Page 57 of True Sight (Nat. 20, #4)

HENRY

H oly fucking shit, my head is killing me. And my neck. And my leg. Why does it hurt to breathe so much? Dear lord, whatever is making that insipid beeping noise, can someone please turn it off? Where am I? The last thing I remember is saying goodbye to Alex and heading to see Conrad.

Conrad.

Did I make it to see him? Why can’t I remember what happened?

God, my head feels like someone stuck an ice pick in it.

I’ll deal with that later. I have to go see him.

I need to tell him it’s okay if he’s not ready to say it back.

I have to go and tell him that I’ll wait for him, that I’m not going anywhere. That I love him.

“Please wake up. I need you to wake up for me, for Annie. I’m ready to say it now. But I need you to wake up so you can hear it. Please.”

Conrad, I’m here. I have to go.

I have to go…

I have to go…

“Hen-Henry?” Alex’s voice sounds frantic as she cries out my name. “Henry, oh my god, are you okay?” Her voice grows as she shakes me and I groan at her touch.

“No, I’m not okay. You’re shaking me and it hurts.

” I wince, squeezing my eyes together before slowly opening them.

I blink hard and when my eyes come into focus I see her face leaning close to mine, tears in her eyes.

A wide smile spreads across her face as she looks down at me. Why is she looking at me like that?

“Oh my god, you’re awake,” she gasps. Before I can reply, she’s gone, dashing away and crying out, “Someone, please, he’s waking up.” Then she’s back by my side again.

I try to look around but it hurts to look in any direction. Shooting pain rips down my spine when I try to take in my surroundings. I gasp at the pain but am met with what can only be described as a knife in my lung when I try.

“Why does everything hurt?” I groan and close my eyes again. The bright lights in the room are making my head throb and I want nothing more than for someone to turn them off.

“Mr. Baker, can you open your eyes for me?” The voice of a man calls out and I squint at him.

“My name is Dr. Walters, can you tell me what pain level you’re at right now?

” He shines a light in my eyes when they’re open enough and I quickly clamp them shut again.

The tiny light from his torch makes my head feel like someone’s using it as a punching bag.

“I’m at the level of pain you feel when you decide to wear four inch heels on Halloween because they complete your costume perfectly but give you blisters that make it hard to walk for a week after.”

The man chuckles as he squeezes my arms, hands, and fingers before moving onto my legs. “Can you put that into a number out of ten for me?”

“I suppose a nine?” I grunt. “Just so you know, I’m currently seeing someone and I don’t know what he would think about you feeling me up like this.” He laughs again.

“And I’m a married man but this comes with the job. I need to make sure you have feeling in your extremities. You took a pretty hard hit, we need to ensure you don’t have any nerve damage. Can you feel this?” He squeezes my toes.

“Yeah, I can feel that,” I reply and try to nod my head as much as I can.

“Good, can you wiggle your toes?” I glance towards my feet and watch as all ten toes start to move, including the ones attached to my leg that appears to be in a cast. What the hell happened to me?

“Excellent, everything looks good for now. I’m going to give you a few minutes but we’ll need to run more tests to make sure you don’t have anything internally going on that we can’t see.

A nurse will be back in a little bit to get you.

Sorry for copping a feel, I hope your boyfriend doesn’t mind.

” He winks at me before leaving the room and I turn to look at Alex who’s waiting in the corner of the room.

“Alex, what the hell is going on? Why am I here?” I attempt a deep breath but it feels like I’m swallowing pins. “And why do I feel like I got hit by a bus?”

“You don’t remember?” She takes a few steps closer again and sinks into a chair that’s been moved to be right next to the bed.

“Remember what?” I try to keep my eyes open but the lights make it impossible. “Can you turn the lights down? My head is threatening to decapitate itself from my body and I might let it if the lights don’t stop being so bright.”

She springs up from the chair and moves to turn them off before returning to her seat next to me.

“Henry, there was an accident. You were in an accident. You were on your way to see Conrad, remember? The car you were in was T- boned pretty badly…” As she speaks, the memory of looking up from my phone and seeing the car speeding towards me comes back in a blur.

The impact of it hitting the car and me all over again.

It’s as if I can feel the seat belt burn into my skin and hear the car rolling several times before coming to a violent stop.

Then, nothing. I remember feeling a euphoric nothingness and taking a final breath.

“Did I die?” The words leave my mouth and she gasps at my question. I know I did but I need her to confirm it.

“You almost did, yeah,” she replies softly, chewing on her bottom lip. “The paramedics saved you and they rushed you to surgery when you got here. You’ve been out ever since.”

“How long has it been?” I glance outside and can see that it is dark but there aren’t any clocks I can see in the room.

“Nearly three days. Christmas is in a few more days.” She reaches her hand out to take mine and I look towards her. Tears brim on the edge of her eyes so I reach to wipe them away.

“Hey, don’t cry. I’m okay, I’m here now. You didn’t think you would get rid of me that easily, did you?” I try to smile at her but even that is painful.

“Henry Wanker, you evil little twat,” a new voice breaks out and I glance towards the doorway to see my best friend standing in it looking like she’s seen a ghost.

“Ellie? You’re here?”

“Of course I’m here, you prat. You didn’t honestly think I’d let you die without me, did you?

We made a pact and I don’t care how much Jordan loves me, if you’re going, I’m going with you.

” She moves quickly to my side and bends over to give me a hug.

I groan at her touch but love that she’s here.

When she pulls away, I look between her and Alex, grateful for their friendship.

“Not that I’m not happy you’re both here but…” I chew on my bottom lip and realize there’s a gash through it that wasn’t there before. “Does Conrad know? Has he been here?”

“Oh, he’s been here. He saw you and kind of freaked out but?—”

“He freaked out? Is he okay? I have to go and check on him.” I panic, realizing that my accident probably brought up painful memories of losing his parents. My hands come to the blanket and try to push them off so I can go and see him.

“Woah, woah, you’re not going anywhere.” Alex tries to settle me, pushing me back down in bed. The mere movement of sitting up straight makes me dizzy but I’m not going to let that, or her, stop me.

“No, you don’t understand, I have to?—”

“Sweets?” We all look towards the sound of his voice and I melt back into the bed when I see his brown eyes looking back at me.

He’s carrying three to-go cups in his hand as he stands frozen in the doorway.

Ellie moves towards him and takes the cups before nudging him closer towards me.

The push seems to snap him out of the daze he is in and he moves to stand next to my bed.

His hand hovers over mine and he almost seems afraid to touch me, as if doing so will break me completely.

Always the one to move first, I reach for his hand and pull it into my cheek.

He smiles down at me and uses his free hand to brush a piece of hair back into place.

“Hello, love.” I smile up at him.

“We’re going to go get some food. We’ll be back,” Alex says lightly, looping an arm through Ellie’s and guiding her out of the room. We study one another for a moment, letting the silence of the room speak for us.

“I’m so happy you’re awake,” he finally says. He lets go of my hand long enough to move to the other side of the bed and take a seat in the now abandoned chair.

“You told me I had to wake up, remember?” I say and his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“You heard me?” His words are laced with disbelief as his eyes bore into mine.

“At the time it almost felt like a dream but I knew it was you. I heard you talking to me, I knew you were there. I knew I had to wake up because you were waiting on me. I wasn’t going to leave you, not like that. Not ever.”

He attempts a smile as tears spring in his eyes causing tears of my own to bubble up and cloud my vision. He reaches over and wipes the one away that has managed to roll down my cheek.

“I have something else I need you to hear,” he says before standing up and grabbing something from the couch behind him.

From the rumpled mess of a blanket and some of his clothes, part of me wonders if he’s been sleeping there, waiting for me to wake up.

Turning around with his computer and a pair of headphones in hand, he comes back and settles himself in the chair, inching it as close to the bed as he can.

Cracking open the computer, he types in a few things before plugging in the headphones and handing them to me.

I put them in slowly and look at him, waiting.

When he hits the spacebar on his computer my ears are filled with the rhythmic thumping of a noise I can’t place at first. I frown at him, trying to pinpoint it, and then feel a sense of knowingness and familiarity wash over me.

I close my eyes and let the sound of the heartbeat fill my entire body .