Better Off Dead

Beep.

"Have you contacted her parents?" A gravelly voice asks calmly.

"Yes, they are in Germany. We had to fax permission to treat her." Responds a harmonic tone.

Beep.

"Good. Let's get this catheter in."

Beep.

Lorelei is vaguely aware of a stinging and tugging sensation.

Beep.

What is that sound?

Her eyelids feel heavy. Her body is stiff and cold.

Beep.

"Do you think she is still with us?" The harmonic voice whispers fearfully.

"Hard to say. We will not know much until the C.T. scans come back."

Darkness, darkness everywhere.

Beep.

Am I dead?

Lorelei's eyelids flutter ever so slightly.

Beep.

"Did you see that, Doc?"

Beep.

A warm pressure radiates onto Lorelei's hand.

Beep.

"C'mon, Sweetie. Are you in there?"

Beep.

What's happening? Why can't I open my eyes?

Her eyelids flutter again. This time she catches the glint of something yellow.

Beep.

"That's it, Baby girl. Open your eyes!

A gentle voice coaxes her.

Beep.

Her eyes feel impossibly heavy. Almost like they have been glued shut.

I can't. I'm trying!

Beep.

Lorelei wheezes, there is something in her throat.

"You've got it. Come on, sweet girl. Open those beautiful eyes. "

Lorelei's eyelids slowly flutter open. She can vaguely make out her blurred surroundings.

"Unnggh." she gargles.

The room is impossibly bright and sterile.

Where am I?

A soft figure hovers over her. A woman? Maybe?

"Oh, thank, goodness! Stay right here, baby girl. I'm gonna get the doctor!"

The figure is gone.

Her eyes struggle to focus on her surroundings. Her neck is stiff and she feels like she is plastered to the bed.

She tries to turn her head and cannot. She can now make out the fluorescent bar lights on the tiled ceilings. There is something jammed in her throat. It feels swollen and irritated.

Hospital. I'm in a hospital.

A door opens.

"Ms. Reynolds?"

"Unnnggh." Lorelei gargles to her best ability. She hears the person walk toward her bed. The door opens and closes again, they are followed closely by another set of footsteps.

Her range of vision is extremely limited from her inability to move her neck.

A man moves into her line of sight. He has buzz cut hair and a strong jawline. His tie is dangling over her.

"Can you hear me, Ms. Reynolds?" He asks delicately.

"Unnnggghh." Lorelei chokes with wide eyes.

"Blink once for yes, twice for no." The guy says gently, hovering over her head.

Lorelei eyes the man warily. He's definitely not a doctor. That much is evident from his well-pressed attire. Maybe a cop? He is not wearing a police officer's uniform from what she can see.

After a moment she blinks slowly. Once. Yes.

The man grins encouragingly.

"Excellent. I have a few questions I would like to ask you. They are simple yes or no questions. Is that alright?"

Lorelei feels sudden panic rising in her chest. What is going on?

"What exactly do you think you're doing?"

The door bangs open and she hears the familiar voice of the woman from before.

"This is official business." The man snaps, moving out of Lorelei's line of sight. His easy going demeanor is now long gone.

"Well, this business can officially wait until my patient is stable enough to deal with whatever you weirdos got going on." The nurse retorts.

Lorelei cheers silently in her head.

"Weirdos?" Another male voice, deep and gravelly, asks in surprise.

"Yes! Now get your butts out of here and leave this poor girl alone. She can not even talk with that tube in her mouth. Absolutely shameless!"

Lorelei hear's some shuffling around followed by a resounding bang as the door slams shut.

The nurse starts to take her vitals. There is a hum as the blood pressure cuff tightens around Lorelei's arm.

"Absolutely no shame. What jerks." She is ranting, moving about the room in a flurry. Her scrubs rustle next to Lorelei as she fishes around for something. She lets out an excited "Ah-hah" as she finds what she is looking for.

Something cold and smooth rolls over Lorelei's forehead. It makes a slight beep-beep-beep.

"97.9, temp's good." The nurse says to herself. "Some nerve those big shots have!"

Lorelei winces as the blood pressure cuff squeezes even harder, painfully cutting off the circulation in her arm.

I hope this is almost over.

Her throat burns and itches uncontrollably.

Lorelei has now come to the realization that she must be on some form of oxygen.

What in the world happened?

"-See if we can get that..."

She drowns out the nurse's filler banter and tries to piece together any clues that could explain how she ended up strapped to a hospital bed with a tube stuck in her throat.

I woke up late...

Bath...Her mother's Chiara Boni dress...

A party?

....Godier. Her name was Ingrid Godier....

Did I leave early?

A sharp stabbing pain shoots through her skull, impeding her train of thought.

"Do you think you could breathe on your own?"

The nurse is leaning over her head, a few strands of her straight, Auburn hair softly graze Lorelei's cheeks.

"Unngnghh" She says, trying to nod her head as much as possible.

The pretty nurse beams brightly. "Good! Let's try to get that thing out of your throat."

There is a slight pressure as the nurse touches her face. "We are going to take the tape off first. May feel a slight sting."

Without further ado, there is a tearing sound followed by a sharp sting as the nurse rips the tape off her cheeks. The sensation was enough to bring tears to Lorelei's eyes.

"It is like a bandaid. You just gotta get it over with", she says apologetically. "Now we are going to go ahead and deflate this balloon."

Balloon?

The nurse must have seen the puzzled look on her face because she chuckles softly.

"It is the only thing standing between you and getting this tube out."

Do whatever you have to do. I just want this damn thing out.

Lorelei had never seen the ability to breathe on your own as a luxury before now.

"So, were you team Edward or Jacob?"

Lorelei looks at the nurse as if she had grown two heads. What does that ha-

Suddenly there is a wet, tugging sensation and the tube is pulled out of her throat without warning.

Lorelei wheezes uncomfortably.

"There you are!" The nurse exclaims, clapping her hands together.

"You're good." Her hoarse voice is barely an octave above a whisper. God, her throat hurt.

The nurse giggles. "I try. Would you like some water?"

Lorelei groans, wrinkling her nose. "Yes, please." She mouths out, still trying to find her voice.

"Why can't I move my neck? Am I paralyzed?" She asks fearfully.

"We left you in a brace in case anything was broken. I will go talk to the doctor and see if we can get you out of that."

The nurse squeezes her hand with reassurance and leaves her line of sight. "I'll be right back."

She hears the door close softly as the nurse makes her exit.

What the hell is going on?

Tears blur out the speckles on the ceiling tiles as Lorelei struggles to control her breathing.

I wish my parents were here.

The door opens again, distracting her from her misery.

"Ms.Reynold's, we would like to ask you a few questions please."

Lorelei's heart skips a beat and her insides are chilled over.

The man in a suit leans over her head. She stares at his protruding adam's apple.

"S-sure." She rasps.

If she wanted to cry before, now she wants to bawl.

She fights back the tears. What is happening?

"Thank you for complying. I am detective Parsons." He flashes a shiny badge and places it back inside his suit pocket. "In that corner over there is Detective Smith."

She hears a gruff, "G'evening." from the far end of the room.

"I know this must be very stressful, and my mean face does not help any, so we are going to keep this short and sweet. Okay?"

Lorelei grimaces at his pitiful attempt to lighten the mood and wheezes in compliance.

"Good." He says licking his lips and pulling out a notepad.

"Understand, we are only here to help. But in order to help, we need to know what you remember from the accident."

She furrows her brows in confusion. "Accident?" Her voice is barely an octave above a shredded whisper.

The detective looks at her coolly. "Yes. What happened after you left Mrs. Godier's house?"

Her memory is fuzzy, but if she reaches back far enough she can vaguely recall saying goodbye to Mrs. Godier.

"I...I said goodbye to Mrs. Godier..." Lorelei starts slowly.

Something pokes out of the dark recesses of her memory, lightly tickling at her skull. She can't quite grasp it.

"I think I left after that."

Detective Parsons smiles encouragingly. "Yes, and what happened after you left?"

Lorelei frowns. "I remember tripping coming down her porch."

The detective writes something down.

"Very well. And then?"

"....I...walked to the gates and woke up here." Lorelei deliberates.

Detective Parsons purses his lips, "Are you sure that's all you remember?"

Lorelei swallows the sour taste in her mouth.

A flash of tires squealing and a slumped figure in the road clouds her vision.

Is this about the dog?

"Look I just found it like that. I wanted to help it! I tried to move it from the road." She exclaims.

"Move what?" The detective looks at her curiously.

"The dog!" She heaves, coughing a little bit.

"What dog?" His partner pipes from the other end of the room.

"The one that was in my arms." She says with confidence.

The detective frowns, scribbling something on his notepad.

"Do you remember a dog, Smith?" He asks.

"Can't say I saw anything about it, Parsons."

The detective nods his head, still writing. "Check in on that."

Do they think I'm lying?

Lorelei's face flushes in embarrassment.

"I don't understand." She wheezes. "What is happening?"

Detective Parson's looks at her coldly, his warm facade suddenly dropping. "Are you telling me you don't remember anything else?"

Vivid images of pitiful whining and the dog's crushed legs attack her memory.

White hot tears burn out of the corners of her eyes, gliding down her cheeks and wetting the pillow underneath her.

"It was awful." She cries. "There was blood everywhere."

She recalls snarling and blood flowing from her right hand.

The detective scribbles more onto his notepad.

"I think it bit me. It was so scared." She sniffles.

"What bit you?" Detective Parsons asks.

"The dog!" Lorelei exclaims, getting thrown into another coughing fit. Her throat is so dry.

"What dog?" The detective snaps. "To hell with the dog. What do you remember about the accident?"

"What accident?" Lorelei shrieks back.

"The one that got you in this bed with a cuff around your neck." Detective Parsons exclaims, waving his notepad around exasperatedly.

Suddenly, she hears the sound of bones crunching and the piercing heat of a blinding white light.

"Gentleman, I believe you have terrorized my patient enough. I must politely ask you to leave." A deep voice says reprovingly.

The detective stiffens, flopping his notepad shut. He reaches through his coat, pulling something thin out and tucking it under Lorelei's pillow.

"If anything jars your memory. Anything at all. Give me a call." He orders, marching briskly out of the room with his partner in tow. The door slams shut angrily behind them.

The doctor hovers over her bed. He smiles kindly at her through his faded blue eyes. The nurse stands at his back with a cup of ice water in her hands.

"Ms. Reynold's, I'm Dr. Willaby. Do you know why you are in the hospital?"

"I think maybe I got hit by a car."

Dr. Willaby nods his head. "Such appears to be the case."

"Am I okay?" She asks, her voice slightly breaking.

"Well, we have run a few scans. So far everything has checked out fine. We checked for any ruptures or broken bones. There does not seem to be any internal bleeding or swelling of the brain. We are waiting on the results of one more test before we can release you."

Lorelei frowns. "Why am I in this brace?"

"It is just a safety precaution. If there were any injuries, the paramedics did not want to risk further damage during transport." He says in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I'm so confused." She says in a small voice with trembling lips.

The nurse nods sympathetically from behind the doctor.

"I'm sure you are. Honestly, I have never seen anything like this before." Wrinkles in his forehead deepen with the furrowing of his brow.

"What do you mean?"

"The police say you must have rolled over the hood of the car...That alone is enough to cause some serious damage." He says, shaking his head and flipping through his clipboard. Presumably, her medical charts.

"I don't know, I'm pretty sore Doc." Lorelei jokes feebly.

He tuts. "Let us get that brace off. We will do a few more exams and then we will see about getting you out of here. Okay?"

He turns to Nurse Jackie, "Did you get that catheter out yet?"

She shakes her head, "On it."

Lorelei murmurs in agreement. "Sounds good to me."

"Nurse Jackie will take good care of you." The doctor smiles warmly and takes his exit.

Nurse Jackie grins, placing a bendable straw into the cup of ice water and angling it so that Lorelei could take a drink.

Lorelei sighs in relief as the cool liquid soothes her raw throat.

"You are an angel." She croaks out.

"Figured you might want that first." The nurse chuckles, placing the water on a metal cart next to the bed.

She reaches around Lorelei's neck, there is a ripping sound as the Velcro strap holding the brace in place is removed.

"Alright, baby girl. I want you to lift your neck." She coos.

Lorelei obliges, raising her head as the nurse slips her hands under her neck, sliding the brace off.

She falls back onto the pillow in sweet relief.

"Ohh, my neck." She sighs contentedly.

Nurse Jackie chuckles. "Just imagine if you would have broken it."

Lorelei grimaces. "Let's not."

"Would you like to sit? I can raise the bed?"

She nods her head vigorously. "Yes please." And then, "So how many stitches did I need?"

The nurse halts in her tracks, "Stitches?"

"Yeah. In my hand from the dog." Lorelei says plainly.

"What dog?" The nurse asks, pressing a button near Lorelei's head to raise the bed into a sitting position.

As the bed is rising, there is a brief rapping on the door as the Doctor re enters with his trusty clipboard in hand.

"You look much better!" He beams.

Lorelei raises an iv'd arm to rub her sore neck. "Yeah. I'm glad I got that thing off. You are back fast."

Dr Willaby laughs, "The results were waiting on me when I left the room."

"Oh."

He pulls a pin out of the lapel of his white medical coat.

"So, the good news is that everything checks out beautifully. Your vitals, labs, and images all came back fine. It is miraculous, really!" He exclaims letting out a breath of air.

Lorelei frowns. Miraculous?

"In all my years..."

Lorelei feels like she is some type of science experiment or freak of nature.

Am I supposed to be dead?

"I just want to go home." She says tiredly.

She doesn't get why the Detectives were so worried about the accident.

Why the doctor is looking at her like a medical anomaly.

Why the-

Oh my God.

It finally clicks.

Someone must have died.

Lorelei is released from the hospital at the crack of dawn with strict instructions to rest, ice, and follow up with her general practitioner asap.

There is a faint, almost invisible semi-circle scarred on the palm of her right hand.