Genesis (ONC2022)

Day six

Word count →_→ 1063 words

Pain. That's the first thing he felt. A searing heat that threatened to burn him from the inside out.

Opening his eyes, he tried to cry out in pain but found himself choking on something. Something was in his throat, choking him. Instinctively, his hands reached out for the foreign object that was protruding from his mouth.

He was filled with panic as he tried to rip it from out of his mouth that he did not register the people all around him nor did he hear anything they were saying.

"Stop, you'll hurt yourself!" He heard someone say. "Easy there, let me help you."

For a moment, he seemed to calm down as his vision became clear and all the familiar faces came into focus. His heartbeat seemed to slow down as he saw the friendly smile of Misty hovering over him. The burning sensation he had felt on his body disappeared. It became nothing more than a dream, a nightmare he had awoken from.

Misty proceeded to carefully remove the tube that had been providing him with oxygen. Expanding his lungs, he allowed the air to invade his lungs as he began to breathe by himself once again.

"Welcome back, Alex." Misty said to him with a bright smile, showing obvious relief.

His eyes began to wonder around as he tried to recall what had happened, how he had gotten here. The details seemed a bit hazy at first. Had he collapsed or something? What had happened?

"What - what happened?" He enquired.

His voice came out a bit hoarse whilst his throat felt incredibly dry. He tried to clear his throat so as to not sound hoarse but it only triggered a coughing fit that immediately put the usually bubbly Misty into panic.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked in concern. "Do you need me to get you some water?"

She raced out to get him a glass of water all the while he tried to ease himself out of the coughing fit.

There was a sudden metallic taste in his mouth and he felt a small lump in his throat. A blood clot maybe? Because he was sure he was coughing out blood at that moment as he felt the blood trickle down the palm of his hand.

With one last attempt, he forced the lump out of his throat, spitting it out onto the palm of his hand. Only when he felt something small and hard land on the inside of his palm did the coughing stop.

The little lump in his palm, however, felt incredibly larger than the average blood clot.

Just how much was he bleeding internally?

As he opened the palm of his hand to inspect the clot he suddenly froze. Everything else seemed to faze out of focus as he stared in shock at the small object in the palm of his hand.

A golden ring. A somewhat familiar looking golden limited edition Metallica ring.

He felt a cold chill go down his spine whilst his insides threatened to come back up simultaneously.

"Here you are." Misty said, handing him a glass of water.

He hid the ring away quickly as he was still trying to process what was happening. He could not, however, hide all the blood he'd coughed out.

What's going on? What's happening to me?

These were the thoughts that raced through his mind as he visibly shivered.

"Omigosh, you're bleeding!" She exclaimed as she began to fuss over him, inspecting his face.

She called one of her helps to hand her a box of towels.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as she began to wipe away all the blood.

He didn't respond. In fact he hadn't heard most of what she had said.

It's okay, he thought to himself, it was all a bad dream. A nightmare. I'm still probably hallucinating. Yeah that's right, I'm still dreaming.

"Misty, Omigosh,I overslept. I'm so ..."

He knew that voice. Looking up, he found that Emilia had just walked and stood rooted to her spot as she regarded him in shock.

Well, atleast my dream has an upside to it,he thought moronically.

Before he or Misty could respond in any way, they were both startled when the blond woman ran up to him and hugged him as if her life depended on it.

"You're awake." She said,her voice breaking as she cried. "I'm so relieved."

What an odd dream indeed. He decided to play along as he hugged her back, albeit more gingerly.

"What's this? I thought you were stronger than this, Wonder Woman." He said with a smirk as he tried to calm his queasy stomach.

She pulled away from him so she could look up at him clearly. She had a frown and her eyes held obvious concern for him. This confused him a lot.

"What are you talking about, Neo? I'm not Wonder Woman. I'm not strong. I couldn't stay strong when I didn't have you to talk to." She replied as she sniffled.

She seemed to gain a bit of composure as he saw her blush underneath her biohazard suit.

If this was a dream then why was she acting this way? It was as if she was scared he had been about to die or something. Of course, she didn't care that much for him, right? This was his subconscious mind playing tricks on him. Making him see things he had begun to yearn for.

And love was one of those things he had started to yearn for.

He wasn't about to deny that he had strong feelings for Emilia. At first he had thought it was a mere fascination with her beauty. However, he had come to depend on her in those few days she had come to visit him.

Something had happened, however. He was quite sure he had fallen unconscious. He could remember Misty telling him they may have to put him on a ventilator. Is that what had happened? Was he still unconscious?

It was only natural for anyone to dream up their heart's desire.

Or maybe you're trying so hard to convince yourself it's all just a dream. That everything is going on just fine.

He tensed at the thought. Or was it a thought? It seemed like a voice had spoken in his head but it was his voice.

Looking around to try and clear his head, he was startled to see a mirror image of himself lying back on the couch without a care in the world. Turning, the image looked straight into his eyes with fierce golden eyes.

Time is running out. Tick tock