Chapter 3:
*beep,*beep,*beep,*beep
"Mfph.." groaned Diana as she tried to open her eyes up. When she was finally able to get them fully open, she was a little surprised at what she saw.
She had been lying down in a bed, with tubes going into her nose. Wires had been connected to her hand through bandaid like adhesives. The wires had been connected to a monitor on the opposite end; which displayed what looked like her heartbeat. Diana looked up and saw that her blue dress had been replaced with a teal hospital gown.
Okay, so I'm in the hospital, She thought to herself. But how did I get here? Wasn't I just at the Polaris Fountain?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden gasp. Diana looked towards the source of the gasp and saw what appeared to be a nurse with a tray of jello. She immediately set it down on the counter, next to what appeared to be Diana's wand, and a get well card and ran towards Diana's side.
"Y-you're awake!" she stammered, "T-this is, this is-
"A-awake?" asked Diana, still a little drowsy. "What're you- Uggh!" A sudden pain pierced her temple.
The nurse took one of Diana's hands, attempting to ease the pain.
"Easy now, easy now…" Cooed the nurse. "Don't stress yourself, you've been out of it for a while, just try to relax." She went back to the counter and brought the jello to Diana.
"Here," she offered some green jello in a small bowl to Diana. "This might help."
Still a bit hungry, Diana gladly took the bowl with a spoon, and slowly began to eat the jello. It was flavorless, but at least it seemed to ease her migraine.
The nurse meanwhile, had gone to the nearby phone and began to dial in a number.
"Hello doctor, no, no problems, Ms. Cavendish has just woken up though. She seems alright, a little woozy, but alright. Yep, alright, I'll tell her you're on your way. Thank you." She hung up.
Diana looked up at the nurse, still confused at the situation.
"E-excuse me," she asked politely. The nurse looked over. "I don't mean to be rude, but what exactly is going on here? Was there some kind of accident?"
The nurse smiled, in an attempt to comfort the witch. "Don't worry, the doctor's on his way, he'll explain everything. Honestly, I'm amazed you woke up at all. Your aunt's been fearing the worst, but then, here you are, up and at em!" The nurse then signed. "At least someone's getting a Christmas miracle this year."
Christmas miracle? What was she talking about? Diana saw a calendar pinned on the nearby wall. She looked towards it and saw that the date: December 24th, Christmas Eve.
Now it all made sense to her. She remembered falling into the Fountain of Polaris and passing out in it. She had almost drowned but had been saved at the last minute. She had been out for three days probably due to the cold of the water.
It certainly seemed to make sense. Except for the part about Aunt Daryl. Try as she might, Diana couldn't remember Aunt Daryl ever visiting at Luna Nova during the party; or any time around that particular holiday season for the matter. So how did she know about this? Probably because Diana had yet to show up.
Soon a man in a white overcoat walked in. He sat down beside Diana and gave a welcoming smile.
"Welcome back, Ms. Cavendish." He spoke plainly, but kind. "We've been wondering when you'd wake up."
"What happened to me?" asked Diana.
The doctor looked down, he seemed to have lost the words for what to say, until he finally spoke up.
"You've been in a state of comatose for a long time," he stated simply. "You were brought here, unconscious. We weren't sure what to make of it at first, but one theory we have is that it was some sort of snake bite that put you under."
Snakebite? Thought Diana. Where did they get that idea? The only snakes at Luna Nova were the ones used by professors for lessons; and even then, they were sure not to be used to attack a single soul, let alone students. Besides, she knew what had happened. She had nearly drowned in the Fountain. Although she wasn't sure exactly why it took her so long to wake up from drowning.
"But, I never came into contact with any snakes that night"
"Well, then how do you explain that?" The doctor pointed to Diana's arm.
Diana looked and was shocked. There, right on her left arm, were two dark spots opposite of each other that looked as if someone had burned a cigar twice there. Or even a snake bite.
Diana panicked, "How did those get here?!"
"That's what we wanna know." answered the doctor. "Diana, we want to help you out as much as possible. But in order to do that, we need to know a few things ourselves. So if you can remember anything before you blacked out, please, tell us."
Diana as very confused. The bite marks, how did they get there? When did Aunt Daryl come to Luna Nova? All these questions boggled her mind. She figured right there that the best thing to do would be to tell the doctor all that she could; so that they could make some sort of hypothesis other than the snake theory.
"Well, first I remember the Christmas feast, and-" Diana stopped, and cringed internally at what she remembered next, "and, saying some, uh, rude, things to Akko, and then-
"Pardon me, but who's Akko?" asked the doctor, with a puzzled look on his face.
"She's my frie- Diana hesitated, "Someone I know from school."
"I see," said the doctor. "Go on."
Diana went on to tell the doctor and nurse about everything she could remember, The punch from Amanda, then walking through the north campus building, and finally, falling into the Fountain of Polaris.
When she finished, both the doctor and nurse put puzzled and confused faces on. Finally, the doctor spoke up:
"And, uh, you're positive you can't remember anything about your Aunt?"
"Yes, quite," answered Diana. "But what does she have to do with this? She wasn't on campus at all when it happened."
"Because she was the one who brought you here in the first place." said the nurse, nervously. "She looked incredibly worried about it as well; as if it had been her own fault."
Diana stopped, Aunt Daryl had brought her here? How? She hadn't been on campus during the party.
"B-but that's Impossible! She wasn't anywhere near Luna Nova when I fell in!"
The nurse and doctor looked at each other in shared confusion, then back to the blonde.
"Um, Ms. Cavensish. You weren't brought here from Luna Nova, you brought from the Cavendish manor."
Cavendish Manor? How did she there? The last time she could remember going there was to take over as the head family member. But that was at least a month before the holidays, let alone fall in.
"T-there must be some mistake," concluded Diana. "I haven't been back home in well over a month. In fact, I was planning on going back today for Christmas."
"You planned going back over a month ago?"
"A month ago?" Diana was bewildered. "I mean, I planned on going back, but I planned for today only four or five days ago."
"But, you've been in a coma." stated the nurse, "How could you have planned that while being unconscious?"
"I wasn't unconscious!" shouted Diana, now getting a bit irritated. "I told you, I planned going back right before this happened; I've only been out for three days!"
"Three days?" questioned the nurse.
"Yes, what's wrong with that?"
The doctor stepped up.
"Ms. Cavendish," he said, just as confused as the nurse, "You've been a coma for roughly over a month now…"
Diana froze. A month? But how? She remembered events that had transpired just days before.
"B-but, but, but,"
"Look, Diana." said the doctor sincerely. "This is all probably just some side effect of your coma."
"It is not!" Exclaimed Diana. "I remember events, people I talked to just days ago! There's no way I could've been in a coma for that long!"
"Phew, um alright." sighed the doctor, as and the nurse began to walk slowly over to Diana "Why don't you just lie back down for a bit? We'd like to run a few more tests to make sure-
"No!" shouted Diana, "You're wrong, and I'll prove it !" Panicking, she shot up from the bed, tearing out the tubes from her nose, and the patches off her wrists. Then she shoved the doctor and nurse out of her way, sprinting towards the door. Before she could reach for the knob, she looked at the counter and saw something familiar, her wand.
Without hesitation, she grabbed it and pointed it at both the doctor and nurse.
"Woah, Woah! Just calm down." cooed the nurse as she stepped forward, "We don't mean any harm. Just put that dow-"
"Stay away from me!" Y Diana. She raised up her wand and shouted "Murowa!"
But nothing happened. Diana expected a burst of magical energy to erupt from her wand, but for some reason, it wasn't. Confused she raised her wand again and repeated the spell. Same results. She tried again, and again, but not a single bit of magic came from her wand.
"I-I don't understand," She questioned aloud.
"Alright, Ms. Cavendish." said the doctor, now sounding a bit annoyed. "Just come with us, and everything will be"
But before he could finish his sentence, Diana bolted out the door and was now running down the halls of the hospital, searching for an exit.
I don't understand, She thought, Why didn't my spell work? That was definitely a mystery. She had recited the right incantation, and there was certainly no shortage of magical energy in the world, not after what she and Akko had done.
Diana could hear footsteps from behind, most likely the nurse and doctor trying to get her back to her room. She turned another corner and saw a door labeled PATIENT'S BELONGINGS to the side. She ran towards it and pulled. Luckily it was unlocked, and she was able to enter with ease.
A flickering fluorescent light lit the small room, Diana looked up, and then put her ear to the door, listening for any signs of life. She heard footsteps, and shouts of "This way!" pass by.
Relieved, Diana sat against the door, to catch her bearings, and maybe make sense of what was going on. Firstly, why wasn't her magic working properly? She recited the spell correctly, but it didn't work. Maybe it was something with her wand? Yes, that must be it! Diana looked her wand over, from top to bottom, but everything seemed normal. That is until she saw the magic energy readout…
There was not a single bit of magical energy in the wand. It was like when she and Akko had gotten lost in the Arcturus forest. But why was there no energy now? There should've been at more than enough, but low and behold nothing was there.
The next part of the puzzle was why did everyone think that she had gone to the Cavendish Manor already? And Why did they think she had been out for a month? How could she have been? She remembered clearly the events of the 21st, so why was she being treated like she had been out for so long?
More footsteps passed by the door, putting Diana out of her stupor. I suppose I should probably exit the premises before doing anything else. In the room were various containers. Diana looked at all of them and noticed that each one had what appeared to be last names on them. She looked throughout the rows until she came across one labeled: CAVENDISH, DIANA.
She pulled the container off the shelf and opened it up. Inside were a pair of shoes, and what appeared to be her white cloak. Odd, thought. I haven't worn this since I last went home… Still, anything would be better than the hospital gown she had on now.
Once she had fully changed, she carefully opened the door and looked from side to side for any of the hospital staff, Luckily, there weren't. She carefully stepped out of the room and began to walk down the hall.
Right, she said to herself, First order of business is to get back to Luna Nova. That seemed like a good idea, there had to be some sort of book or research that could give her clues as to what was happening.
Soon Diana found herself in the main lobby. She looked and saw a pair of sliding doors and exit sign right above them. Excellent, an escape. Diana began to walk towards the exit, but not before seeing the same nurse at the front desk.
"And then she just ran away." The nurse told the clerk. "So be on the lookout for her, and call up security if you see her."
Tension building up inside her, Diana picked up her pace as she walked towards the exit. She was glad when she was finally out the doors. She looked around and saw snow all over the place. Okay, She thought, It's still snowing. She then heard a shout from within the building, and then slowly backed away; making sure that she wasn't being followed.
Diana was so busy looking behind her, that she forgot to look in front of her, and ran right into someone, causing the blonde to fall back first into the snow on the ground. She couldn't see clearly, but she could see that the person she had bumped into was on crutches.
Diana panicked, "Oh! I-I'm terribly sorry! I didn't see you there, I should've been paying more attention!"
"No, no! You're fine." came a voice from the person. "It's no big deal honestly!"
Wait a minute, thought Diana, that voice. It sounded familiar, but from the ground, she had a hard time seeing the speaker's face.
Diana stood up, and when she could see the face. She couldn't believe her eyes. No, how was this even possible? How could this person be here after all that had happened beforehand?
All these and more flooded Diana's brain as she gaped at the person before her.
"...P-Professor Ursula?"