Beep. Beep. Beep.
The familiar sounds of the machines that kept me alive these past two years are the first to fill my ears when I wake up in my familiar hospital room.
Sighing, I slowly position myself to sit up and look around. It's been like this everyday since the accident.
"You've any idea what you want?" my dad asks me, running his eyes over the menu, shaking my head I let out a sigh.
"I'm not sure yet, steak more than likely." I reply causally, looking around the room.
"Odd, listen, it's only for a week, surely you can survive without your friends for another few days while you see your family?" my mom asks, resting her hand on my shoulder.
"I'll try," I reply smiling, shaking my mood out of reality. "But yeah, steak it is!" I smile.
"Why am I not surprised?" my dad laughs, I shrug as I continue looking around the restaurant.
The room we're in is quite small for a restaurant, holding at most 25 people. It was half filled at the moment, adults and their kids taking up the majority of the seats.
Suddenly the door opens to reveal a man by his lonesome. Thinking nothing of it, I look away from him but the more time I spend looking away from him, the more the urge to stare at him rises.
Giving into my urges I glance over my shoulder to have my eyes filled with shock. From where I was sitting, I could see something strapped to his waist under his jacket, something he was currently reaching for. That something he shot into the roof to gather the attention of everyone in the room.
Screams of panic and terror quickly filled the room as the man demanded that everyone in the room get on the ground and the girl behind the till empty the money from her post.
Not willing to submit to an animal like him, my dad's previous army training kicked in as he vaulted over the table and confronted the man, grabbing his hands and trying to pry the gun from him.
That was when I made the worst mistake of my life.
Standing up, I reach my hand out towards my dad.
"Dad, be carefu-"
That's all I manage to get out before reality sets in. My eyes twitched as I moved my trembling hand to my chest. Bringing my hand to in front of my face I stare at it. The pain soaring in my chest.
Red. My hand is red.
I feel myself slumping to the floor as I watch the man with the gun run from the restaurant as my dad ran as fast as he could to me.
"Odd!" I hear my mother scream, she cradle's my head on her lap, her face filled with tears.
Lifting my head, I look at my dad, standing above me with terror and tears.
"Someone call an ambulance!" a stranger calls from the room. That's the last sound I hear before I slip out of reality.
Looking down at my chest, I slip my hand under my shirt and feel at my scar.
Apparently I was very lucky, the bullet just missed my heart by a mere inch. That's why I've been here for so long. It's been too dangerous to operate to remove it, it was lodged beside an artery. But recently, my body has been fighting back and been pushing it out.
Sighing at the worst part of this whole incident, I let my eyes drop to the floor.
I wasn't allowed tell my friends.
As far as my best friends back at Kadic were concerned, I didn't exist anymore as was a mere memory.
The thought of the people who meant so much to me, moving on with their life without giving me a second thought. I left on a week trip with my parents. Over 2 years ago.
"They probably have a new member to help them beat Xana." my mind taunted, causing me to worry more and more.
Laying back in my familiar bed I let out a sigh.
"I'll never get to see them again."
Never before in my life. Was I happier to be proven wrong. That proof however, came in the form of my mom and dad bursting into my hospital room with grins as wide as a football field plastered on their face.
"WHAT? I GET TO GO BACK TO KADIC?" I cried, my parents stood in front of me with huge smiles plastered on their faces.
"Yup! You're going back tomorrow!" my dad smiled.
I couldn't believe it. I was finally going back. I'd get to see the gang again.
During my parents talking, I wondered if my friends looked different or the same. It had, after all, been two years.
Did Ulrich finally pucker up the courage to confess to Yumi? Did Jeremie still spend every day plastered to his computer on locked away in the factory? Is Aelita still as beautiful as I rememb-
"Woah, what?," I murmured to myself, "not this again." I curse myself.
Aelita was the one I found my mind wandering to most of all friends, her short pink hair that fit her face perfectly. When she'd smile it'd show her perfect pearly white teeth. The way she used to touch my arm when she'd laugh at my jokes. Oh god, her laugh. The one that filled my stomach with butterflies. The laugh I earned to hear everyday and tried my hardest to hear a often.
Letting out a sigh, I smiled at my roof.
I'd see them again, tomorrow.
Tomorrow I return to Kadic.