A Look Back

In the darkness, Harrison could hear voices. They seemed familiar. They slowly became clearer, though he still was in darkness. He recognized one of the voices. It was Kyle.

"Can he hear us now?" Asked Kyle

"Yes, all this is probably being registered in his mind, though he will not be able to respond at all. Your friend has been in a serious accident, Mr. Asplund. He may not recover." Replied an unknown voice

There was silence. Harrison started making clear the sound of beeping, obviously his heart rate. He faded back into darkness. A thousand thoughts passed through his head at once. Fingarel, Avariel, Kyle, Diesel. He could see different images. The rush into battle, the sparks flying and the broken glass. Then Harrison fell into a deep sleep. He awakened to the sound of beeping. He was still in the hospital. He slowly opened his eyes to a dim room. At first, he just starred at the ceiling. Could he move? Could he talk? Slowly, he started to move different parts of his body. His fingers were tingling. There was a slight twitching in his left arm. On his upper back, he felt nothing where the arrow had struck him. Just then, he realized he could not feel his legs. He tried to move them but they were unresponsive. After a few minutes he gave up. He was so cold. Harrison started turning his head to the side to see if he could find the nurse button. He looked at the chairs by the wall and saw someone sitting there. It was Kyle. He was asleep with a hospital blanket covering him. For a second, Harrison just looked at him and remembered things that had happened. Kyle was his best friend. They never really said it but they were really close. Looking at him now, sleeping at Harrison's bedside, he was reminded of their friendship.

"Kyle. Kyle!" Harrison whispered "wake up!"

Kyle stirred and woke up.

"Harrison? They said you probably wouldn't wake up!"

Kyle stumbled out of the chair and sprang to Harrison's bedside.

"How are you? Are you ok? Does anything hurt?"

"A little cold... are there any more blankets around?"

"Yes, yes, of course!"

Kyle quickly grabbed the blanket he was using and put it over Harrison.

"I got to take a mad piss, will you help me over to the bathroom?"

Kyle paused.

"What? What's wrong? You look like you just had sex with your mom..."

Kyle looked down to the ground then looked back up at Harrison.

"You ummm... you can't walk. You broke your back. Your NOS blew and you took a piece of metal to your back. The doctors..." Kyle looked back to the ground. "They don't think you are going to walk again."

Kyle looked back up to Harrison. There was a tear in his eye.

"You are going in for surgery tomorrow. Your pretty messed up my friend."

"How bad is it?"

Kyle kept starring at the ground.

"Kyle, how bad is it?"

Kyle looked back up into Harrison's eyes. There were tears running freely down his cheeks. Harrison knew. The emotions hit him like a ton of bricks.

"The doctors aren't sure if you are going to make it through the operation. You've got a hole inside of you that's got them pretty scarred. Harrison tried to lighten the situation with humor.

"I still got to take a ferocious piss though."

Kyle laughed.

"You got a tube in your dick man, just let it go."

There was a silence between them.

"The doctors can't get a hold of your family. Your parents are lost in Europe and your sister is still on her honeymoon. I went around our classes yesterday and put together this for you."

Kyle stood up and got a poster down from the shelf. On it were a bunch of well wishes and get wells.

Here, I'll read some of them to you. This one is from Andrea, it says 'Damn you Harrison, we never did finish what were started, you can't go anywhere!' this ones from Jeremy: 'Harrison, I warned you about that racing shit. Didn't I tell you?' there's a whole bunch of them here. This ones from Robby, 'I remember last time I was in the hospital... lotsa hot nurses... wait, that was a dream...'"

Kyle was fighting back tears.

"How long has it been? How long have I been out?"

"About three days. Everyone's mad at you. More so, they're mad at me for letting you do something so stupid."

"This wasn't your fault, Kyle. I would have gone anyways."

"I should have knocked you out. The guy in the car that hit you is dead. Diesel got shot and is now going to be tried for second degree manslaughter for the death of a cop. They can't even find the guy in the other car."

"I really could use some coffee, something warm."

"I'll see what I can do."

Kyle stood up and left the room. Harrison was so tired and the drugs they had him on only made things worse. He started blinking and things started to get fuzzy. All at once, he fell back to sleep.

The next morning, he was woken up by Kyle.

"Hey man, rise and shine. You have to go in for surgery today." There was a silence "if you don't... if you-"

Harrison interrupted.

"I know. I'll make it, don't you worry. If hell freezes over, take care of Andrea. Make sure she doesn't end up with some ass."

"Like me?"

"Yea, like you."

Behind Kyle a nurse walked in.

"Alright Mr. Jacobsen, we have to get you to pre-op."

Harrison grabbed Kyle's arm.

"I want you to know that you were always like a brother to me. Whatever happens, take care."

Kyle nodded and swallowed hard. The nurse pressed a few buttons on the machines next to his be and started wheeling Harrison out of the room. An hour later, Harrison was lying on the operation table. All around there were doctors and different instruments they would use to cut him open and look around inside him. One of the doctors spoke to him.

"Alright Harrison, I'm just going to slip this mask over your face, you should start to feel a little woozy."

The doctor put the mask over his mouth and he heard the rush of gas. Harrison took a deep breath and immediately, he started do doze off. Everything faded to white.