Isaac
The smoke was everywhere.I couldn’t see anything, and my lungs burned from the smoke. Was this it? Was I going to die? No one even knew I was in this room. What if they were trying to find me but it was too late?
My chest felt so tight.Oh God! Oh God!
I jolted awake. My brain was foggy as I struggled to get my bearings. My face was covered with an oxygen mask. What the fuck happened?
Maybe I had a bad dream, except it didn’t feel like a dream, and that wouldn’t explain the mask and why it looked like I was in a hospital.
As I closed my eyes again and tried to focus, the memories came to me in a slow sequence. I’d been at the conference, and then called Alex. He had good news. Sofia was born and was healthy.
The room door wouldn’t open, and then there was all the smoke—lots of smoke. That thought made me suck in a deep breath as though I needed to reassure myself that my lungs were still working.
Still with my eyes closed, I tried to remember anything after that, but nothing was coming. There was a faint memory of a voice, soft and silky like honey but deep and so reassuring it had made me feel oddly safe.
I took another deep breath and opened my eyes. Maybe I could call a nurse and find out how I got here.
As I looked to my left, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t alone. Sitting back on the chair next to my bed, asleep, was a blond-haired, broad-shouldered guy wearing the ugliest Christmas sweater I’d ever seen.
It was red, and on the front, it had a snowman wearing a Christmas tree as a hat. That in itself wasn’t too unfitting, after all, it was Christmas. What made it truly hideous were the dozens of pom-poms in various sizes and colors that were dotted randomly all around. Some of them had small decorations hanging from them.
I wanted to laugh, but my throat felt dry, as if someone had tried to tear it away from my body. I tried to speak, but the result was a dry cough that threatened to bring up the contents of my now empty stomach. The man jerked awake at the sound.
“Isaac! Are you okay?” he asked, getting up so quickly, the chair dragged behind him.
Dark brown eyes that were a contrast to his light blond hair looked at me with concern. He glanced up at the screens I was attached to and then pressed the button to call for a nurse.
Jesus Christ, the man was gorgeous. Suddenly, I felt very underdressed in my hospital gown. I probably looked like death warmed over, while this man looked like a walking advert for Healthy Living magazine.
“Wat…achh…wat…” I struggled to speak with my dry throat, but it seemed the man understood what I was asking for.
“Don't strain your voice. I just called the nurse. Once they check you, you can have some water.” He reassured me.
“Do you remember what happened? How are you feeling?”
Unable to speak, I lifted my hand up with my palm facing down, shaking it to make the universal sign for ‘so-so.’
“I'm Max,” he said. “I was at the conference. I saw you leave the room, so I went looking for you when the alarm went off.”
The voice, it was him. I remembered now, sitting on the pavement outside the center and Max coming with me to the hospital.
“Do…Dor…” I attempted unsuccessfully to ask about my friend.
“Dorian? He knows you’re safe and well. I called him earlier.”
The nurse, Shelly, came in to check on me and allowed me to drink some water, which made me feel a million times better.
“We have the results of your tests, Isaac. Your O2 levels are a little low, so you might experience mild headaches, but if you do, you can take a low dosage painkiller.
“The pulmonary function tests have also come back normal. We didn’t do any chest x-rays because damage doesn’t normally show on the radiography until a number of hours after inhalation, but if you find you’re significantly out of breath over the next twenty-four hours, please come back to the hospital.”
I nodded in understanding and relief. I already felt better and my head only hurt a little bit.
“You might have difficulty speaking at first, but that should improve in the next few hours, too. Make sure to keep hydrated.”
I drank some more water, took the painkillers she handed me, and waited for the discharge paperwork to be completed.
“I have some clothes you can borrow,” Max declared. I must have looked puzzled because Max pointed at a couple of items on the chair. “These are just some spares I had in my locker. I think they’re too big for you, but they’ll do until we get you to your hotel.”
