In the Skin of Dragon

Chapter 9: Hospital

“How do you feel today?” The nurse asked me. “I want to see my mom.” I said, complaining. I was here about three to four days at least and till now still they didn’t let me see my mom or Kendra. “I will see what I can do about that.” The nurse answered and quickly left my room. Every single time any of them came I asked about my mom. They reacted the same way, saying the exact same thing.

‘F*ck it.’ I said to myself leaving the bed and going to the door. I was no longer attached to the monitor and was free to move so I decided to find my mom. The hospital looked like the one my mom and I were working in but I didn’t recognize any of the staff here so I was not fully sure this was our hospital. But since they have been unifying the governmental buildings it is not surprising that the hospital looks the same. At least I can use the knowledge of my hospital to navigate in this labyrinth.

“Hello, can you please help me?” I asked the girl in the reception. “How can I help you?” She asked me without lifting her head. “I would like to see my mom. Her name is Astrid White. She was in the car accident.” I asked her politely and she finally lifted her head to see who was standing in front of her.

“Oh dear, you should be in bed.” She said and there was something in her eyes. I thought maybe I was just imagining things but what I saw was a hint of fear once she saw me standing right in front of her. “I will not go back to my bed until I see my mom.” I said with strong resolve. I didn’t care if I had to make a fuss and problems to see my mom, I would do it.

“Please. I need you to get back to your room.” She sounded nervous while trying to persuade me to go back to my room. “Where is my mom.” At this point I was getting angry. “What the hell is going on here? I just want to see my mom. Is it that hard for you to tell me where she is?” I added and I could see that the woman twitched. She was definitely afraid of me. Maybe I could use that to my advantage.

“Please. Just go to your room and I will call the doctor to talk to you.” She tried again but I refused to move. The others were avoiding us leaving the woman to deal with me alone. “Look, it seems like no one is here to interrupt you in your work. So please be so kind and show me the way to my mom’s room.” I tried to ask her politely and nicely hoping that maybe she would take me to her but her posture didn’t change.

“I am sorry but I can’t do that.” She uttered back. “What do you mean you can’t do that?” I asked her worriedly. ‘What was that supposed to mean?’ I thought to myself hoping that she would explain what was going on.

“What do you mean by that?” I made my voice louder asking again the same question. I didn’t want to shout but I was ready to. I was really getting impatient and tired of the games in this hospital. The woman was trying to find help frantically looking at the people around her but still everyone was avoiding me like the plague keeping their distance from me.

I had had enough. I wanted my mom. I wanted to see Kendra. I wanted to know that they were alright and for some reason no one was willing to talk to me or at least take me to see my mom. Something had changed. The anger inside me grew stronger and with it something else. I could feel my hands had started to shake. I stared down at them trying to stop them from shaking by holding them but it didn’t stop. I felt a strange tingling sensation all over my body.

“Something is wrong.” I said to the woman but the only thing I could see was the terror in her eyes. She was moving backwards as far from me as possible until the wall stopped her. She kept shaking her head as she was sliding the wall making herself small.

At that moment I was distracted by a high whistling noise in my ears. I tried to search for the source but the hall was so empty. Everyone had disappeared elsewhere. “What is going on?” I said whispering to myself, unable to fully comprehend the situation I was in. The whistling became louder and it was causing me pain but before I could place my both hands on my ears, I noticed a shimmer of heat in the air.

“CALM DOWN!” I suddenly heard a very commanding voice. I turned my gaze towards the figure. It was a very tall male. My vision was blurry from the ear ache but I could see that he was not human.

“I said calm down, you need to control it.” He was talking to me but I didn’t know what he meant. I wasn’t doing anything. “I’m not doing anything.” I tried to reply. “Please, make it stop.” I asked him, while crying out from the pain in my head. I felt like my head was going to explode. The last thing I remember was him suddenly standing right in front of me just a second before I blacked out.

***

When I woke up, I had a severe headache and my body felt like it was burning from inside out. I tried to move but it hurt. “Don’t move.” I heard the same male voice as the one from the hall just before I passed out. “What happened?” I tried to put together the pieces from what I remembered. “You lost control over your powers.” He simply stated and I tried to shake my head, denying this statement but had to stop immediately because of the pain.

“I don’t have any powers.” I replied to him. My eyes were still closed but from behind my eyelids they were almost used to the amount of the light so I tried to open them slowly. “Oh, you do have. You have pretty strong powers young lady.” The voice said and I tried to recognize what the feeling which I got from the tone of his voice was. Was he admiring me? I wasn’t sure.

“That is not possible. I am human.” I argued with him. “Well, not really.” He said to me. I managed to open my eyes so I was staring at him shocked. “I am not human?” I was confused. “Yes, and no.” He replied to me which didn’t bring any light onto his statement and didn’t make me understand the sh*t he was talking about and on top of that I was getting tired of those stupid word games since I came to this hospital. I seriously wanted to go to my mom and go home. I wanted to get out of this crazy place.

“I know you don’t understand this now but as you saw earlier you are quite unstable with your powers now which means you are a danger to yourself and people around you.” He said carelessly like this whole thing was completely out of him and he knew absolutely everything so nothing could surprise him but I could not accept it. “I would never hurt my mom.” I said firmly, raising my voice.

“Sure, at least not on purpose. Tell me, did something like this happen to you before?” He asked me and I managed to shake my head. “So, this was the first time something like this happened to you?” He asked and I nodded.

“So, my guess is that since you saved your friend’s life in the car accident something had opened inside you, something that contained your powers and now, because you don’t know how to control it consciously, it is getting out of your hands. You need to learn how to control it young lady.” He told me and I felt like a child who was being scolded.

“And who might be you? My teacher?” I asked sarcastically. “Sort of. I am from Academia and at this moment I am your observer.” He said and I had no idea what that meant. “What is Academia?” I asked him curiously.

“Not important right now.” He said not answering my question. “So, what does observer mean?” I tried to make him explain something else. “That means you are stuck with me for now.” He simply stated and I could not say I liked that.

“When I can go home or when I can see my mom?” I asked him and his expression changed. “I don’t know right now. We are making some arrangements but you don’t need to worry about your mom. She is absolutely fine. What you did back then to save them was heroic and amazing. They are both alive because of you.” Was he seriously praising me? He was a dragon. At least I thought he was because of his almost human-like body but for a human he was way too tall and very muscular. Well, not to mention the dragon scales I saw under his tight shirt.

“Ehm, thank you?” I accepted the praise, hoping that it was really praise towards me as a mere human. “Can you at least tell me, where they are? I know Kendra was already up and with her family right beside her, but that was four or five days ago.” I asked him nicely. He looked at me, guessing the chances of what I might do if he would deny me this information. I was sure they already told him what I was doing out at the reception desk.

“Is Kendra your friend?” He asked me instead and I nodded. I didn’t know why he asked such a stupid question. “What would you feel if your friend would become afraid of you the same as the woman in reception from before because of your powers?” He gave me another question.

“That would never happen.” I replied instantly thinking of what Kendra told me weeks ago about my powers or about something being inside of me. “Why do you think so?” He asked again and I smirked. “Because Kendra was already sure that there was something inside of me. She said she saw it the first day we met at school so if there are really some powers, she would be happy and excited.” I said proudly. I was really glad to have a friend like Kendra.

“That’s interesting. She said she saw it?” He asked me and I froze. I realized I might have said something that I should not have. Damn my loose lips. “Don’t worry, no harm will come to you, to your mom, or to your friend.” He tried to assure me but I had heard stories about people who disappeared suddenly under the cover of being transferred to another city for work except no one ever heard from them again.

I refused to say anything else in case I would say something that I should not have. “Look. I know you are afraid and worried but you will need to learn to trust me if you want to control your powers and later get back to your normal life.” He sounded like he meant it, but in those eyes, I saw that there was more he was not telling me.

“You want me to trust you? Get me home and to see my mom and then we can talk about trust.” I said sternly, turning to the side, turning my back on him and pretending to go to sleep. I could hear him laugh and utter something quietly which I didn’t understand. I know what I just did was childish but I didn’t care. I wanted my mom and I wanted to be sure that she really was alright. She had had a wound on her head which was bleeding and on top of that very strongly. The longer they restrained me from seeing her, the more worried I was becoming.