Iago’s POV

A loud beeping cuts through the fog of my mind.

It feels like my head throbs in time with the beeping.

I just want to go back to sleep.

To let the fog retake my mind and drift back into unconsciousness.

I don’t know where I am.

I don’t know what’s going on.

It’s all too much.

Something is down my throat.

I try to move my arms and legs and I can’t.

Why can’t I move?

I can’t seem to form a coherent thought.

I start to breath harder and the beeping next the me gets louder and faster.

I struggle against whatever is holding my limbs down and I still can’t seem to move.

Pain shoots through my body.

It all hurts so much.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

A door slams open near me and suddenly voices overtake the sound of the beeping, which keeps getting faster and faster.

I can’t think.

I just keep fighting.

I want to get up.

I want to go.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

There are so many voices around me, all talking at once.

It’s too much.

TOO MUCH.

“IAGO. IAGO CALM DOWN CUB.”

The voice sounds like my dad, and it makes me thrash more, trying to get to him.

To get free of what is holding me down.

“Mr. Bruin we need to sedate him again for his safety. He’ll hurt himself more.”

Sedate me?

NO!

I don’t want that.

Just tell me what is happening.

I try to open my mouth to say all this, but I choke on the words. On whatever is down my throat.

Then the fog is back, growing thicker and dragging me down into unconsciousness.

The beeping is back.

But the fog is gone.

Lifting up my eyelids all I see is a white ceiling.

It’s unfamiliar.

Where am I?

Goddess, my head is pounding.

“Iago?”

The voice comes from somewhere to the side of me. It sounds like Magnus.

What is he doing here?

I try to move but I can’t, my arms and legs won’t move. When I try to look toward the voice it feels like something is holding my head in place.

“Wait, wait Iago! Don’t move yet.” The voice gets closer, a hand grabs onto mine and Magnus’s face comes into my field of vision. “The doctor needs to come in. You have a breathing tube in, and they need to make sure you’re safe before you can move your limbs.”

As soon as he mentions the tube, I can’t not think about it and breathing becomes difficult.

“Iago, calm down.” There is a new voice and hands on me. “Iago, this is going to feel weird, but I need you to stay calm. I don’t want to have to sedate you again.”

I try to keep calm as the doctor pulls the tube from mine mouth and I start coughing as soon as it’s free.

“I know, Iago, it’s uncomfortable. Just relax, you’re going to start breathing on your own now. This is good. Slow breathes, stay calm.”

I try to slow down my breathing.

Hyperventilating now would be bad.

I don’t want to be sedated.

I can feel them loosening something from one of my wrists and one of my ankles.

They restrained me.

Why did they restrain me?

What is going on?

The beeping next to me gets faster.

It’s my heart rate.

Taking a deep breath, I try to calm down.

Opening my mouth, I try to speak but its difficult.

“What…” my voice is horse and even quieter than normal, “what happened?”

The doctor presses something and the bed moves, lifting so that I’m put into a sitting position.

I can get a good look at myself.

My right arm is in a sling, bound close to my body and my left leg is covered in a cast that goes from the bottom of my foot to high up on my thigh.

What….?

What happened to me?

Magnus sits on the edge of the bed near my hip.

“That’s not important right now, Iago. You know I’m not the right person to explain things to you. I just got to be the lucky one who was here when you woke up again. I texted everyone, so you and I are gonna hang out while we wait. Ma brought some books and I’m gonna read to you. I’ve gotten really good at it. All that practice with Zhen.”

I feel myself smile at my big brother.

Except for Indy, he’s my favorite sibling.

He’s never been mean to me or teased me too much.

From the table next to me he grabs a few books.

“Now Ma brought your crazy big, foreign books but I thought we could pick something a little more, laid back, how about an adventure.”

Magnus pulls out an old, battered copy of The Hobbit. It was Mom’s while she was in high school.

I’ve read it but something about the fact that my big brother Mags wanted to read to me, well this time I really did smile.

Mags, somehow, got his large body up next to mine so I could lean my head against his shoulder, my weight settling against his.

Mags started reading and I shut my eyes, letting a whole different world take over my mind, pushing back all the worries and fear I was feeling from not knowing what was going on or what happened.

This is why I read.

This is what literature does for me.

It’s freeing.

It’s an escape.

I can go into someone else’s world and forget about the one I’m in for any amount of time.

I didn’t open my eyes again until Frodo had turned the mountain trolls to stone and was surprised by what I saw.

It wasn’t just Mags and me anymore.

The room was full.

Everyone was listening to Magnus read.

My family, spread out over the room in various places.

Even Barnaby and Brutus.

Who I didn’t think liked me.

Everyone but Magnus and Mercutio’s other triplet Morgana who was on assignment.

And Indy.

Where is Indy?

Magnus must have felt me shift because he stopped reading and looked down at me, his light tan eyes concerned.

“You ok? Uncomfortable?”

I shake my head and look around.

They’re all here.

But not Indy.

“Where’s Indy?”

No one seems to want to make eye contact with me.

I don’t know what I did.

But it must have been bad if he isn’t here.

“Did I do something bad to Indy?”

“Oh no my sweet cub. Not at all. You didn’t do anything. Indy, Indy’s been very worried and he hasn’t been sure how to handle it. He hasn’t shifted back from his bear in several days.” Mam came forward sitting next to me as Magnus wrapped his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me to him. “Don’t worry, he’s had a few people around him to make sure he is safe and taken care of. I know he’ll come see you soon.”

I look down at my lap.

I can feel tears burning my eyes.

I don’t like that Indy’s upset.

He has been in his bear form for days?

I don’t understand what going on.

I need to know what happened.

“What happened? Why am I here?”

Mom looked sad, and she grabbed my right hand, since the other is trapped in a sling.

“What is the last thing you remember cub?”

I try to shrug but the shoulder I usually move flares with pain.

The arm with a sling is the shoulder I shrug.

Huh.

I didn’t even realize that was how I shrugged.

Everything is fuzzy.

Really fuzzy.

“I remember my first few classes, but after that. I don’t know, everything is hazy.”

Mom looks even sadder.

Why?

Why is she so sad?

“Oh my Sweet Cub. That was two weeks ago.”