Dark Encounters

Julie POV

The first thing I saw when I woke up, were bright white walls, bright fluorescence lighting that flickered and to my right, Daniel. He sat sprawled in on those armchairs asleep.

By the looks of it I was in a hospital room, but it wasn’t a private room. There were four other patients in here with me and their eyes were all riveted on me.

I tried to move and decided that wasn’t the best idea, I had been hooked up to every sort of wiring and attached to every monitor. An intravenous line stuck in the back of my hand, which of course restricted my movements.

Just as I was checking Daniel out a nurse came into the room, she checked everyone’s chart. Leaving me to last.

“How long have I been out?” I asked her, my voice crackled a bit. She checked my monitor and my blood pressure.

Smiling pleasantly, she replied with, “good evening. How are you feeling?” She wrote something down on my chart.

Thinking perhaps she mightn’t have heard me, I tried again, “how long have I been out?”

She paused and looked over the chart, “not very long, 2 days at the most.”

I nodded to myself, “I have a headache but other than that I am starving.” I told her.

She smiled again, finished checking everything and said, “of course. I’ll go get you something to eat.” She then turned around and left the room.

My eyelids closed, just for a moment, resting them. Focusing on my breathing and when i finally reopened them, i found Kira and Betty staring down at me. They both had grins plastered on their faces, seeming like perhaps they might have missed me. Betty was fast too, she threw herself onto the bed next to me, pushing me over. Making herself comfortable.

“Hey!” She said, even perhaps yelled.

I winced at the close contact, yelling in my ear sent high pitched vibrations through my skull.

“Hey there, Little One, how are you feeling?” I asked her.

She shrugged her small shoulders and said, “okay, I guess, yourself?” The way Betty said it was like it didn’t even matter to her. That she was indifferent to my being in hospital. She should be upset; she had just witnessed something horrible. Traumatic even. I’m traumatised over the whole event.

Betty just said it was okay, like she was trying to be strong for me.

That’s sweet of her to do so.

Kira wasn’t any better looking, she forced a small smile though before saying, “let Julie have some rest, Betty.” She stood straighter than usual, like she had to be stronger for both Betty and I. That must be superhuman even for you, Kira, I’m very impressed by that.

My thoughts blurred and my eyelids dropped closed for a second, my interacting with them drained most of my energy. That and the morphine must be working well.

I suppose I wasn’t really paying much attention to what Kira had been saying either, my entire focus was on both staying awake and watching Daniel sleep.

My brain fought the sleep fog, trying to remember what Kira was saying. Something about my boyfriend being here since they bought me in.

Wait just a minute, boyfriend?

BOYFRIEND? My mind screamed at me, a random thought interludes, and I struggled with the words, “where’s Larry?” I asked them.

Kira’s face saddened and her eyes wouldn’t meet mine, something she did when there was bad news about to follow. Only, to me, I didn’t consider it bad news.

“He’s outside, as usual. He doesn’t want to come in. Because that would mean he’d have to visit Aunt Pat.” Kira said, whispering the last few words.

A pang of sadness seeped through me, not because of Larry but because of my mother. And how much I’ve missed her.

Betty no longer sat beside me; she no longer hogged the bed. Somehow during my recent conversation with Kira and of course the small reprieve that i took, she had now become fascinated by Daniel. She sat on his lap, poking his cheeks with her chubby fingers. I kind of just liked it when it was just him though, i cant really see him clearly with Betty in the way. Daniel gave a small groan and opened his eyes; his smile grew more when he saw that i was awake.

“You’ve been asleep awhile.” He yawned as he said this. Stretching out the stiffness in his muscles, he also knocked Betty from his lap in the process as well.

My gaze switched between the three before me and stopped at Kira, “ did you sleep well? She asked him.

“Yeah, I slept like a baby.” He spoke.

I could have sworn that she was teasing him just a bit and I wondered why. Daniel’s mine to tease.

I found his gaze and held it, making him grin in the moment. His sexy smile made my knees go weak and my breath hitch. I felt butterflies flutter in my stomach and I wasn’t sure if that was because I was hungry or because of the way Daniel was looking at me.

My thought process got jumbled for a second and now all I can really think about is him kissing me. How his lips would be soft and velvet like.

Daniel reached out and tickled Betty, interrupting my thought process. She started giggling uncontrollably. I did notice however that he is good with children and I filed that bit of information away for a rainy day.

Daniel continued to torture Betty with the tickles he was dishing out and she involuntarily squealed in delight. The high-pitched squeal caused me to wince slightly.

“Enough!” Kira said, “Betty, you’re in the hospital.” She told Betty. Reprimanding her sharply.

Kira grabbed her little sister by the arm and even though she was looking at Betty she spoke to me. “ we’re going to go see Aunty Pat, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Say hi for me.” I replied, yawning in the middle of that sentence.

When I finished it, I asked, “ do you know where that nurse went? I’m starving.”

The two hadn’t left the room yet so Betty got a quick word in, “I’ll go find one. So, you and Daniel can have some alone time together.”

Kira rolled her eyes at her little sister and pulled her from the room.

For a very long time there was only silence, my thoughts had again gone astray. I was remembering that morning, when I saw that tiger. I was pretty sure that it was there, it seemed like it had some kind of control over the panther. But then, everyone else didn’t see the tiger.

They’ve just seen the one animal.

After a few short moments Daniel made his way to the side of the bed and without hesitation he kissed me. The movement startled me at first, as i hadn’t been expecting anything.

But on instinct i kissed him back.

And as i first thought, his lips were soft and velvet like. Our lips parted ways and both he and i were breathless.

“What was that for?” I asked him a stupid question. And I mentally kicked myself for it. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and thanks to being hooked up to the monitor, so can the room. There was no fear.

Just the excitement at having my crush kiss me.

The clawing sensation had vanished for now as well.