He hadn’t seen the light in a good while. Comatose and bedridden, without as much as a drop of color in his eyes, what was left of the young man was a shred of what he once was. Breaking through the darkness of his worldly perception was a bright ray of great illumination, as if he were born once again. Albeit, he was somewhat confused; He had no memory of the events that occurred prior, and to his knowledge - it was as if he fell asleep at home for the night and woke up intubated, with IV Tubing and various nodes & wires attached to his chest and arms. What seemed to be the weirdest part about this entire ordeal is the fact that he didn’t feel any pain. In fact, there was no muscle atrophy, or any loss of mass. In an odd turn of events, he felt completely okay! Balling his hands into fists and looking towards the call light by his bed, it took him a little bit - but he was able to muster up enough strength to click the red button.
Ring, a red light above the door went off, and a group of nurses sprinted over to hover above the gurney. Kova stared up at them, slightly confused, his eyes panning left, right, then back to left, realizing exactly where he was..
A Hospital.
Shortly after he woke up, a Nurse called in the Doctor, and they began the extubation process, taking him off the vents and pulling the tubing from his trachea. After the process was over - The Doctor, for the moment, left the room to deal with another patient.
“Bleugh!! What the FUCK happened!?” Kova shouted as the tubes came out, trying to get himself together.
“Relax! It’s okay! You’re safe now! Do you know where you are?” The nurse asked Kova as his eyes met the nurse.
“Umm… I’m guessing the Hospital, right?” He questioned,
“Right! What’s your name?” She persisted,
“Kova.” He replied,
The nurse began jotting notes down in Kova’s chart, promptly parting her lips to speak once finished.
“Do you know what day it is today?” She followed up.
Kova thought for a moment, realizing that he had no idea. It had felt like years, yet at the same time it had only felt like a couple seconds.
“Actually, I’m not even too sure.. it feels like I haven’t moved a muscle in an entire year.” Kova complained, rubbing his neck.
The nurse continued to write, quieting down for a moment before glancing towards the bottom of his foot. She rolled her eyes, thinking it was just some edgy pentagram tattoos on the bottoms of his feet.
“Do you know why you’re here?” She asked
“Uhm..” he pondered the thought for a brief moment. “No, actually. I don’t really feel anything wrong at this point.. except for a pain in my throat from that tube being pulled out. Can I.. go home now?”
After all that had happened, he decided that it was about time to clock out for the day. He was tired, and needed to recollect his thoughts.
“Well… let’s at least have the Doctor take a look at you.” She said with a slightly deflated tone.
The Nurse then left the room and Kova had a moment alone. He rubbed his face, burying it in his hands, attempting to make sense of exactly what just happened.. before realizing something. He had to pee, and it was really bad. He booked it to the bathroom, sprinting in - the moment he got to the porcelain toilet, raising his gown and sighing with relief as the stream pushed from his bladder.
“Aaaaugh….”
But soon after - he glanced in the mirror, and that sigh of relief turned into a scream of great terror.
“aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!! WHAT THE FUUUUUCK!?”
He fell against the wall and halted his urination mid stream in sheer shock, running to lock the door. He sprinted back to the sink and leaned over, looking straight into the mirror, touching his hair and face.
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“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!?!?!” He shouted, concerned. He’d just undergone a massive change in such a short amount of time, and didn’t know how to react. They had to shave one side of his head in order to get to an arterial bleed - so there was a patch on the right side. But the rest of it he couldn’t make sense of. He now had a lot lighter of a skin tone, with thicker, more full hair and naturally red highlights. His eyes had also gone from hazel to entirely gold.
“I’M UN-FUCKING-RECOGNIZABL— wait….” He shouted, but stopped himself mid thought. Hesitantly, he raised his foot, and looked at the bottoms. Sure enough, the transmutation circles were there like he remembered, on both feet.
“aaaaaAAAAAAHH!!! I LOOK LIKE ONE OF THE EMO KIDS!!! FUCK!!!” He physically screamed and cried not knowing what happened. One moment he was completely normal, and the next he looked like he was getting ready for a heavy metal concert.
Knock, Knock, there was a bang at the door.
“Kova? Are you okay there?” The Doctor asked,
“NO I’M NOT FUCKING O—I mean… Yes, Doc, I’m fine.. I’ll be out in a minute” he shouted
“Can’t shit or something? I can get you some Milk of Magnesia if you wa—”
“No, no, I’m fine..” Kova replied, cutting off the doctor. He promptly finished urinating and went to wash his hands, after doing so - slowly opening the door to lay eyes on the Doctor, and shakily greet him. “Hey, Doc..”
“Hey, Kova! Come sit down on the Gurney for me, let’s talk. Heard you wanted to go home!” He replied, his demeanor being relaxingly cheerful.
Kova was relieved that he finally found someone that had a warm attitude, he was terrified. He walked over to the gurney and sat down on the ICU bed, his eyes meeting the Doctor’s shortly after.
“So the one question on my mind right now is.. well, Doc, what the Hell happened?” Kova questioned
The Doctor motioned for Kova to lay down. When he did, the Doctor began palpating various areas of his abdomen and chest, feeling the arms and legs for any breaks and fractures, promptly replying as he did so:
“Son, you shouldn’t be alive. The fact that you came out of this with a functioning brain is some kind of miracle. You were smashed into by a semi truck six months ago”
Everything then flooded back to him as if it was happening directly in front of his eyes - the crash and the meeting with that deity, and finally, his Sister screaming.
“Where’s Elide!?” Kova questioned
“No worries, she was discharged after about a couple weeks of treatment. Thankfully she made it out with only a broken leg and a few shattered ribs, with.. very, very minor brain damage. If it’s any consolation - The one who hit you was charged with attempted manslaughter, among other things.” The Doctor replied
“Okay… well.. where do I go from here?” Kova pondered “Is there any way I can go home..?”
“Let me just get your discharge paperwork ready, and I’ll let you out. Relax here for now, Kova, I’ll be back.” The Doc replied, stepping out of the room
“Okay, sure..” Kova sighed
It was about ten minutes before someone walked into the room and had Kova sign a few papers. He was offered to have a ride called for him - but he wanted to take a walk. He wasn’t too far from home at all, so it wouldn’t take any more than about an hour to get back. His belongings were given to him, and he got dressed - throwing on a change of clothes left for him by his parents for when they had hoped he woken up. Then he was on his way back home.
-
His hands were deep in his hoodie pockets, twiddling his thumbs together as he walked down the sidewalk - admiring the scenery on a walk home with no time limit. He had no idea what his parents would think about all of this, let alone Elide, his sister who was in the crash.
He pulled out his phone - unlocking it with his Face I.D. feature, figuring he could put on some sort of video to play in the background while he meandered through the city to his house. Opening his Bluetooth headphone case and putting in the right - he browsed through a creator streaming service downloaded on his phone, and put on one of his favorite streamers most recent video upload.
“sigh.. Why did I have to go and almost die..” He pondered “I’ve never believed in God.. but coming so close to death, I can’t help but wonder what exactly was that… dude? Thing? I can’t make sense of it..”
He decided that it was time to take a deep, long look into the world outside his own. Starting with the texts on his own world. He pulled his phone back into view and texted Elide, letting her know that he was almost home. From this point on, it would be a long journey - he had no idea how to even explain what happened to her when he got to the house. He felt empty, as if something was missing entirely.
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