Chapter 1

I was awake but my eyes weren't open.  I couldn't open them. I had the feeling of consciousness surrounding me like an aura, but it was an awkward consciousness. A sense of trespassing overwhelmed me; I knew this wasn't my bed. There was a soft, rhythmic beeping sound and it echoed the room giving the mental picture of emptiness.  

This must be my alarm going off and I'm just half asleep...but why is it so hard just to open my eyes? And whose bed am I in?

Something about the beeping, though, seemed peculiar.  Instead of a loud, abrupt nuisance, it felt more like a warning. A calm, eerie warning.  The steady noise seemed to match up identically to my heart beat.  A heart monitor...?

 I tried lifting my right arm and that's when I felt it: the tubing tangled around my arm and a plastic-like material, like tape, inside the crevice of my elbow.  

Bed.  Heart Monitor.  IV.

Hospital...

That's when the panic hit me. 

I tried opening my eyes once again but to no avail; my lids weren't budging in this game of tug-of-war. I needed to see. Lifting my left arm, I payed close attention to make sure there wasn't anything stuck in there as well, and pulled my eyes apart. Each opening causing a sharp inhale against my teeth.  Once my vision cleared, it was confirmed that this was, indeed, a hospital.  I lay in my bed for at least fifteen minutes trying to calm my breathing when a nurse came in. She smiled mostly with her eyes. 

"Well would you look at that. You're awake." She had a clipboard in hand and began looking at the machines beside my bed. She pat me on the leg twice and smiled again.

"Dr. Polen will be with you shortly, okay?"

I returned a flat smile and nodded slowly.

She left the room and it was another twenty minutes before I heard any signs of life down the hall. Another ten when the door slammed open and Dr. Polen walked in with a different nurse.

"Hel-lo Perdita, how are you feeling? You seemed to have gotten an exceptional amount of sleep since you've been here." He smiled and chuckled a little bit as if he just made a joke. Why is everyone so smiley? This is a place where people die.

I gave him a questioning look and then responded, "Um..fine. I guess. Did I not wake up at all last night or something?"

The doctor and the nurse exchanged looks and turned back to look at me with raised eyebrows.

"What?" I was thoroughly confused.

"You've been asleep for nine days..." Dr. Polen said

~~~~~~~

Nine days?

"What do you mean nine days? A person doesn't just sleep for nine days."