Page 42 of The Edge Of Us

Blackness.

Light.

I don't know how long it's been, but I'm not awake.

Not really.

I'm floating. Detached from everything. I can't move. My muscles feel like rubber bands-stretched, limp, sore. My mind is fogged, coated in a thick layer of confusion. My chest feels tight, like I've run a marathon underwater.

There's a dull ache in my head. Not sharp. Just... pressing. Like someone placed a weight on the side of my skull.

I blink slowly. Everything is blurry.

I hear voices-Dr. Michaels and someone else. Maybe Bennett. I can't turn my head. I can't speak. But I hear the words.

"She seized for about twenty-five seconds."

"Heart rate stable. No complications."

"Postictal response within normal range."

My brain tries to make sense of the words, but they fall apart before they reach meaning. I close my eyes again.

The next time I blink, I'm in the recovery room. A blanket is wrapped tightly around me, and the lights are dim. My mouth is dry. My tongue feels like paper. I try to sit up, but my body doesn't cooperate.

"Don't rush," a soft voice says beside me.

Dr. Bennett.

She's sitting in a chair next to the bed, a clipboard in her lap, but her eyes are on me. She looks tired. Concerned.

"How... long?" I manage to croak.

"About thirty minutes," she says. "You did well. You tolerated the procedure perfectly."

I let my head fall back against the pillow. "Feels... weird."

She nods. "That's normal. Some confusion. Headache. Muscle stiffness. We'll give you something for that."

I want to ask if this is going to work. If this pain, this darkness, is going to finally lift. But I don't ask.

Because I'm afraid the answer might be no.

Instead, I say the only thing I can.

"Did I scream?"

Her face softens. "No, Corinne. You didn't scream. You were unconscious the whole time."

But something inside me still feels like it did. Like some part of me screamed through the seizure-silent, unheard, but aching to be released.

I curl tighter under the blanket. My body's cold, and my chest aches in a way that has nothing to do with the procedure. Dr.Bennett doesn't say anything else. She just stays beside me, holding space for my quiet pain.

And maybe, for now, that's enough

Chapter 26

Corine

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