Chapter Thirty-One: The Strange Boy
Estelle
A lavender aroma, a calm and peaceful music playing, and I'm laying on very comfortable bedsheets.
Ah... I can't help but feel more relaxed.
I won't even mind staying in this bed all day long, but I feel that someone is watching me. Especially that that person keeps on touching my hand. As if it's trying to get something that is wrapped around my fingers.
"What are you doing?" I asked with a raspy voice while at the same time, slowly opening my eyes.
Though my eyes are still adjusting, I can assume that the man in front of me got startled because he hit the bed frame.
I let out a chuckle. That must've hurt!
"Shit!" He muttered and immediately walked right straight to the door as fast as he could.
"H-Hey, wait!" I said and tried my best to get up, but I could feel the weakness in my whole body.
He froze right in front of the door. I scanned what he was wearing and looked at mine, too. We're both wearing hospital gowns. He must also be a patient here.
"Why are you here? Who are you?" I asked. Though his stance looked familiar, I don't remember anyone like him in my circle of friends. Best, I don't have friends admitted in a hospital. Unlike me.
He just stood there in silence while I'm still waiting for his response.
"Hey, are you just gonna stand there and keep ignoring me—"
"I'm back, my bestie! Oh! Oh gosh, I'm sorry. Did it hurt?"
A familiar voice and face suddenly appeared after the door went open. I cannot help but to already burst out laughing when the floor hit the guy's forehead.
"Wait, who are you?" Sophie asked him in confusion, just like me earlier.
He didn't say anything at all and just put his hand on his head as if he's relieving the pain.
"I'm still talking to you!" Sophie angrily shouted when he just walked past her and headed right to the open door. He remained silent.
"I know your face. I'll remember it and report you for entering here."
Before Sophie shut the door, the man looked at me with such an irk in his face. That annoyed face...
Suddenly, a blurry face of an unknown man flashes right into my mind. He looked and felt like someone I knew.
"Argh!" I groaned in pain. I immediately put both of my hands on my head and harshly massaged it. The pain is unbearable.
"Estelle! Oh gosh, you're alive!" I heard Sophie utter and I could also hear her footsteps towards me.
"Of course, I am alive," I said while still massaging my head. It hurts.
"Ah no. I meant you're already awake. Wait... you're already awake!"
When she realized it, she panicked. Sophie walked to the door then walked back again towards me.
She's making me dizzier.
"I should get Doctor Recio. Wait, but I cannot leave you here. That maniac might enter your room again. Are you dizzy? Oh gosh, I really should get the doctor! But—"
"Just go get the doctor!" I shouted.
"Right!" She said, but before she headed to the door, she handed me the vase beside my bed, "The moment that man came in again, throw this, alright?"
"Yes, yes," I said in defeat while holding the vase already. The moment Sophie grabbed the handle, she still looked back at me and said some few words.
"Aim at the head."
I just nodded and smiled at her. The moment the room was filled with silence again, I put back the vase on the table and just took a deep breath. I massaged my head again, but this time, the pain was already slowly subsiding.
"I'm at the hospital," I said to myself as I scanned the whole room. It's so white.
I just stared at the clouds in the open window as I was wondering why I am here. I don't remember any unfamiliarities in my daily routine. University-Work-Study. That's it, but it feels like something is missing.
I looked at the palms of both of my hands, especially the right one. I felt like there was some tingling sensation over there earlier. My brows furrowed when I saw marks, like that of a string that were wrapped around tightly. Even the back of my hand, there are marks.
I remembered the man that was in my room earlier. Now that I think of it, maybe he's getting something that was on my hand earlier. It left a mark.
"What did he get? A tiny rope? Necklace?" I asked myself, but that didn't last long because a girl in her early 50s entered the room with hands on both her white gown's pockets. Beside her was Sophie, who seems to be still worried.
"Hi, Miss Chavez. How are you feeling?" Doctor Recio asked as she entered the room and approached me.
"I'm good—"
"No, she's not Doctor!" Sophie butt in and glared at me for lying. "Before I left her, she was massaging her head so much. I think she's in pain."
The doctor looked at me with such discerning eyes.
"So?" She asked.
"W-What she said was right but the pain immediately went away," I replied.
"Okay, let's see."
The doctor went on her way to check my vitals and do some tests to make sure that there's nothing that we should worry about.
"Doc, do I suffer from some kind of amnesia?" I asked in the middle of her checking me up. She looked at me with concerned eyes.
"No, your test says otherwise. Why do you ask?"
"It's just that I feel like I am missing something."
"Yeah, you missed out lots of lectures and I even covered your shifts at the café," Sophie sarcastically said while making herself comfortable sitting on my bed.
"We'll do another scan, Miss Chavez. Is that alright?" she said, while holding her laugh at what Sophie had just said. "If it came out normal, then maybe your friend is right and the thing that you're missing is your lectures and work."
"See? See?" Sophie mockingly said, and I formed a fist in my hand and acted like I was about to hit her.
"These girls..."
Doctor Recio just continued doing her job while Sophie and I would roast each other in front of her. After Dr. Recio finished checking up on me, Sophie and I ate the food that she brought earlier.
Oh, carbonara and soda drinks!
"Chill girlie," she said while still chewing her food. "But it makes sense, you're sleeping for almost two weeks. I thought you would hit the one month period."
"Are you joking right now?" I said with a blank face.
Somehow, I felt like I hadn't eaten these kind of foods for as long now. Even though Sophie only said that, I had been sleeping for two weeks.
"Funny, right?" She said sarcastically and was about to eat another bite, but she choked when I asked her a question.
"Hey, do you know why I'm here?" I asked. "I really don't remember anything but somehow, I felt like I am expecting myself to be here on the hospital already."
Even though Sophie said that I have been sleeping for almost two weeks, I feel nothing unusual. Isn't it a common response for a patient like me to be shocked or worried? Then, there's me. Not nervous at all.
"Why are you asking such strange question?"
I know right, I am really strange right now. But I want to know how I ended up here. What did I do?
I didn't bother to respond to Sophie verbally, but I did stare at her like wanting her to explain to me why I ended up here. I know that she knows. Especially since she's been visiting me here.
She first let out a deep sigh before putting her plate on the table beside us. After a gulp of her soda, she started her explanations.
"Okay fine," she started and sat beside me. "The maids in your house said that they found you lying in the floor of your bedroom. It's already night but you still haven't touched your dinner outside so they got really worried."
"Oh right. Even if I'm upset or something, I would still make sure to touch my food even if it's already dawn."
"Then, as soon as they saw you lying yet not responding, they called your parents then an ambulance afterwards."
Oh right, my parents.
I can't help but let out a bitter smile. I woke up, but I first saw a stranger and my best friend rather than them. Do they even care that I am here?
"Wait, why am I lying on the floor? Maybe I just hid my head somewhere and ended up there," I asked, and this time, I looked Sophie in the eye, but she avoided it. As if she wanted to hide something.
"Did I?" I asked again.
Sophie got my empty plate and placed it on top of the table. She then later grabbed both of my hands.
"T-They... They found pills beside you. Some, into your mouth and the others, on the floor or its container. Everyone assumed that you tried to commit suicide."
"What?! I would never do that!" I said unbelievably and stood up. Sophie also stood up in front of me.
"Right? When they said that, I know it doesn't make sense. We both might be always complaining about how our lives are difficult but we promised each other to stick until the end," Sophie said. It's obvious that she was devastated, also.
This time, I'm the one who holds her hands. She's on the verge of crying.
"I wouldn't do that, I swear," I assured her.
Sophie may be seen as someone hard-headed and doing something recklessly, but she's more sensitive than I am regarding this situation. After all, she's a survivor.
I gave her a hug, but that didn't last long when my head started aching again. It's like someone is hammering my head, over and over again.
Argh, it's painful!
"E-Estelle! What's happening? Should I call the doctor again?"
"Woman... She's tall... The pills..."
"What? What are you trying to say?"
"I remember a woman giving me the pills. She said it's for my insomnia but..." I stopped talking when my headache suddenly disappeared and my mind became clear.
What's next? What happened?
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