Chapter ten. You're almost finished. But where can the story go now you ask. Well … why don't you read on and find out.

Chapter Ten

The Morning after the Mourning

Light slowly began to shine through Mandy's eyelids. A strange and unfamiliar light. The smell of rubber and talcum powder filled Mandy's nose. A beeping sound toned once every few seconds and there seemed to be a soft electrical buzz in the background. She struggled with her eyelids, demanding that they open and after a few attempt's they finally obliged. The light grew brighter as her eyes opened wider and when they were completely open she saw that she was looking at a ceiling. But not the ceiling of the gym, or the ceiling of Billy's room or any other familiar ceiling she could think of. The roof was a bright white and a single light hung directly above her head. Her senses slowly came to her and she realised she was in a soft, clean bed. She painfully pulled her head of the pillow and first looked across to her left where the beeping sound was tolling from. A jumble of wires and electrical devices sat next to her metal framed bed, some machines beeping and some with flashing lights. Mandy followed one of the tubes that ran of the machine with her eyes. It traveled towards her and under the blanket that was placed on top of her. She could feel the needle in her arm. She looked across her bed as she saw movement next to it.

Mandy's mind was still slow, so it was a few seconds before she realised that the drowsing figure sitting on a chair next her was someone she new. She tried to say the name, but her words would not come out. The figure sat very still, his head bowed down and his eyes closed. The figure was sleeping. Mandy slowly moved her hand out from under the blanket. Her body was stiff and slow, but it eventually arrived at its target. She dropped her hand softly on the knee of the other person. She tried to speak again and had more success this time as she softly shook the figure and croaked his name.

'Billy…' Mandy struggled to say. 'Billy…'

The boy slowly opened his eyes and looked lazily at the hand on his knee. Suddenly he seemed to realise the full extent of this hand as his eyes almost bulged out of there sockets. His attention then shot quickly to Mandy's face.

Before Mandy had time to say anything, the boy had shot up and run out of Mandy's view. Mandy dropped her head back down on her pillow, her brain hurting with confusion.

"Am I dead," she thought. "Is this afterlife"? She stared at the light beaming down at her. "But that was Billy."

She vaguely remembered her argument with herself, but much of it was blank in her mind, as if it were all only a dream. Her strange and blotchy thoughts were interrupted as a tall figure, shadowed by the light above, stopped and stared down at her. Mandy could vaguely make out the shape of the man's face, it was unfamiliar. The man reached down with his gloved hand and pried Mandy's left eye completely open. He then shone a bright light in her eyes, brighter then the light of the roof. He then moved over to Mandy's other eye, softly talking in the meantime.

'Can you hear me Mandy?' the man questioned.

'Yes,' Mandy answered more clearly then before as if the light was helping to reactivate Mandy's brain and body. The man pulled away and held the back of Mandy's head. He aided her as she sat upright against the wall behind her bed. From her upright position she had a better view of the room around her. She sat in a large, circular room. A green carpet covered the floor. Approximately five other beds surrounded the circular room, all with a similar set up as Mandy's bed. The room could have fit many other beds in it, but the limitedness of the room made it seem calm. Two of the other beds were occupied by people. One of them, an old man, sat reading a thick and old book while the other lay sleeping. In the center of the large, windowless room was a rounded desk at which a nurse typed at a computer. The room was all quiet except for the electrical sound and the beeping.

Mandy's eyes focused on the figures standing around her bed. A doctor, two nurses and Billy all stood looking at her. It seemed she was the most interesting thing to have happened in a while.

'Well, glad to see you awake for the first time Mandy,' the tall doctor said. 'All in all you're lucky.'

Mandy's gaze slowly drew to Billy. He had a bandage wrapped around his head and his normal, almost goofy look across his face. She stared at him as he looked back at her sweetly. She wanted to say his name, but something in her mind told her that the silent stare they held was good enough. The doctor obviously noticed Mandy's stare and commented.

'You should thank him you know,' the doctor said quickly. 'He saved your life.'

Mandy looked at the doctor, then back to Billy, then back to the doctor.

'Billy, saved me?' Mandy said.

'He sure did Mandy,' a tall man in a bright yellow jacket said, seemingly coming from nowhere. 'He kept you breathing until we managed to get to you.'

Mandy looked stunned at the new man. She had never seen this man in her life, and now that she though about it, the only familiar face in the room was Billy's.

She looked back to him and he still looked at her with his reassuring stare and she wondered to herself.

'How did Billy keep me breathing?' she finally asked. The doctor was the first to answer.

'He managed to perfo–' the doctor was cut of by Billy who shook his arm desperately. The doctor looked down at the boy and Billy let go of the doctor's arm.

'It's probably better that you don't tell her,' Billy said calmly, his face turning bright red. Mandy looked at him with a strange feeling. She felt a fuzziness at the end of her hands, her chest seemed to be filled with fluttering birds and she couldn't move her eyes away from his face.

Mandy was startled as the doctor grabbed her face softly.

'Are you still feeling okay Mandy?' he questioned, almost panicking.

'Uh-yeah,' Mandy replied hesitantly. The doctor moved away from her and she touched her face, noticing that she had been blushing which must have alarmed the doctor.

She cursed her own body in her mind and rested her head back on her pillow. She was so tired and didn't really want to talk to a wave of curious doctors and nurses and mysterious men. She felt their presence move away and she shifted her weight to look at the boy who sat back down next to her, looking at her with his goofy but gentle eyes.

She felt a smile force its way onto her face and she slowly closed her eyes.

"You made the right choice Mandy" a mysterious voice in her mind said to her.

"Is that why I'm still alive?" Mandy felt compelled to ask herself.

"Sleep now Mandy, you earned it". And as if the voice had some magical power over her, Mandy fell asleep.

Ah. That's where the story can go. This chapter was so hard to write. I haven't had much experience in hospitals so I wouldn't know much about them, only vague memories. But I thought I did it quite well. Its actually one of my favorite chapters.