PART 3! Will hopefully have the completed story up by Friday. since they want it all typed by then. yes i know she sleeps a lot but i promise this will be the last dream... maybe. please comment!
"Yes dad. Come on Frank you'll feel better outside…" Will said as he guided the sick man still clutching the can out into the hall.
Will did as his father told him to and watched as five nurses and a tub went into the tiny room that held the strange girl. Will's father soon exited the room and walked up to Will.
"She'll need surgery," Will's dad said. He looked over Will and though about how well he had handled the whole thing. "I've decided to let you do the surgery, son."
"What? … but I'm not ready I've…"
"I know but you've watched me do this, so you will lead and I'll assist."
Will took a gulp and walked with his father to scrub down and prep for the surgery.
After doing many complicated surgical procedures, the young woman was stable. They moved her to the only available spot, in a room with an old lady named Rose. When the strange girl didn't wake after a week they moved her to the second floor and into a private room. She was placed under Will's care and Will checked on her every day. He watched her sleeping and thought about who she was and what she was like.
That morning he had set off on his rounds believing that the young girl would still be asleep. He opened the door to find her not only awake but standing up and staring out the window. Shocked to see her awake he said the first thing that came to mind, "I see you're awake."
Will shook himself out of his memories and took another deep breath. He pushed himself up from the wall and continued down the hall to finish his rounds.
Riese stared at the door for a long time. She liked the young man and hoped he would come back. Riese's eye grew heavy, she thought it odd to sleep again after waking up from such a long nap, but she couldn't fight the closing of her eyes. So she laid down and slipped into unconsciousness.
Images assaulted her; a man in a kitchen, a small body in a pool of blood, a smoke filled room. She tried to piece them together but as suddenly as they came they vanished. She was running through a dark forest. A dark shape chased her. An animal of some sort was with her but it was constantly changing shape. Riese stopped, the pain in her side growing stronger. The ever-changing animal urged Riese on, so she took a deep breath and continued to run.
Signs of life filled the forest. Finally a clearing appeared in the trees. Riese slowed and told the animal something. Riese entered the town alone, appearing to be like any other traveler. She reached the top of a short hill to find a man standing outside a small house. She walked up to the man, hoping to ask for directions to a doctor. Suddenly everything went black.
The darkness was back. It swallowed Riese. She struggled trying to escape from the torment. Nothing helped. The blackness was winning slowly eating the disappearing Riese. She was going to die both of them knew it. Riese was going to suffocate. She screamed one final time…
Riese sat up looking wildly around at the changed room. Realizing that it was night and she was still in the hospital Riese relaxed. She tried to remember her dream but all that came to her were fragments; a bloody body, her running with something beside her, something chasing her, a village on a small hill.
She sighed and looked out her one window. The stars twinkled over the barely visible treetops. Constellations were visible to Riese and she could name them but where the knowledge came from was a complete mystery. She traced them and recalled a distant memory of a man pointing out the same to her.
A howl filled the silent night air. Riese listened fascinated as she heard a voice emerge from the high howl. Where are you? The voice called to Riese and she knew it from somewhere but like the stars she didn't know where. Lifting the sheets up Riese set her feet on the floor and was about to go to the window when the door opened.
Jumping up suddenly, Riese swayed and shook as pins and needles filled her legs. An old woman entered dressed in a long night gown. The elder looked at the unsteady girl.
"Sit back down on that bed before you fall and I have to call the nurse," the crackling voice said. Riese sat down immediately on the bed and watched as the grumbling old woman made her way to the bed and sat down herself.
"That boy was right you're far too jumpy," laughed the old woman.
Riese just stared at the elder unable to decide about what to think about the old woman.
"Quiet too," the woman said examining Riese. "Forgot to mention that. Oh well… that must be why I like you so much. You're quiet, kids these days always talking, never let us elders get a word in edge wise. You just jabber, jabber, jabber. My name is Rose by the way."
"Riese."
The old woman wheezed with laughter, "Short, sweet and to the point I like that. It's even better than being quiet. Ha ha ha ha ha… I sleep down the stairs in the old fogey ward. You come visit me every once in a while. We'll have a fun time listening to me tell you old stories. Sound good. Good. I'll see you soon."
The kind old lady got up and left. Riese just sat there and wonder why everybody kept leaving before she had a chance to really say anything. Rose seemed nice and something about her was familiar. Not Rose herself but her demeanor.
Riese thought for a while more about her dreams, the doctor, the old woman, and the howling voice. Laying down she thought while she studied the starts. Eventually she fell back asleep.