Chapter Seven:
There's flashes. A crowd of faceless kids all huddled around me. Flashing red and blue lights. Bella's concerned eyes. Her hands holding mine tightly. A man in white coat.
And then there's darkness.
I'm outside but I don't know where. It's someplace secluded, not all the way in the woods but there are trees around. It's foggy and the air is moist, like it's close to raining. Hands pull my thin jacket around me. My hands. I know because I can see them doing so, but I can't really feel them. It's like I'm not in my own body.
There's someone else there. Behind me. Unseen but not unfelt. They're familiar. A muffled voice speaks to me, telling dream-me to turn around. And so she does (or rather, I do? It's very confusing).
The person is now in my line of vision. They're tall and muscular, but that's about all I can make out. It's just the two of us and it seems like we're at a standstill.
Then the person is gone. And in their spot is a beast. It's large, like a bear, but its face looks like a wolf. I don't notice until its eyes are staring down on me, that I've fallen. And then all of a sudden, it's like everything registers. I'm back in my body and I can feel everything . The damp dirt underneath my body, the sharp canines inches away from my face, the predatory eyes, the claws on either side of my body.
It's like every single "fight-or-flight" instinct in my body clicks on at the same time. I'm scared, but for some reason I don't scream. It's the eyes, something in the eyes are family-
Dark shadows on white walls are the first thing I see. I blink a few more times, both to bring the view a little more into focus and to wake up. There's a monitor beside me with a red line going across it, and a loud tv that I don't hear until I see.
Ah, the hospital. But that conclusion just opens up a whole other case of questions that would normally have me panicking. But right now, my head's too cloudy to fully react to anything.
The room's not too big. There's just barely enough room for a bed, all the doctor stuff, a tv, and two seats at the bottom of the bed, which currently hold a sleeping Charlie and a dozing-off Bella.
The thin hand on the wall's clock makes a full circle a few times before I finally start to really shake my stupor. My legs are heavy. Or at least the right one is. It feels like a dead log under the blankets. The left one is sore.
I move in the hospital bed, trying to shift my weight from my left leg. The noise wakes Bella up and she's at my side in an instant, enveloping me in a short but strong hug.
"There you are. I thought you'd never wake up."
As soon as Bella's arms release me, Charlie's take their place. He must've been woken by the noise (Though it's nothing compared to the loud game blaring from the tv).
"Hey kiddo" Charlie gives me a squeeze before letting go, "How 'ya feeling?"
"Alright," my voice comes out hoarser than expected, and I clear my throat before repeating myself. "Alright. My foot hurts is all. What happened?"
"You were in a little accident." Charlie explains softly, moving my hair out of my face. Then the images come back to me. Metal screeching. A pressure on my ankle. Pain. But none of these memories come from the accident. They come from the dream I had.
"What?" I try to pull myself up, wincing in the process.
Bella grabs the remote, turning it down some. A weird look crossed her face and she looked to be contemplating something before coming to a decision. "Tyler skidded on some ice and slammed into the car. It pushed in the door on the driver's side and since your feet were leaning against it, they kinda …got crushed."
I pulled back the cover at Bella's words. Sure enough, my feet lay injured. The right one was in a big cast, the left lay bare but was bruised and swollen.
The second I lay eyes on it, the sensation goes from a small soreness to a sharp pain.
"Okay, now it really hurts."
"I'll get the nurse," Charlie says.
A nice lady comes in and asks me a few questions before giving me some more medicine, and pretty soon I fall back asleep.
The short stay in the hospital is mostly boring. Bella goes to school and Charlie goes to work, both reluctantly. I spend time coloring in my cast with a green marker and watching tv. All the while I think over my dream. I had been so out of it last night that I couldn't fully process it. But now that I'm fully awake, It weighs heavy on my mind.
At one point I got so restless that I considered doing schoolwork. Luckily, the two return before that happens.
Bella brings well wishes from our schoolmates and even a card from Angela, Jessica, Tyler, Eric, and a boy named Mike that I hadn't met.
It's around mid-afternoon when the doctor finally comes in. My brain malfunctions for a second upon seeing him.
The man is ridiculously beautiful. He was young, so much so that I didn't think him a doctor at first. He has kind eyes and a gentle smile, with blonde locs that go to his collar. He's tall too, standing above Dad ( had I always been a sucker for height? ).
Both me and Dad unconsciously smooth out our hair as he stalks towards us.
" I take it?" He asks cooly.
"Yes." I answer instantly, a little more breathless than I would have liked. " You can call me Helena though. I'm not nearly old enough to be called 'Ms'."
"Well, Helena," he corrects, " I'm just gonna run some basic tests if that's okay with you."
I nod. "Shoot."
asks me some questions and does a whole bunch of doctor stuff like checking my ears and taking my pulse. He then shines a little flashlight in my eye. It burns a little bit and I have to force myself not to look away.
"So," he pauses, moving the light and locking eyes with me. It seems like he's staring directly into my soul, "What do you remember about what happened?"
For some reason the words make me nervous. "Not much. I was laying across the front seat dozing off, and then I felt some pressure. The next thing I know, I'm here."
A look of relief passes on 's face at my words but it goes as soon as it comes, and I wonder if it was just a trick of the fluorescents.
"Good. I already did a very minor operation on your left foot and ankle while you were under. The bones have been repaired and put back into place. The other one sustained some damage as well, but luckily it wasn't too severe."
He explains more about my ankles and gives me some instructions on how to take care of them while they heal, before he and Charlie go to sort out some discharge paperwork.
The moment they leave the room, I throw a piece of paper at my sister, who's reading some randown book
" Pssst "
"Why are you whispering?" She asks, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
I wave her over to the bed, gesturing for her to sit down.
I mull over my next words to Bella as she takes a seat on the bed. I don't want to sound crazy but I desperately need to talk about it.
"I had a dream last night."
"That's … good?" Bella trails off, not sure why I'm telling her this.
"No! It's not good," I whisper-yell. "I've been having these dreams for the last couple of weeks. Weird dreams. And i've been brushing them off, but yesterday-"
I take a deep breath, almost scared to say the next words, "-I dreamed of the accident before it even happened."
"The accident?" Bella questions, "You dreamed about Tyler crashing into you?"
"Yes," I nod
Bella looks at me for a second, "Did you see anything else, or anyone else? In the dream."
"No, as soon as I heard the clang, everything turned dark. And I had another dream this morning about a bearwolf attack, and what if that comes true too?"
Bella just stares at me blankly as I ramble on, trying to take it all in.
"I mean, I know I'm not going crazy. Well, at least I don't think I am but-"
Bella places her arm on top of mine, rubbing soothingly. "You're not crazy Helena."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. " She reassures. Bella then bites her lip for a second, her face a storm of thoughts. "Something is going on. I don't know what though."
"So you feel it too?"
Bella nods and I let out a breath of relief.
A knock comes from the door and in front of it is just who i'd been making to talk to. She stands in the doorway, hands grasping the straps of her bookbag tightly and a nervous look on her face.
"Lauren" Bella greets.
"Hey Bella," Lauren nods her head but doesn't look at Bella. Her eyes bounce between me and the wall for a few seconds before I decide to break the tension.
"Lauren!" I smile. "Come in."
"I'm gonna go to the vending machine." Bella announces, picking up on the tone of the room. She'd always been good at that sort of thing. "Want anything?"
"Peach rings if they have any." I call out as she leaves.
Lauren enters the room, briefly looks at the spot Bella was sitting in, then sits in one of the chairs at the end of the bed.
An awkward silence hangs over the room for a moment. The ticking of the clock is all that can be heard.
" I just wanted to check on you," Lauren breaks the silencer after a few moments. "Everyone at school said you'd been in a terrible car accident."
I roll my eyes at that. The gossip-factory in smaller towns always amazes me (not that I can deny being apart of the gossip-factory too ).
"Exaggerations. It's just a little break. See?" I pull the covers back, showing the damage.
Lauren leans in, getting a closer look. "Jessica swore she saw your leg get cut clean-off. I'm not sure if I should feel disappointed or not."
"If you're relying on Jessica for your information then I'm the one who should be disappointed."
Lauren laughs at that.
"Wanna sign it? You can be the first." I ask excitedly. Lauren nods and fishes in her bookbag. She then emerges with a blue sharpie.
Once she finishes she steps back to admire her handiwork. "Hmmm," she nods in approval of herself, "You know, I would've thought your sister or parents would've been the first to sign."
An alarm goes off in my head at her words. Parents! I'd completely forgotten about Renee. I'd have to call her
"Look…" Lauren interrupts, "I don't know what came over me at the sleepover. I shouldn't have done that."
So we were finally talking about that? I assumed that once Lauren stopped ignoring me, we would just move on and act as if it never happened.
"...Why did you?" I ask softly. I had tried not to think too much into it but the question had weighed heavy on my mind.
"It doesn't matter. It won't happen again, so can we just forget about it?" She looked up, finally meeting my eyes.
"I'm not mad or anything,I just-"
She cuts me off... " Helena," she says, but I hear the unspoken plea underneath her words. Drop it. And so I do.
She looks so fragile at that moment. Like any little word could make or break her. I still want to know, but it's better to deal with these questions than to deal with my friend ignoring me again. Or completely.
"Okay. It's as good as forgotten" I relent, feeling a pang at Lauren's look of relief. It must've weighed heavy on her as well. "But if you ever did want to talk about… those kinda things, I'm here for you."
I squeeze her hand and she shoots me a small smile.
We talk for a bit longer before Lauren has to leave. On her way out she leaves the door open a little bit and I can make out Bella talking to some guy down the hall. I make a mental note to ask her about it later on before remembering my mother.
I dial Renee's number into the bedside phone and wait. It rings four times before she picks up.
"Hey Sweetie!" Come's Renee's voice over the phone.
"Mom! It's so great to hear your voice." I greet , half serious and half sarcastic. (A little bit passive-agressive I know, but I'm working on that).
Apart from emails, I hadn't heard from her since the first week I arrived. "Look, I had a little bit of an accident. Nothing major-"
"Yeah, your father told me about it. How are you doing?"
"Dad called you? When?" I ask.
"As soon as he found out." Renee answers, as if it was obvious.
She found out as soon as it happened? I had been awake for damn near a whole week and hadn't heard from her once.
"And you didn't think to call back and check on me?" I demand.
" Of course I did Helena." She replied shocked, as if I was the one being outlandish. "I was going to call back later today."
"Sure, call back later today. It's not like I just had my feet crushed by a truck or anything."
"I'm sorry sweetheart. I can come down there to see you if that's what you want? Phil and I were just hopping on a plane to Riverside. I can change it to Forks."
"No, that's okay mom. Love you and tell Phil I said hi." I sigh hoping the hurt doesn't seep out of my voice. Hanging up the phone with a goodbye from Renee, I feel small tears of frustration build in my eyes.
If I had a kid, I'd be on the next plane as soon as I heard. I didn't just want Renee to come see me, I wanted her to want to come see me. Why should I have to ask my mother to care?
Bella returns later looking just as put-out as I do. We stare at each other for a second, internally debating whether or not to ask each other what happened. Reaching a decision, we both send each other a look saying 'We'll talk about it later'.
The two of us sit in silence, pouting to ourselves until Dad comes in and says we're good to go.