"Mary,l I'm sorry to say... He's still yet to respond at all... We can only wait.." A male voice fades in and out as I feel myself coming to my senses.
"But.. can't we just wait a... He's my only son.." A woman's voice this time, 'Mom? Is that you?'. Slowly I gain feeling of my body. I open my eyes with great effort, It takes a moment but my eyes adjust to the light.
I see my mother and little sister Hannah, as well as a man in a white coat with black hair. They are talking at the foot of the bed I lay in, We are in an expensive looking hospital room full of fancy equipment. Glancing down at myself I am shocked, this body looks nothing like my own, It's skinny, pasty white, and smooth looking; That's not to mention the fact that both my leg and arm appear normal, Aside from the thin scar across my right forearm. My hair is still the same crow black as before, except now it is reaching down part way across my chest.
'Damn I need a haircut.. And I lost weight! for some reason, I don't really care I'm just happy with a hot bod~' My mind wanders before I refocus. 'I should let mom know that I'm alright'..
"Mm" I attempt to speak but quickly gag. There's a damn tube in my mouth reaching down into my throat. 'Oh god that's nasty.'
Though It seems I managed to get their attention with the sudden noise, both the doctor and my family looking over towards me in pleasant surprise.
"Holy.." The doctor quickly steps over, holding my eyelids open as he flashes a light into them. "Can you hear me?"
I nod my head weakly.
He presses a button by the bed. "Get doctor Smith and some nurses in here, tell them the boy woke up." He seems happy, Gently he removes the tape holding the tube in my mouth, He then removes the tube itself, carefully avoiding activating my gag reflex.
Once it's removed I take a long and deep breathe of air. 'god I don't remember air tasting this great, especially hospital air.'
"Oh my baby!" My mother and sister hugged me tight enough to hurt if my body wasn't still numb.
"Hey mom, sis.." I manage to make an awkward smile at her hug.
"Ma'am wait a moment please! we still aren't sure of his condition." The doctor speaks before sitting in a chair next to me with a laptop.
"How are you feeling?" He asks
"Well.. A bit bony, that's about it. Aside from that I just feel a little numb, but it's wearing off."
"That's good to hear, do you remember what happened?"
"Ah! Right, There were two people, they were fighting up in the sky with magic, they destroyed everything!" I explain frantically.
The doctor lifts an eyebrow at that. "Poor kid is delusionally trying to fantasize it, that's not what happened son."
"What are you talking about?" I’m extremely confused now.
"Honey there was a terrorist attack.. they bombed over half of the city! When we saw it on the news we thought for sure that you were..." She begins to tear up.
It’s now that the doctor and nurses show up.
"Doctor smith, he's awake now, not reporting any signs of pain aside from residual numbness but is having a few delusions, which isn’t too surprising after such a traumatic event." The original doctor speaks.
Smith nods, stepping forward. "Son we're gonna need you to run a few tests to make sure you’ll be alright, watch you for a few days and then you should be able to go home." He explains to me but I’m only half listening.
'A terrorist attack... I saw them, the seed.. Argh I’m so confused, this is all going too fast.' as I finish the thought I feel a pulse from my brain. Suddenly everything slows, the doctor speaking, everyone's movements, even my own body. Only my mind is moving normally.
I glance at the machine attached to the suction cups on my temples, which I assume is for monitoring my brain functions. Nothing changes, it all appears the same as it was a moment ago, except that’s not how it is. Everything is so slow.. practically half the speed it is supposed to be.
I try to focus, I thought it was going too fast and it slowed, If I thought of it returning to normal would that work?
I will it to resume normal speed and it does, the doctor continues chattering on while my mother and sister look on.
At this point I completely tune out everything the doctor is saying, instead willing time to slow and resume its normal speed. It works, but it doesn’t feel like slowing time, Probably more like my mind getting faster. Which either way I’m pretty sure isn’t normal.
I glance over the doctor, wondering if I should tell him, but something tells me to keep it to myself. Perhaps gut instincts.
What truly bothers me however was the fact that the man claimed what happened was a terrorist attack, yet what I saw was clear in my mind. I know what I saw, and it was definitely no delusion. Not to mention how long I’ve been stuck in this bed, totally unconscious.
"Jack?" The first doctor taps my shoulder.
"Ah, sorry. I was just a little shell shocked at everything."
He offers me a sympathetic smile. "That is totally understandable, however we need to take you to get some scans done." He motions for the nurses, one of them removing the suction cups that watched my vitals, as well as the needle from my arm. while the other brought a wheelchair over.
I attempt to sit up only to have my arms fall out from under me. "Uhhh..." I guess I'm still not ready for that..
The nurses help me up and put me into the chair as my mother speaks up. "I have to call your father, he will be so excited to hear you are alright!" She smiles brightly.
My sister whines, "I want to go with brother."
Woah, that'd have to be the first time she whines for me and not against me, unless she plans to kill me without witnesses. I glance her over, still short, long hair and casual clothing. She turned fourteen a month ago, I got her a roll of toilet paper since she’s such an annoying shit. I thought it was funny, her not so much. I would have been grounded for a week if there wasn’t a 20 dollar bill wrapped up in the toilet paper..
Doctor Smith speaks, patting my sister’s head. "That should be fine, as long as you promise to be good."
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My mother walks out into the hall with us before turning off to the main lobby, while we go the other way.
"I need to know something, how long exactly was I out? And where the heck did all of my weight go? Though I’m definitely not complaining." I heard that people in a coma lose weight, but that was a LOT of weight.
"Hm.. Alright though this may be very shocking for you, you’ve been out for the past nine months, its July 14th today" The doctor explains
"Nine months?! Is that even possible? I thought the body started deteriorating or whatever. Shit that means I missed my birthday, ahh all those presents"
"Right, it was the longest someone had been in stuck in a coma by a long shot as far as I know. and we massaged your body to stop the decay and provided you with state of the art medicine." He explained.
That sounded off. "Uhh.. I gotta say this all sounds really expensive, how exactly did we afford all this?"
"Well your grandfather of course.”
"My grandfather? That doesn’t make any sense but.. Haahh.. I’ll just ask dad what’s going on.."
We reach our destination and the tests go on for a while, at least an hour before I am brought back to the room, my sister quietly following me around with her head in her phone.
When we get back to the room I’m surprised to see two men in black suits and shades standing outside the door on both sides. When we try and enter they stop us.
The doctor speaks up, "Ah, The president must be in there?" While he talks I look over the guards more carefully. I’m barely able to make out the dentation of what is likely a pistol under his shirt and tucked into his pants.
They ignore the man and look down at me. "Are you Jack Bell?" The one on the left side questions.
"Yeah.." I prepare to slow things down, feeling uncomfortable with this whole situation.
"Oy, Oy! What are you two doing?! Let my grandchildren in." An elderly voice calls out from the room. Grandchildren? My father’s dad is a farmer in Montana and wouldn’t have security like this. Mom doesn't like talking about her parents, like at all.just flat out refuses to talk about her side of the family.
One of the guards takes the handles of the wheelchair while the other ones keep the doctors and nurses out. Inside there are three more guards, standing about an elderly man who appears in his early sixties. I see my parents sitting down as well, both of them trying their best to ignore the old man.
"Jack! You’re awake, how are you feeling champ?" My father asks, he looks like he aged a good bit over the past year, His brown hair half gray while his handsome face has a few extra wrinkles.
"I’m alright dad, really just feeling odd. To you all I’ve been unconscious for nine months, but to me it feels like we just had spaghetti for dinner yesterday." I kept my eyes on the old man, who met my gaze with a chilling stare that intimidates me into looking away.
"Hmm.. he’s going to need a lot of work, but I think we should be able to barely manage." Grandpa over here is really weirding me out.
"Uh, what exactly do you mean mister? And who are you?” I ask.
"Oh, she never even told you anything about dear old grandpa huh? Well that’s alright, My name is Leonard Stratyn, Owner of Stratyn Inc." He says proudly, looking for my reaction.
"I.. Don't know who they are." I say blatantly.
"What... Sarah! What have you been teaching this kid!?" He questions my mother.
"It’s not my fault all he does is play video games!" She complains.
Daniel, my father speaks quietly at her side. "Uh... Honey as parents it kinda is..."
I sigh, "Can we get on with this?"
"Right" My grandfather coughs lightly. "Stratyn Inc specializes in chemistry, medicine, and science. We are the leading private company in all three subject, this hospital we stand in is even one of ours." He proclaims proudly. "Now the reason I am here I can leave to my daughter"
She nods. "Jack, when the attack happened we rushed to the hospital you were at but they didn’t have the proper equipment or expertise to keep you stable for over a week. I thought of father and called him up, telling him what happened. He agreed to help but only after making a deal with him, and that was for me to pass custody of you over to him."
"You transferred custody of me over to a man I don’t even know?!" I am upset, but at the same time I realize that it was a necessary decision for them and was likely not an easy one.
I sigh, "Alright.. But what happens now?" I question my grandfather.
"Now I am going to have you trained to become my heir, Congratulations, you are a few steps closer to becoming a billionaire." He grins.
"That sounds really nice and all.. And I love the idea of this get rich quick scheme but what's the catch?" I would be excited if I didn't have a bad feeling in my gut about this.
"The catch is that you need to move into a private school overseas away from your parents, from what I heard you've been sheltered in with a little safe haven by them, but look what that made you, all weak and fearful. So we need to get you into proper shape."
“What?! Leave my home? But I just woke up and..” No, I can't keep hiding there.. What he said was accurate.
I will my mind to speed up as everything goes into slow motion so that I can think. Looking at my parents they seem prepared for this, as they should be after so long. Hanna however looks upset, as if they hadn't told her about the arrangements.
I think this would be best for me, after that near death experience I feel like I have to improve myself instead of wasting so much time on games. Like hell I'm giving up on games entirely but no way am I spending six hours a day at least playing them. And moving to another country will be exciting.. I sigh, I'll probably have to actually.. Study. I shudder at the thought but it's a necessity.
I resume normal speed, I think I need a name for that.. 'Focus' will do for now. "Alright grandpa, I'll become your heir."