to think of other things. Namely the strange dream I had last night. Some part of me suspected that it was not a dream but rather a fragment of my memory of the week before the accident, it was far too detailed and coherent to be a normal dream. To be honest, I did not think I would recover my memories this easily. I had thought I would have to wait for months or longer before I began to remember but I was wrong.

The dream started with me in school, after a wonderful weekend during which I finally managed to talk to Cassandra and spend some time alone with her. That day, Arthur - Cassandra's boyfriend - had come up to me warning me to stay away from Cassandra, and looking like he was going to beat me up when Drew intervened.

I am not too sure how to feel about the memory, but I know remembering the day I spent with Cassandra makes me feel good. I wonder how Arthur found out about it, there is no other explanation for why he was so pissed. Why was he so pissed anyway, it's not like I or Cassandra did anything wrong. Besides, even if I had a crush on her, I don't dare make a move while she's still dating someone. That's just cruel.

Still, the strangest part of the memory was Drew. The weird-ish guy who just suddenly decided to help me, and why did he decide to follow me to the cafeteria? I shake my head stumped, only god knows what goes on in his head. One thing I know for sure is that that moment was when we started becoming friends, of sorts.

The door opens and Emily sticks her head in. "Hey, lazy bones, get up, it's time to go home."

I get up from the bed. "Let's go. I'm not planning on spending another night in this place."

"What on earth did the hospital do to you to make you hate it so much?" she asks as she leads me into the corridor.

I shoot her a look but I did not reply. She might think I just really hated hospitals but I know that that is not the reason I want to get out of here so bad. It is because of the things. I call them ghosts, but some part of me knows that is not true. They appear to me every night whenever I am alone, roaming around the hospital creepily. Especially the one which seemed to have taken permanent residence in my room. The thing cloaked in darkness that is unusually interested in me.

I still remember the first night I saw it. It had walked through the door of my room and began moving around like it was looking for something. It had ignored me until it noticed I was looking at it. Then it suddenly became interested in me. I vividly remember how it had moved to my bed and placed its cold hand on my head. Then that horrible pressure I felt on my mind. I shuddered thinking about it.

"Are you feeling cold?" Emily asked, concerned.

I shake my head as I was struck by a sudden feeling of déjà vu.

"Guess what?" she says suddenly.

"What?" I ask absent-mindedly.

"Arthur and Cassie broke up."

I frown slightly as I turn to look at her. "Really?" For some reason, it sounded really familiar.

Emily shakes her head, a pitying expression on her face. "Wow, your memory is really gone isn't it. They broke up like one month ago, before your accident."

That's why it sounded familiar. "Why did they break up?"

I expected her to tell me I already knew but she did not. "Well, they broke up because he's a cheating piece of shit. You know Olivia right, well Cassie caught Arthur making out with her, and as if that wasn't enough, a week later, after Cassie had forgiven him, she found out he was also cheating on her with Michelle. Can you believe that guy? And he had the guts to threaten you just because you talked to Cassie."

"Wait, you know about that?"

"Yeah. Anyway, I'm just glad she listened to me and dumped the idiot."

By now Emily was already riled up. Her face was red with anger, it was not too hard to imagine smoke coming out of her ears. Emily really hated people who cheated, it became really pronounced, especially after our father left.

We walked out of the hospital and Emily led us toward the parking lot.

"Where's mum?"

"She's talking to the doctor. She told me we should wait in the car though."

We get to the car, a black Toyota Camry and Emily fishes out the car keys from her purse. She gets into the driver's seat while I go to the back seat.

She starts the car and turns on the A/C. "Hey, the police found out something about the shooter."

"What?"

"He's a friend of Arthur. To be more specific, he's Arthur's elder brother's friend. You know, the one that got sent to jail two years ago."

Something did not seem right. Arthur's friend went to Cassandra's party too... "Hold on, when exactly did Cassandra break up with Arthur?"

"Two days before the party. And I know what you're thinking, almost everyone in school thinks the same thing."

What if Arthur, angry that Cassandra had broken up with him, sent that Kendall guy to her party. It seemed stupid and Arthur - despite being the douche that he is - did not seem like the type of person who would do that, but, the reality is usually much stranger than fiction.

"Wait, why are the police just finding out about this?" I ask.

"Not sure, but they've taken Arthur for questioning."

"How did you know?"

"Cassie told me."

I sat back as I thought about what Emily just said. Was it possible for Arthur to do something like that, even if he did why would Kendall agree to it? A lot of things about that day make no sense.

According to Emily, Kendall just burst into the house and started shooting. I had jumped through a window and started running, and Kendall followed not long after. Fortunately, no one was killed, but a lot of people were hurt. But for me, that's where things got confusing. No one knows what happened after Kendall followed me.

It was silent in the car as Emily left me to my thoughts. I suddenly ask, "Hey, when will I be allowed to go back to school?"

"Mum was saying something about you going next week, why?"

"No reason."

At that moment I spot someone walking toward the car. The door opens and I hear mom's voice. "Move it."

Emily says nothing as she moves to the next seat. My mom sits down with a sigh, obviously tired. After a moment of doing nothing, she turns to look at me.

"How are you feeling Ian?" she asks, sounding a bit worried. She has been like this ever since the accident, constantly worried that something would go wrong and I would go into another coma, or worse die.

"I'm okay."

"Good. The doctor gave me some pills for you. You'll have to take them until everything's finished. Also, he wants to see you next week, just to run a few tests and make sure everything's okay."

A few tests? It's obvious he hasn't given up trying to figure out what made me recover so fast. After that, she seemed to run out of things to say and silence reigned in the car.

Sometime later the car left the hospital.

"Are you hungry?" she asked sometime later.

I thought about it. "A bit." Then after a pause. "Can you get us a pizza?" For some bizarre reason I just really wanted to eat a pizza.

"Yeah, let's get one." Emily pipes up, supporting me.

My mom hesitates. "I don't think you should be eating junk when you're like this."

"Mom, relax. It's not like I have diabetes or a diet-related problem. Besides, a little pizza isn't going to kill me, if I were to die it'll probably be because -"

"Will you shut up with all this death talk! You're not going to die, okay?"

Silence descends once again. I scold myself inwardly. I knew how mum was at the moment yet I still went blabbing my mouth about death. Some part of me said goodbye to the pizza I was hoping to eat.

My mom drives in silence for a while. "I'll get us some pizza after we get home." she finally says.

"Thanks," I say calmly. I couldn't wait to finally get home.