Chapter Thirteen: Where am I now?

I feel myself stirring. I try to open my eyes, sit up, but nothing. I feel heavy, and I’m unable to move. I can hear muffling around me, similar to when I woke up after the ceremony. I try to concentrate my efforts to listen to what’s being said, but sleep takes over me again.

I jolt suddenly, forcing my eyes awake and I manage to shoot myself upwards into a sitting position. I instantly place my hands to my right side, to feel the gaping wound I was left with after fighting that beast, and I notice that there’s no pain. I can feel that I have some sort of wrapping there, a bandage of some sorts?

I freeze, as I look at my surroundings, I’m in a different place than what I remember. I notice that there are tubes attached to the outside of my right hand and look to my right to see I’m hooked up to some machine…thinking about it, it reminds me of something in the hospitals back where I came from.

I look around the room to see it dimly lit by an electric light…something I’ve not seen in a long time. Elves didn’t really rely on electrical appliances unless it was necessary. This place was completely foreign to me and I had no idea where I was which scared me.

There were no windows, just seemed to be a fairly spacious four by four room. Nothing special. At least there was no iron bars. The floors were very clean, the side tables were bare, and the walls were a pristine white. A hospital room, fairly modern, from what I comprehend.

“Do you smell that?” Athena perks up from my mind. I can tell she’s not interested at anything else but this smell.

I take a sniff, to identify what she’s already picked up on and I smell a slight hint of caramelised apples, similar to how my Mother used to make them with crêpes on a Saturday morning.

I try and identify where it’s from, but it seems like it was perhaps within my vicinity a while ago as there’s no obvious food in the room, so I decide to forget about the smell just now. Thinking about food though has made me hungry.

I take a look at the machine to my right, and I can see there’s a beeping happening constantly, and I know from memory of hospitals in the past that it’ll be my heart beat. I don’t quite want to alert anyone just yet, as I don’t want to get trapped or moved into any sort of holding cells.

I push myself to the right side of the bed and stand. My legs feel strained, as if I’ve not stood in a while. Oh God, I hope I’ve not been out for a week, like last time. That’s the last thing I want to find out.

I can see the machine is linked to a pole that has four split wheels at the bottom. I grab onto the pole and move it slightly. It has a small squeak as I move it but it’s fairly quiet.

“Good joke.” Athena says, sarcastically.

“What do you want me to do, huh? Take out the wires in my hand?” I think back to her, which shuts her up.

I take a closer look at the heart monitor and notice a sound indicator. I press on the lower button several times and the noise it was making that was matching my heart beat was now muted.

I wheel the monitor up to the only door in the room, which seems to be a simple door with a pull down handle. I place my hand over the handle and pull it down ever so slowly, hoping this doesn’t make a squeak also. Luckily, it doesn’t.

I manage to open the door slightly, and I take a glance out of the door. I can see a long corridor with the same dimly lights on the ceiling of the corridor ever meter or so. I look as far down as I can with the door slightly ajar. After a minute, I see and hear nothing.

I pull the door more inwards, opening it further. After making sure nothing is happening down the corridor, I push my head out enough to see what’s to the left of the door. I see a window, which is latched, and I can see it’s dark outside. So it seems I’m at the end of the corridor. Great, and I roll my eyes with that thought.

I take another look down the corridor to the right and see there are stairs at the end, that lead who knows where. There’s a few doors on the opposite side and I assume there are more on this side, but I’m not out far enough to check.

After being here for a few seconds and seeing no one, I decide to take a risk and exit the room. I continue to pull the heart monitor with me, whilst it makes slight squeaks every so often. I go towards the window to see where I am, and if possible, a way out.

I get to the window after a few strides, and take a look outside. My mouth drops slightly, noticing something I’ve not seen for a long time. Fairly high walls that seem to tower over the buildings around it. I try to stretch and force my neck out to see how far they go, and I notice that there is a perimeter. It does seem very large…where on Earth am I?

Just as I went to turn away, I saw something move outside, not too far away from where I was. I focused on that area and notice a large…bear? No, surely not. It looks bigger and doesn’t have the outline of a bear I’ve ever seen anyway...No, that is something else. Something bigger.

“What was that?” I ask Athena.

“I don’t know Ali….it looked huge…” she says back, but she seemed more uneasy rather than fearful.

I start to panic and leave the window. I go back into the room, and close the door slowly, just as I had opened it. I look around and notice that none of my belongings are here. In fact, there was nothing here, other than the bed and this monitor.

I suddenly realised that the bow Elijah had got me was dropped at the rivers edge. My heart hurt at that, it was a special gift given to me by my last friend. I shake my head and try not to think about it, or I’ll get upset.

Just as I pushed that thought aside, I hear a clipping noise coming from the direction of the long corridor.

“Shit.” I whisper to myself. I need to think of something, fast!

“Go back onto the bed!” Athena suggests quickly. Hell, it’s the best idea there is.

I start to quickly head back to the bed. Luckily only one small squeak came from the wheels. I try to place the heart monitor back exactly where it was. As quietly as possible, I scramble onto the bed, pull the sheets over me as neatly as possible, and try to position myself back to how I was lying before I decided to get up.

A few seconds later, I hear the door opening. The clipping sound was the person’s shoes I think, at least if it was a person. I hear the door close, and the shoes come up to the right side of the bed.

I don’t dare open my eyes, but I can smell a slight pinch of Pine on this person. It was weird, I’m not used to being able to smell scents as strongly as this. I guess that’s something else that has changed since I met Athena.

“Hmm, your heart rates went up little one, what are you dreaming about?”

My mind runs a million miles an hour. I can tell from her voice that it is a female, she has a light, soft voice, which reminds me of my Mothers. I assume she’s a nurse or Doctor of some sorts. And what, Little one? what’s that supposed to mean?

I hear her pressing on the machine to my right and it beeps a few times at her touch. I can hear what I think is scribbling on a board, and then I nearly flinch as I hear a buckling sound.

She walks to the left side of the bed and stops again, making no sound. She then says something very softly, almost a whisper.

“He’ll be disappointed you’re not awake yet…..soon though, I think.”

She then leaves the room and I hear her going down the corridor.

Who will be disappointed? I’m very confused and the curious side of me wants to go and chase her to ask her. I want to know about this place and what that large thing was outside. But the other side of me wants to run. But I’d have no idea where to go. Also whether I am protected here from the beast at the river?

I guess that’s now my decision. Do I stay and find out everything my over curious mind is craving to find, or do I leave to avoid being captured by this mysterious person?