NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes

It was dark, I couldn’t see anything other than myself… It wasn’t scary though, I felt really calm. It was rather pleasant, I was warm and I felt like nothing could hurt me. At least until I got ripped out of it and woke up in pain. The pain was intense, I started screaming.

It wasn’t long before someone ran in and tried calming me down. “Hey, hey! What’s wrong?!”

It hurt so much. “Everything hurts!”

They ran out of the room and then back ran in with an IV, I didn’t notice them stick a needle in my arm at first but the pain faded away after they did.

A few seconds later four doctors ran in. They all looked exhausted. The one who put the needle in turned towards them. “It’s fine, she woke up in pain.”

Two of them let out a sigh, one of them walked over to me. “Hey, cam you hear me?” He looked tired, he had dark circles under his eyes.

My throat hurt now and my voice sounded scratchy. “Ya, it doesn’t hurt now.”

He let out a depressed laugh. “That’s good. I’m surprised you’re awake it’s only been a few hours since we got you out of surgery…” He felt around my chest, stomach, and neck. “It doesn’t feel like your stitching has torn, please refrain from moving, it might be best for you to avoid talking as well… How about we all get some rest, it’s been a long day…” He sounded tired, I guess I felt tired as well. He put his hand on my forehead and ended up falling asleep.

I woke up to the sound of screaming. “Who gave you authorization to do this!?” It was a voice I didn’t recognize.

Someone replied, it sounded like the doctor from last night. “I’ve been ordered to not inform you of that. My hands are tied and there’s nothing I can do.”

They sounded angry. “Bullshit! I want to know. We didn’t give approval for this operation!”

The doctor let out a sigh. “Regardless of your approval it has been done, we saved a life. Now are you going to reprimand four surgeons for abiding by their oath, or are we done here? If you want I can show you what was pulled out.”

The other person sounded irritated. “Fine, this better be good!”

I heard them walk off… It was an odd thing to overhear. I assumed they were talking about me. I couldn’t move, even if I tried my arms and legs wouldn’t move much. It didn’t hurt to try but I felt like I shouldn’t be trying to move. I could move my neck at least…. They also had one of those masks on me again.

I laid there for a while, I kept thinking about what happened over the past month. I also lost track of what day it was, I need to find out…

Someone knocked on the door and walked in, it was Jessica… She seemed happy. “Hey Red, how do you feel?”

They said I shouldn’t talk much, maybe if I didn’t talk loudly. “I feel tired.” My voice was scratchy again.

That’s when I noticed her carrying some papers, they look glossy like photopaper. Jessica must have noticed me spot them. “I got pictures of what they pulled out of you. Do you want to see it?”

To say I wasn’t curious would have been a lie. “Yah.” Still scratchy.

She sat on the edge of the bed and laid them out. “Here, let me raise you up.” She reached behind the bed and pushed something, the bed started slowly pushing my back upwards. She pointed at the picture farthest to the left, I didn’t know what was there though. “That’s the old heart, they found a piece of metal lodged in it, it was a broken piece of a knife.” Elizabeth immediately came to mind. Then she pointed to the second picture. “They found bone shards lodged within your stomach liver and kidneys… Some of them had old bullets stuck in them as well. That’s what took them the longest was picking all of those out.” She pointed to the third and final picture. “that was my fault, they had to rebreak your ribs and line them back up. It turns out base three didn’t do much to help you. They just did the bare minimum to keep you from keeling over in their infirmary…” She didn’t say anything for a while… “There were some other things they pulled out as well but I couldn’t get pictures. Those people you were with, they put some sort of mesh around that heart of yours, the strong one. It was tightening around it, they predicted it would have been another month or two before it would have crushed that heart.”

Were they trying to kill me… Or was it something that would kill me if I ever left. I guess it doesn’t matter, they put that in there with the intent to hurt me… We sat in silence for a few minutes, just the noise of that machine causing the fog to come out of this mask. It was nice… I felt welcome for some reason.

Jessica went to go stand up when a tall woman wearing a suit and skirt walked in. “Ahem.” She sounded angry. “Jessica did we give approval for this?”

Jessica crossed her arms. “I didn’t order it.”

The moment narrowed her eyes. “You expect me to believe that, I’m aware how invested you are in this girl?!”

Jessica was still crossing her arms. “It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. The head surgeon called for it, I can’t intervene in these matters.” Jessica picked the clipboard off the counter in the room, I didn’t notice it before. She handed it to the lady.

She was reading it over for a while before looking at Jessica. “So, he did… I supposed I have no reason to be speaking with you then Jessica, I’d like to speak to her.”

Jessica stepped to the side, mockingly. “Go right ahead.”

The woman walked over and put her hand on the bed, she leaned into my face. “Your names Red, right?” I nodded my head. She smiled, “Congratulations, you’ve been selected to assist base one at location seventy-three.” That was sudden.

The woman walked out in a rush and Jessica, seemed relieved. “That’s great! That guy seems to know what to do whenever I get stuck… Congratulations Red, you’ll be working under me from now on.”