Page 7 of Thrust into the Light

“No Northpass, send me to Stormgrove.”

“We don’t know the extent of your injuries, man. We are going to have to send you to Northpass. If you need surgery, Stormgrove can’t do it. They don’t even have lights on right now.”

“I will refuse all medical treatment unless it is at Stormgrove,” I growl. Unwilling to be apart from her. I’ve been away from her for too long that I won’t go to Northpass. I got her a match house set up on campus so I could still be close to her. Choosing one that had separate rooms, and knowing that she had so many matches, one that had enough room for everyone if they showed up. As soon as they release her, I was going to take her clothes shopping. I noticed she didn’t have any personal items with her. Seeing as she doesn’t even know her own name makes sense. I try to look into the backseat of my car to see if the box of long-stem roses I bought for her survived the tree fall.

“Connor, please don’t move too much. We don’t know the extent of your injuries and you could be exasperating things.” I look over at him. He is about five years older than me and has his own complete match group. They have a few younglings running around their house now.

“Can you tell me if the flowers in the back survived?” He’ll understand. The constant demand to take care of her, to get the things she needs.

“The tree is on the front part of your car. The box looks fine to me.” He holds up his penlight with a question on his face. I nod at him to begin his assessment. As he puts on his stethoscope to listen to the heart that beats only for her, the firetruck pulls up. They better send me to Stormgrove or I will walk out of Northpass to get back to her.

8

Jane Doe

Iam laying down in my bed, looking out at the sky beyond my window, and the little white dots in the sky. I wonder how they got up there, and what are they? They are nice to look at, almost like they are shining up in the sky. The door to my room flies open really fast and Agnes runs in, looking scared.

“Honey, Connor was in a car accident and is being brought in by ambulance. He refused to go to another hospital. We don’t know much about his condition other than he is stable, but a tree fell on the front of his car and had him pinned down.” My heart rate goes through the room, and something feels like it is trying to rip my stomach in half. It feels like something is trying to get out from inside me. I don’t understand what any of that means, but it doesn’t sound good to me. Agnes rushes over to me.

“It’s okay Honey, I am going to take you down so you can be there with him, I’ve already let the ER know who you are to him, lights are still off down there, but they are trying to get some lights set up to check him over.”

Agnes grabs my hand and guides me from the room. We are moving much faster than our normal walks. We go through another door, which leads to stairs. I haven’t walked downstairs in a long time. Agnes, seeing my hesitation, says a quick “Sorry” then picks me up and runs down the stairs really fast. I close my eyes because everything is moving by so fast and it is making me a little sick. We suddenly stop and Agnes slowly sets me down.

“Sorry Honey, but you looked a little afraid of the stairs, and we needed to get down here quickly. I know June was working towards you doing stairs soon.”

She has my hand and is pulling me behind her. I don’t know what is going on with my body. Why am I shaking like HE just took a knife and cut away parts of my flesh? My stomach feels like it is being tied up like a rope, and that feeling like something is trying to rip its way out of my stomach continues. We have stopped walking and are in a big room. Much like upstairs, there is white everywhere, and it is also dark down here.

People are running around trying to find things. Some are holding rectangles with lights on them pointed towards the ground, and others have round things with lights coming out of them.

“ETA one minute.” Someone says.

I don’t know what that means, so I stand there with Agnes, waiting for her to direct me. Where is Connor? Why didn’t his muscles help him? If they are supposed to move things like the other muscles in his body, why didn’t he help him? They are so big! Agnes squeezes my hand like she’s giving my hand a hug with her hand. I hug her hand back with my hand. Lights and sirens are coming from outside and everyone starts running towards the door they are coming from, while others are running towards another room with packages and more lights.

My body moves towards the door without me realizing it. I am pulling Agnes with me.

“Honey, we need to stay out of their way. We don’t know what is wrong with him right now, and we could cause him more problems if we get in their way so they can’t help him.”

I hear what she is saying, but my body keeps moving towards the door, as they have a bed with wheels on it coming closer. Connor is laying on it with a strange thing around his neck. Part of his bed is orange, and it has holes along the side of it. I am moving so fast towards him as his eyes lock onto mine. I don’t even notice the lights people are shining at me. He has blood leaking out of him. There is bone showing through one part ofhis leg. The feeling that something is trying to rip through me increases and I swear I hear a NO growled in my head.

“CONNOR!” I say as loud as I can as I make it to his wheeled bed. I give his hand a hug with my own and everything goes dark as I hear Agnes say “SHIT.”

9

In the darkness, I dream of the eyes all around me. Some of them look wet while others scare me for the first time in my life with looks of anger like HE used to have. Just like last time, Connor is fully here. His eyes are leaking, he reaches out and touches my face and says, “I love you Farlen, please fight for us, don’t give up.” I try to tell him with my head that I don’t understand. Did he just call me Farlen? Is that my name? How did he figure out my name? I feel pressing on my chest over and over. It also feels like someone is pushing air into my mouth. Then more pressing.

I try again to ask Connor what is going on with my mind, but he doesn’t reply. It makes me scared. Is someone hurting me? What happened to Connor? Why isn’t he talking to me? I remember reaching him and feeling like something was trying to rip its way out of me. But I don’t remember what happened after that. Why won’t the pressing stop? It feels like it’s been going on for a long time.

Finally, the pressing on me stops and the air being pushed into my mouth stops, too. Maybe now I can sleep. My body feels so tired like it does after HE came to see me and the light came on. It’s just me, the eyes, and Connor.

10

Connor

All I can see when I close my eyes is my sweet girl rushing to me, saying my name as loud as she can and grabbing my hand. Then crumpling to the ground as Agnes rushes over to catch her before she can hit the ground. They rushed her into a separate room. I swear I felt my heart stop when I heard them call a code blue to her room. My lungs and heart feel like they are struggling to work. I can hear them in the other room performing CPR on her and using a defibrillator on her.

Please, Gods, don’t take her from me yet, I just found her, and we haven’t even had a chance yet.

“We have a normal sinus rhythm!” One of the ER doctors shouts. I feel like I can finally breathe. One doctor that was in here with me comes back in. I swear I need to come down here more to volunteer. I don’t know enough of these guys.

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