Chapter 1: Days of a Dying Present (2/4).

Pain. Nothing but pain, that was all that Nero was feeling in the moment. Pure and agonizing, it was the best way that he could describe. He didn't know what happened. He saw the car coming at the red head girl and a sudden impulse came, he ran and time felt like it stopped, before he knew it. He had pushed the girl of the way and the car hit him instead.

Is this it? Is he dead? That was all that he could think about, he was very afraid of that being the case. It didn't look like, whatever saved him that day, when he fell from the building was going to work again. If that was the end, at least he died doing a good thing. He was hoping that girl was OK. Jean was her name, he heard the man that he assumes was her father say.

Some thought's passed his mind at that moment. He was thinking what would be Matt and Sister Maggie's reaction to his demise. He was thinking if FJ would cry for him. He was thinking if his parents were ever find out that he died or if they would care. Lots of things that he wanted to do, things he wanted to experience. All gone.

"Well, at least a family didn't got destroyed today." Nero told himself while he waited for something to happen. It was all dark, the pain was gone and he couldn't move for some reason. He was sure that he was dead. "A unwanted orphan over a middle child of a family, that's a fair exchange."

"Don't say that!" Nero heard a girl's voice. He looks around to see where was it coming from. But the complete darkness didn't allow him.

While he was still searching. He started to hear a bunch of loud noises and some voices but he couldn't understand what they were saying. As the sounds got louder, Nero covers his ears to try to muffle the noises but as soon as he did that, things started to lighten up, the darkness was going away and things became clearer. Strangely he sees a image from afar, he didn't know how to describe. It looked like a giant, wild, flaming raptor. Nero felt like it was staring at him, but he wasn't scared. It felt familiar.

Suddenly, he could move again. Nero approached the creature and the closer he got, the warmer he felt. It wasn't burning, it was a comfortable type of warm. He looked at the giant flaming creature in the eyes, then it pointed at something. Nero turned around to see what it was. From afar, he saw that girl that he save, Jean was her name. Standing there, in the darkness. He turned to the creature again, and it looked at Nero in the eyes one more time before extending it's wings. As soon as it does, it starts to fly on the girl's direction. As the creature got closer, but as soon it got near her, it disappeared.

The girl started at him, but her green eyes were replaced by the creatures eyes.

"He's waking up!" Nero heard someone yell. He opens his eyes and everything was a blur.

Out of nowhere, the dark placed and the loud noises were replaced. The loud noise became a siren and the darkness was replaced by a blur of the color white. Soon, his vision became clearer and he looked at his surroundings. He was in a ambulance. There were two people around him, paramedics for sure. A man and a woman. Nero tried to stand up a bit but his movement turned out to be a bad idea because the pain came back as well. Not as badly as early but still bad.

"Don't move." The male paramedic calmly told him.

"What happened?" Nero asked the man.

"You got hit by car." The female paramedic bluntly told him. "But don't worry we're almost at the hospital."

Nero looked down a bit and noticed blood on his shirt. He decided not to ask how bad his injuries were because he really didn't wanna know. Though he knew that it didn't hurt as much as it did when the car hit him. Was it the same thing that saved him when he fell from the building? He was asking himself that. But he wasn't completely sure because, his injures healed completely after the fall and right now, he can feel the pain of the injures he just received.

He decided to ask a question to the paramedics. "Who's car hit me?"

"A man that was running away from the police, apparently he tried to escape through the subway but the police cornered him. " The woman explained to him. "He manage to escape the subway and steal a car, and he ran you over while trying to get away from the police."

So it was the guy that kept him from taking the train back to the orphanage. Nero though it was a very cruel irony. "Did they catch him?"

"Yes, after he... ran you over, he hit the car he stole on a traffic lamp." The man explained to him.

"I see." Good riddance, that's what came to his mind.

Ten minutes later, the ambulance arrived at the hospital. Nero was taken in quickly and was put through a few examinations. His injures were two broken ribs, a few cuts that two required stitches and his left wrist was broken. The doctor told him that he was lucky, because his injures should have been much more severe considering the speed that the car that ran me over was.

They warned the orphanage about what happened, which means that he will probably get a lecture later.

He was now on a hospital room laying on the bed and watching TV, not like there was anything worth watching. But he couldn't get the image of that giant flaming creature off his mind. He kept on trying to understand what it was or what exactly happened. Whatever it was, Nero was wondering if the girl he saved was OK.

Three days later.

Three days have passed since he was hospitalized, nothing really happened in the last two days besides a visit from Sister Maggie who lectured him about going so far away from the orphanage and one from Matt who saw what happened on the news. Besides them, no one else. He was hoping that maybe FJ would pay him a visit but he didn't really mind if he didn't. There was a chance that he doesn't know about his accident.

Nero has spent the last three days either watching Tv or reading a book that Sister Maggie brouth for him. Only one thing that caught his attention on one of the books that she bring. One of the books was about Greek mythology, and while Nero was checking the book, he found a bird that greatly reminded him of the creature he saw when the car hit him.

A Phoenix. He was sure of it. Why would he see something that he never saw before on a dream? He never even heard of this kind of creature before yet he saw it on a dream after passing out from the car hit. He didn't know what to think of it. All that he could think about was the feeling. When he was close to the Phoenix, he felt good, familiar, it felt like the two already knew each other. But something that he could not understand was, what did that girl had to do with it?

Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupts his thoughts. It was odd, Sister Maggie wasn't going to visit him today and Matthew wasn't going to visit him either because he has a lot of work to do in law school.

"Excuse me?" The door opened and on the other side was a man. Nero recognized him, it was the man that he suspected was the red head girl's father. Suspect, he still not sure.

"Umm... Hello" Nero was asking himself what was he doing there.

"I'm sorry, you probably don't know who I am." The man spoke to him.

"You're the girl's father aren't you? The red head girl with green eyes that almost got hit by the car." Nero said it bluntly to him.

"Yes, that's correct." He replied to Nero before extending his hand to him. "I'm John Grey."

"Nero Carnby." He introduced himself while shacking the man's hand. "Not to sound rude but... What are you doing here sir?"

"You see, my daughter wanted to thank for saving her life." The man told him. "We would have come sooner but, we were having problems with the moving."

"Moving?" Nero asked out of curiosity.

"We used to live in Annandale-on-Hudson but there was a problem at my work, and I..." The man was hesitating a bit. Something bad must have happened. "I got another job here as a teacher."

"Oh, you're a teacher?" Nero decided to change the subject since he looked unconformable.

"I'm a Professor of History." He told him. "I used to teach in Bard College but there was a problem and I had to quit my job there."

"I see." Nero could tell that something bad must have happened.

"Well... My daughter is outside, do you mind if she comes in?"

"Umm... Ok."

John Grey then turned around and walked outside closing the door behind him. As soon as he left, Nero wondered if he should ask the girl if he saw the phoenix as well.

A minute or two later. John Grey reentered the room with the red head girl beside him. "Jean, this is Nero." He presented her to him.

"Hi." Jean shyly greeted him.

"Hello." Nero greeted her in return.

"Jean, I'm going to the hospital's pharmacy to get your sister's medication." John told his daughter. "I'll be back." He kissed her in the forehead before leaving her alone in the room with Nero.

A awkward silence starts as soon as he leaves the room. With Nero and Jean staring at each other without saying anything. Nero can't take it and decides to ask a question?

"What for?" Nero asked her.

"Huh?" She makes a confused look.

"Medication for what?" Nero asked.

"Oh, my sister has Panic disorder and she needs some medications to keep it controlled." Jean explained to him.

"I see."

"Does... Does it hurt?" She asked him while pointing at his wrist.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry." Jean apologized for it. "I should have payed more attention." She told him while looking at the floor.

"Nah, It's okay, It's not like I had anything better to do than to lay down all day." Nero decided to make a joke but it wasn't really funny.

"You shouldn't have said that." She told him.

"It's true, I don't have anything better to do than to lay down all day."

"No, not that." She said. "You said; A unwanted orphan over a middle child of a family, that's a fair exchange." She repeated the exact words he said while everything was dark. "That's not a fair exchange at all!" She yelled at him.

"Wait, how could you have heard that?" Nero asked her. "I though... I though I was dreaming."

"I... When the car... Hit you, I felt..." She was trying to say something to him but she couldn't find the right words. "I felt what you felt, you were afraid and... you thought about your friend Matthew and a Woman named Maggie." Nero just stood there wide eyed by the things that he was hearing. "You were thinking If you're other friend was going to cry for you and- " She paused before saying. " if your parents were ever going to find out that you died and if they were going to care."

"I.." Nero had no idea of what to say to her. Until he remembered. "Did you... Did you saw that giant flaming bird?"

Jean's eyes widened as soon as he mentioned. "You saw it too!?" She said and put her hands on the bed that Nero was.

Before any of the two could say anything else. The door opened again and John Grey entered the room again. "You too seem to be getting along." He said when he saw Jean's hand on Nero's bed. "Jean sweetie, It's time to go home." He told her. "We need to get this medication to your sister."

"But..." Jean was trying to say something. Nero had a idea.

"Mr. Grey, I told Jean that she could borrow a book that I was reading, but she's afraid that she won't be able to return it for me." Nero did his best to lie to him.

"A book? Well, I could bring her to visit again if that's a problem." Mr. Grey appeared to have fallen for the lie. "What is the book about."

"Greek mythology, I was just showing her the chapter that I was on." Nero grabs the book that was on a drawer besides the bed and show it to Jean. "It's about the Phoenix." He opens the book to a very confused Jean until she noticed the picture of the Phoenix.

"Yes... that's it." Jean was trying to go along with the lie. She grabbed the book to check. "Thanks Nero."

"See you soon Jean." Nero said with a smile.

She smiled back before turning around. "Bye."

As soon as the two walked out of the door, Nero lays down again.

He started to think. What exactly all of that meant? Jean, felt what he felt when he though he was going to die. They both saw that Pheonix.

"What it all mean?" Nero asking himself, with a annoying feeling that he won't be getting a answer any time soon.