The darkness surrounding him as if he was underwater. Even the voices he heard seemed worlds away. He wanted to reach out to them and he strained to make sense of the jumbled words, but he was tired, and it was weighing him down. He didn't have the energy to fight against it so he let himself be dragged down into the darkness again.
The second time he heard the voices, he could see the light through his eyelids. Though the voices still sounded far away, they seemed to become clearer by the second- minute? Hour? – until he was certain the voices belong to a man and a little girl. By the time the conversation ended he had been able to understand the words and even make out some of the background noises. The door closed with a click and he could hear footsteps disappear in the distance. He heard tiny footsteps walking around the room, the creak of a chair when someone settled in the chair, and the click of their shoes on the ground when they jumped out of it again. The footsteps came closer to the bed he was lying on and he could feel the mattress dip on one side. He wanted to open his eyes to see what the girl was doing, but his eyelids were too heavy for him to lift. He thought about forcing his eyelids open with his fingers, but his entire body felt as if it were made of lead. His limbs refused to listen to his brain, he couldn't lift a single finger or wiggle his toes no matter how hard he tried. It made him wonder whether he even had fingers and toes to move. The girl's voice broke him out of his train of thoughts before they could drive him mad. 'Daddy has to go to work again', she said. For a moment, he thought she was talking to herself before she continued and he realized that she was talking to him. 'But that's okay', she said. 'Mommy says that I'm a big girl now so I'm not sad. And I want to stay here because otherwise you'll be alone. Being alone always makes me sad, so I don't want you to be alone and sad. Daddy says you can sometimes hear me when I talk even when you're asleep, but I don't know what to talk about so maybe you can listen to my movie with me and I'll tell you what they look like. But I'm not actually allowed to use mommy's tablet, so you can't tell her, okay?' She added as an afterthought.
He was surprised when the corner of his mouth twitched at her comment. So he was able to move after all! The girl continued to babble on as he tried to regain control over his muscles with this newfound motivation. She was taking her job as his eyes very seriously, though she did get too caught up in the movie to narrate sometimes. He ended up being pretty invested in the movie himself, though he was clearly not the target audience. He felt a small hand grip his when the main character Twilight Sparkle was being pressured into using her magic to win the Friendships Games. He had to admit, the song did have a pretty creepy undertone.
He wanted to return the grip on his hand, wanted to offer her comfort. It was an odd feeling. He didn't know who the girl was. He didn't even know who he was, but that was something he definitely shouldn't dwell on, not while he was still trapped in his own body. So he tried to move his fingers again, and this time, they moved. Even if it was barely more than a twitch, he still managed to move them! The next attempt was even more successful: he managed to bend the tips of his fingers. He heard a soft gasp. At first, he thought it was just the girl's reaction to the movie, but he was pretty certain that he could somehow feel the girl's eyes on him.
'Peter?' The girl asked hesitantly. Ah, so that's my name. He- Peter- thought. 'Are you awake?' Yes. Peter wanted to say. I'm awake, and I don't know what's going on or who you are and I might freak out but at least the movie you chose is pretty fun. Of course, he couldn't say any of that to her so he tried to fully close his hand around hers. She gasped again. 'You're up!' She squealed. 'You- wait.' She slipped her hand out of his and hopped off the bed. Peter felt himself frowning at the sudden movement. He was slowly regaining control of his facial muscles. The movie stopped suddenly, and Peter realized that she must've put the tablet away. A moment later, the mattress dipped again, and Peter's hands were clasped between two small hands. 'You can do it, Peter!' The girl said encouragingly. 'Wake up!' Peter was not about to let the girl down. He tried to lift his eyelids again, and this time, they did not feel as heavy as before. Peter felt them twitch and slowly he was able to open them. The moment he opened his eyes, he was met with a blinding white light. Pain shot through his head and he snapped his eyes shut again with a groan. Immediately, the girl jumped off the bed and hurried to where Peter assumed was the light switch because the room was darker a moment after he heard a soft 'click'.
'You can open your eyes now.' The girl said as she climbed back onto the bed. 'I made it not so bright anymore.' Peter did. It was much more pleasant without the sharp lights shining into his eyes, though his vision remained blurry. He blinked a few times and waited patiently until his sight focused. When it did, the first thing Peter saw was the little girl beaming down at him with the widest grin on her face. Brown locks fell in front of her bright brown eyes as she bent over Peter. She didn't look older than five and was, Peter thought, objectively speaking the cutest kid ever.
'Hi', She said, still grinning from ear to ear.
Peter tried to reply, but his voice was hoarse from remaining silent for too long. The girl was immediately up on her feet again. This time, it was to race over to the other end of the room. She opened a door leading to the bathroom and Peter could hear the water running a moment later. Peter took the time to look around the room while she was away.
The lights were out, but there was still enough light coming from the closed curtains to light the room. The room itself was not what Peter had been expecting. Instead of a white and sterile room, he woke up in a spacious and calming room. The walls were painted in warm brown colors and covered with artworks. Armchairs surrounded a small round coffee table near the window on his left and there was a purple glittery backpack slung across one of the chairs. The empty cups on the table suggested that there had been other people in the room other than the girl and the man that had left. He was lying in the middle of an incredibly soft king-sized bed instead of a typical hospital bed. It was almost as if he has just woken up in a normal –albeit very luxurious- bedroom instead of a hospital room. The only thing that gave it away were the large machines on the right side of his bed, which were all connected to him through various cables and tubes.
A few of them were connected to his right arm through needles that were stuck into his veins and fingertips. They creeped him out and Peter couldn't stop thinking about them now that he knew they were there. He thought about pulling them out one by one, but just the thought of the possibility of it going wrong and him staining the bed with the blood spraying from his arm stopped him from doing anything rash. Peter was glad for the distraction when the girl returned with a cup of water in her hands. 'Here', she said, holding the cup out to him. He reached out to accept it, but he almost spilled the drink when he realized that he didn't have the strength to hold on to it on his own. Luckily, the girl seemed to realize it at the same time as he did and managed to support the cup before it fell out of his hand.
'I'll help you.' She said gently. She took the cup out of Peter's hand and lifted it to his lips. She stopped when she realized that there was no way for her to help him drink while he was lying down without the water spilling all over his face. Peter tried to help her by sitting up, but his muscles still too weak to support him. She frowned and paused for a moment before she lifted the cup from his lips and half-crawled over to the other side of the bed to place the cup on the nightstand.
When she returned she stood up slowly and stepped one foot over his body, careful not to step on any of the many tubes attached to his right side, so she was towering over him. She hooked her arms beneath Peter's armpits, bent her knees, and lifted. Either the girl must've been stronger than she looked or he was way lighter than he should be because she was able to pull him up enough so he was leaning with his back against the headboard. She even set the pillow up to support his weight. Seeming pleased with her work, she walked over to the nightstand and came back with the cup of water. Peter hadn't noticed how thirsty he was until he drank the whole cup in one go. It was incredibly refreshing. 'Thank you', he said, audible this time, though his voice still sounded a bit rough around the edges.
'You're welcome', the girl said with a proud smile. Peter found himself smiling back at her. 'Hey uhm,' he started hesitantly. How was he supposed to ask this? 'Who are you?' The girl's eyes widened in surprise. Peter worried that he might've hurt her feelings. Please don't cry, he hoped. But luckily the girl didn't seem to think too much of it. 'I'm Morgan!' She said.
Peter mentally let out a sigh of relieve. 'Hey, Morgan.' He smiled.
'Hi.' She answered with a grin.
'Can I ask you a question?'
She nodded.
'Who am I?' Peter asked. Morgan giggled. 'You're Peter, silly. You're my big brother!' Oh, Peter thought. Of course, he had suspected something like that, but now he knew for sure. A pang of guilt went through him. What kind of brother forgets their sister? One that didn't even know his own name, Peter thought grimly. What happened to me?
'How old are you, Morgan?' Peter asked. 'I'm sorry that I don't remember.'
'I'm four and a half', she said proudly, holding up four fingers for him to see. 'And it's okay that you don't remember. Daddy said that you can be confused when you wake up. He said that you were gone for a long time, but now you're back and you can really be my big brother!'
I was gone for a long time? Peter thought. 'Can you tell me more about me?' He asked.
'You're Peter Parker', she told him. 'You're sixteen years old, that's…' She paused for a moment and Peter could see that she was thinking. 'Four times as old as me!' She exclaimed suddenly. Peter was impressed that she was able to calculate that. Most kids her age could barely count up to twenty, let alone multiply numbers. 'You're a superhero like daddy!' She continued. Peter frowned. He was a what? 'You help people! Like old ladies who have to cross the street and kitties stuck in trees, but you also stop bad guys and fight aliens!' Well that escalated quickly. The first part seemed believable, but the second part was probably just make-believe. 'You're also super smart', Morgan told him. 'You help daddy with his suits!' Suits? Maybe their father was a famous fashion designer, that would explain why his 'hospital room' looked so nice. In the end, the conversation only brought up more questions than that it answered them, so Peter decided to just let it slide for a while. 'Do you want to continue the movie?' He asked. 'I want to know what happens to Twilight after she unleashed the magic.'
Morgan's eyes lit up. 'You were really listening to the movie?'
'Yeah', Peter answered. 'How could I not, when I had such an amazing narrator telling me what was going on.'
She flashed him another of her bright smiles and hastily grabbed the tablet from the nightstand. She was buzzing with excitement. 'We could g- Oh!' She gasped, cutting herself off. 'I forgot!'
'What?' Peter asked. 'What is it?'
'Daddy said I had to go get the nurses if something happened!' She said with an edge of panic. 'I have to go get them now!'
'Wait!' Peter called out as she scrambled off the bed. It was true that he should probably have someone look him over, but without anything resembling a 'help' button in the room that he could see, Morgan would have to leave to find a nurse, and he didn't want that. 'You don't have to go now', Peter said. 'There's nothing wrong with me.'
Morgan looked doubtful. She kept glancing between Peter, the tablet in her hands, and the door. 'I don't know how long I've been out of it, but I'm sure they could wait a couple of minutes more until we've finished the movie.' Peter added, trying to convince her to stay though Morgan still seemed conflicted.
'C'mon', Peter pressed. 'I promise I won't tell mom we used her tablet.' Finally, Morgan's resolve broke and she jumped back onto the bed. He wrapped his arm around her as she tried to find a way to position the tablet on his stomach. The movie started again and Morgan she snuggled closer to Peter's side.
It ended much too soon for his Peter's liking. He managed to convince Morgan to watch until the credits ended, but after that, he didn't have any other excuses to keep her from leaving anymore. He knew he was being childish for trying to have her stay with him instead of doing what she was told. But he didn't know what was going on and right now, the only 'familiar' thing he had was Morgan, and he didn't want to lose that. Morgan must've noticed that he didn't want her to leave. With a determined look on her face, she walked over to the armchair and dug a stuffed toy from her purple backpack. 'It's okay', she said, holding a blue pegasus out to him. 'You don't have to be sad. I always have Rainbowdash with me when I'm alone, and now she's with you, so you won't be alone.' Touched by her kindness, Peter accepted the stuffed toy. Satisfied with her work, Morgan gave him one last smile and hurried away. Being left alone in an unfamiliar room did nothing to calm his nerves and Peter could feel the panic well up the moment she stepped out of the door. With Morgan gone, the room seemed larger than it had before. It was too quiet, way too quiet. Peter groaned as he buried his face in his sister's toy and tried to even his breathing. Please come back soon.