“I caught you watching me skate from behind the tree. You were this scrawny little thing. Your blonde braids looked like someone braided them with two left hands. Your clothes wereat least one size too small, but your skates three times too big. Those passing by you threw pitying or disgusted looks your way—depending on the size of the wallet passing by. But all of them were wrong. And the last thing you needed were their opinions or their pity. But they all missed it…if they’d actually looked at you, if they saw your eyes, they’d know. They’d know you were the most determined, the strongest, brightest ray of sunlight in this dark world.”
An image of this little girl—of me—flashes before my eyes as every cord tightens.
With each breath, my eyelids feel lighter, but the pain worse. Yet I so desperately want to open them. I need to make sure this isn’t a dream. Those dimmed, blurry fluorescent lights shouldn’t be in my dreams, right?
“When I got that call…” The voice trails off, taking a deep but shaky breath. “When I got that call and was told they weren’t sure you’d pull through due to extent of your injuries…” Another shaky breath. “You and Electra. You’re all I’ve got and now…now…you should’ve told me about the baby, Rory. But I know why you didn’t. I understand.”
The haze in my head clears up.
“You’ve gone against the current since the day you were born, and I need you to keep swimming up that hill, Aurora!” that very familiar voice snaps at me, cutting off the painless dreams. “I need you to wake up. To fight. To show those Kloss bastards they underestimated you. Being strong is the hardest trait to have. Being strong fucking sucks, to tell you the truth, but—”
“To which department should I complain for bestowing it upon me?” My voice is just barely above a raspy whisper, but I know Stella hears me, and I feel water on my dry, parched lips again.
She wouldn’t rest until my hazy brain finally connected all the dots and brought me back into this sweet reality called life. Andnow that I have, I remember hearing her constantly over the past days as I flittered in and out of consciousness. Who’d have thought the mighty Stella Gray was such a talker, but she kept pulling and pulling until I was out.
“A-Aurora?”
My eyelids lift slightly, just enough to make out my trainer sitting at my side, or at least she looks like my trainer with her short haircut and those sharp features, but that’s all that’s left from my stern Stella. Her face is pale, cheeks hollowed, and there are dark circles underneath her worried eyes.
“Nurse! She’s awake! I need a nurse in here right this fucking minute!” Stella jumps out of the chair so fast it makes my still-hazy brain dance in circles, but I won’t allow it to drag me under again.
“So?” I croak again and feel a lone tear slide down my cheek, but when I try to lift my hand to wipe it, I can’t. It feels like it weighs a ton and just the barest of moves sends a ripple of pain through my body so agonizing I have to grit my teeth and shut my eyes from intense pain.
“Can I return that trait? I don’t think I like it anymore.” I feel a shaky hand slide into my hair and the other swipe those tears off my face. Stella’s touch is warm, despite the chilly temperature in the room.
I open my eyes to see her lips tremble; those normally hard eyes filled with sadness and pain.
“Oh, my sweet girl…” A door opens with a soft creak and in comes a flurry of nurses and a doctor in his late fifties. He’s wearing a kind smile and gentle eyes. “Miss Johnson, I was just coming to check on you when I heard your warden here shout the happy news. Welcome back!” He throws a look Stella’s way. “I’m Dr. Knight. How are you feeling?” He pulls out a light from his pocket, directing it into my still-weary eyes.
“I’m alive?” I whisper back in a question, and he stops, drawing his gaze to meet mine.
“Yes, you are.” He squeezes my shoulder lightly.
“Stella,” I whisper, smiling as a small tear slides down my face. “I’m alive.”
I watch her swallow hard, look up the ceiling as she draws another shaky breath and then I feel her trembling lips on my hair as she kisses the top of my head. “Yes, you are the ray of my sunshine. You are.” She pulls away, erasing all the emotion she just allowed to show through her stern exterior. “I need to call Seth to come back. He just left for a change of clothes.” She takes out her phone, already dialing my father.
“This one’s been here from the moment you were brought in,” Dr. Knight whispers to me, throwing a nervous glance at my trainer.
Knowing her, she most likely has them all walking in a straight line and saluting her every time she passes, and my chest warms.
She might be too much for some, but she’s one of the only people who’s ever stayed.
“On a scale from zero to ten, where is your pain at right now?”
“A five.”
Stella snorts from the sideline, pocketing her phone. “Translation, it’s an eleven,” she tells the doctor and then levels me with a look. “Do not try to be all heroic over here. This is literally the one place where you need to let others take care of you.”
I take a shaky breath in, of course Stella would call me out right away.
“Everything hurts.” My words are followed by a wince, as if my body is trying to prove a point.
“H-how long have I been like this?” My body feels heavy and beat up as if I was run over by a truck. It hurts to breathe, to move or even think.
“Eight days.” Stella swallows down a ball of emotions. “It’s been eight days since you were brought in. You’ve undergone a few surgeries including a heart transplant. But I can explain more later.”
A heart transplant?
