aterovis_bleedinghearts.pm6 by Arlene Chance Read Free Book Online Page A

a coma?” I asked. My voice sounded scratchy and harsh.
    The pain was starting to come back now, a little more with each breath.
    “No, no comas,” she told me as she started checking 47

    JOSH ATEROVIS
    machines and making little notes on her clipboard. “You were unconscious when they found you, and then they doped you up for the surgery. You’re just now coming around. Starting to feel some pain?”
    I nodded. I liked her. She was very straightforward.
    “Alrighty then, we’ll take care of that,” she made some adjustments to the keypad on the IV stand and changed the bag at the top. “There, that should help soon.”
    “What happened?” I asked her. “Am I OKAY?”
    “You’re going to be fine, but the doctor will be in shortly to tell you more. If you need anything from me, like more of the good stuff to knock you out or something to drink, whatever, just push this little red button here.” She showed me a small tube-shaped thingy with a wire that ran out of the bottom of it to the wall behind me. A red button was on one end of it. “This will page us at the nurses’ station. Someone will come and check on you, although it might not always be me. Okay?” I nodded again.
    She bustled about busily for a few more minutes, then breezed out, waggling her fingers at me as she went.
    The medicine started kicking in soon after, and I was about to go back to sleep when a tall black man with a thin mustache, wearing a white doctor’s coat and a stethoscope around his neck, walked into the room. I assumed he was the doctor.
    “Hello there, Killian,” he said. He pulled up one of the chairs in the room (they were a lovely shade of orange, to go with the puke green walls, I can only assume) and sat down so he was more or less on an eye level with me. “My name is Dr. Murray. I’m your doctor. It’s good to see you awake. You’re looking a lot better than the first time I saw you. You’ve been through a lot in the last 24 hours.”
    “Like what?” I asked.
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    “Well, do you remember what happened?” he asked.
    I nodded, “Aren’t the police going to ask me questions now that I’m awake?”
    The doctor laughed, “You’ve watched too many cops shows on TV. No, they aren’t going to need to ask you any questions. They’re saying you interrupted a mugging, classic case of wrong place at the wrong time. They haven’t caught the guy yet, but they are looking. Now, as for you, this guy did a number on you. You’re going to be just fine, but it’s going to take a while, several weeks at least. The knife entered at a perfect angle considering he missed all the important stuff, but he did puncture your lung. We’ve stitched up what needed stitching. Now you just need rest to finish up the job.
    It’s not going to be real fast, and it’s going to hurt like hell, but that’s why God invented drugs. I’ll be keeping an eye on you, and I’m sure someone showed you how to contact the nurses if you need anything.”
    He stood up as if to leave, but I noticed he’d left out some important information. I struggled to stay awake as the medicine was really kicking in about now. “Wait, what about Seth?” I said. Maybe I had been wrong.
    Maybe it wasn’t really Seth, or maybe they had been able to save him too.
    “That was the other young man?” Dr. Murray asked me. His slightly joking manner was gone now, and I knew the news wasn’t good.
    I nodded.
    “Did you know him?” he asked.
    Past tense. Definitely not good. I nodded again.
    “I’m sorry,” he said simply, “He was dead when the police got there.”
    I felt a tear roll down my cheek. The doctor looked at me sympathetically and patted me awkwardly on the hand. “Try to get some rest,” he said, “That’s what’s going to help you heal.”
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    I wondered if he meant physically or emotionally. I suspected I would heal much faster from my stab wound.

    * * *
The next time I awoke, my parents were in the room with me. As soon as my eyes were open, Mom was at the side of the