Monday, September 20, 2010

Episode 3: The Bite

Deep in the night, as the moon shines bright, full, over the city. Shadows of the trees glides swiftly along the wind. The chilling air can almost burn the insides of someone's nasal cavity. The night's sky is almost purple, as if rain's going to fall. The rain did fell and the pouring salty water glistened and sparkled with the starry skies. And all you could hear is the sound of the nearby city street, the night's hustle with the pouring rain.

Charlie, on the other hand, was lying on bed with all these intravenous lines connected all over him like a Christmas tree, warm, feverish. Intubated. Monitors are beeping, small talks from nurses, phones are ringing, that's all Charlie could hear. He knows he's in a hospital. He knows he's been there because of an accident. His sense of hearing became so sensitive since he regain his consciousness from that accident. He couldn't open his eyes, he can't even see any light seep or pass though his eyelids. He can't feel his body at the same time, no pain, just the numbness and that's all. As with the sense of taste and smell, it was the same, none.

Until...

Though Charlie don't know the exact time he knows that this is the time of the night, or day, when everything is fluidly silent. But this time something was different, somewhere in the room he heard a small noise. An obvious creaking sound that lasted for about few seconds, virtually unnoticeable but due to Charlie's immense sensitivity he loudly heard it. Suddenly, he felt something seeping through his buccal cavity. He can now taste something and it was like as if it was the first time but the difference is he knows exactly what it is. In an instant he gasped for air. Then he kind of felt parched for the thing that was filling him through his mouth. He wanted more but it stopped pouring. Charlie can't do anything, he still can't move, still can't see, and can't hardly feel but heard slow sniffing near him, so near he can almost feel it. Then in a sudden bolt he regained all his senses.

Charlie rammed the back of his head on his bed. Over and over. His pulses went up, blood pressure is off the charts. He was extubated. He felt everything now, his memory gave him all the pain he should have felt when he was unconscious. It was as if he woke from up from dead and the embalming was in reverse. Charlie felt a surge of immense pain and undefined emotions. He almost looked like he was having a seizure.

Nurses and doctors rushed in the room.

"Charlie, Charlie can you hear me?", asked the doctor while he tried to secure Charlie to the bed.

Charlie wasn't struggling and all, he was like in a restraint epilepsy, confined.

Then in an instant, he fell back to the bed with his eyes closed. Immobile but breathing. The nurse immediately checked Charlie's pulses since the monitors are unreliable now.

Then she blurted, "Dr. Morrigan." The doctor quickly responded.

Charlie's wrist was lashed, it's pouring venous blood, soaking the bed in dark red. The nurse tried to press against it to stop the bleeding. He was then hooked back to monitors for strict monitoring. Charlie is now lying there in his bed, limp.

"He must have wounded himself from the bed rails or something during the seizure.", said the other nurse as he wheels out the emergency cart.

"Don't remove that from this room, we could have a code anytime." Dr. Elsa Morrigan instructed while examining the cut on Charlie's right wrist, puzzled.

"Call his mother." She told the bedside nurse.

Charlie is in a deep sleep now, exhausted from the surge of his senses. An unexplainable thing happened that night but one thing is a fact: Charlie's wrist was punctured, and it definitely looks like a bite.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Episode 2: The Ride

It was a Friday, Charlie just got off from work in downtown Upper East Metro. It was raining and humid at the same time. He is a newly hired associate writer in a cheap metro newspaper, which he could not take at all. Anyways, he's got no choice, who is he to complain like he always says. A couple months after graduating Bachelor of Arts Major in Journalism in a Catholic university in Bern, he still hasn't landed any jobs. He was always turned down, as a writer, the job he aspires. But he knew later on that fixing a coffee for your immediate superior is really a a stepping stone, and that's not a joke. A newly grads dilemma. Though his professors says in his college years that he was an exceptional writer, he hasn't joined or run for position in any of the existing school publications. That may have helped him land 'the job' but he was such a loner on those days. It was almost like he was hiding something from everyone.

After the 30-minute bus ride, he got off and the most unimaginable thing happened.

Lighting struck a motorcycle directly in front of him. Well, it wasn't really lightning but that's what it seemed in Charlie's view. Apparently, an electric cable from the light post suddenly broke off from the post itself. The deadly bolt of electricity instantly ejected the man riding his motorcycle. Charlie suddenly is between the bus and the motorcycle. The vehicles are parallel to each other.

Charlie was pinned to the bus.

Charlie didn't know what to do, it all happened so fast he's got no reflex to run, shout or even shut his eyes off. It all happened in a snap and all he could think of is he's toast!

He is going to die and the motorcycle is doing it's best ramming him to the bus as if the vehicle has it's own life. He tried to fight it but it seems the vehicle got a good hold of him. He felt that the bus is still running with the raging motorcycle then it came to a stop. The bus stopped and he bumped his head hard on the wet glass door of the bus, he almost lost his consciousness but the motorcycle made sure he will. The raging motorcycle further pinned him to the bus, struck him so hard for the last time and slid him in between the tire and  the bus's lower body.

That gave shrieks to the bystanders who witnessed a gruesome accident.

Charlie is still alive. He panted. He is losing consciousness. He sees a lot of people, blurred. Rain is still pouring as his blood, too, pouring from his head and everywhere else. He can smell it, taste it. He's got his whole body numb, he couldn't feel anything, he can't even feel the motorcycle over him. The vehicle have already stopped running. He squinted his eyes looking at the monster motorcycle, in black, which is giving off this smoke that is suffocating him. Then, his view turned into the motorcycle's side mirror, there was this young man who has nothing but promises. That struck him, he puked blood then went blackout.

"The next thing I know is I'm at the hospital, hearing phone rings, buzzers, soft tones from monitors, nurse's talk.... ", said Charlie as he connects to his Facebook account via his iPhone.

Agatha sipped her coffee, this is a week after Charlie roused himself from the bed. He was traumatized as Agatha sees it. He would not talk but he would look. Agatha knows there's more to his story, she cares alright but she is more curious, more and more each day. Then this day comes, she bribed Charlie for a little CBTL.

"Charlie, you know I love you, right? But, I just can't get this off my mind, you were in a coma, and the doctors were saying you ain't going to recover, that you ain't going to come back, but you did... so..." Agatha said in relief but with fear.

Charlie barely looked at Agatha, his eyes wandered off to the people passing by, the cars then to the coffee shop's bar then to his cellphone. "I don't know Agatha, I don't know." Then there's this silence that almost ran for a minute.

Agatha broke this, "I th..." Then Charlie interrupted with the most tired eyes still looking to the nothingness of the cafe, "But... all I know is someone's got to tell me what happened and what's happening. And it's out there."

'What's happening?' 'It's out there'? Agatha told to herself.

"I am afraid Agatha." Charlie said with his blank eyes.

"I am too." Agatha replied looking deeply into Charlie's eyes.