Arin woke with a start, choking as her dry throat scraped out words and coughs. A nurse came rushing in to help her, pouring a glass of water from a nearby pitcher and inserting a straw from nearby, holding it to Arin who gladly drank most of it down in one gulp before panting desperately.
“Where am I?” She asked, looking around in a daze. The last thing she remembered was Jack beating her, then the girl running toward her while he ran away, but it was all so fuzzy and there were images of a beach mixed in for some reason. Arin shut her eyes and laid her head back as the nurse stood back up, taking vitals and pressing the call button to bring a doctor in. “Is she okay?”
“You’re in the hospital, honey. Took a damn good beating but that girl is okay. You’re a hero to quite a few people, that girl especially. She’s been in here every day to check on you.” The nurse said, opening the blinds to let a little sun in as a doctor walked into the room briskly, slinging stethoscope around his neck as he walked. Arin looked to him as he walked in, The nurse turned to him as she checked the various lines and tubes running around Arin. “She’s awake, haven’t gotten a chance to check cognitive function but she seems to be talking fine.”
“Good. Do you know where you are, Arin?” The doctor said, taking a spot at the side of her bed and holding up a finger, as he moved. it around Arin followed it with her eyes, the doctor giving vague affirmations of ‘good’ and ‘mhm’ as he went. She nodded in response as he asked another question, “You’ve been unconscious for about a week now. You took a very, very dangerous amount of trauma to your head. We did have to cut your hair and a section of skull to relieve pressure on your brain but that’s already been sealed back up. Now, can you tell me if you’re seeing double or anything like that? Blurred vision?”
“No… what happened?” Arin was still confused as to how she got from Point A to Point B, much less how she had been unconscious for a week but that was something she had to tuck away for later unless she wanted to break down right away. “She told me the girl was okay?”
“Yes ma’am. From what I understand while he was distracted with you she was able to grab a pistol from her purse. Far as I know she shot him but he’s yet to be found.” The doctor continued testing Teagan’s cognitive ability, holding up fingers now, “How many fingers?”
“Three.” Arin replied. He switched it up again, “Five. One. Three again. Can I leave?”
“Noooooo can do.” The doctor said, standing up now and walking to a nearby computer on a cart. He began punching in orders and notes while scanning his ID on the security system, beeping green with confirmation. “No, we need to do extensive brain scans and make sure you don’t have any lasting damage, which is very likely. We’ll also probably need to do some extensive reconstructive surgery. There’s a mirror on the table right here, but I’m going to tell you it’s not going to be easy to look at.”
Arin snatched the mirror off the bedside table, pink with a long plastic handle and safety glass that barely reflected anything. As she held it up to her face she had to process that it was a mirror and not some portrait of an industrial accident victim. Her face was unrecognizable, swollen in more places than she could count with her nose completely sideways under tape and gauze.
“You’ve suffered extensive fractures and breaks to your jaw and cheeks, along with a shattered eye socket. We already put a titanium plate in where your eye was to maintain skull integrity but there’s a lot of work needed and you will probably not look one hundred percent the same ever again. I know it’s a lot to take in but I want to inform you of everything.” The doctor was speaking quietly now, looking at Arin with something between pity and the desire to give her a hug and tell her it would be okay. She could feel tears beginning to sting in her eyes, with the adrenaline of waking up finally wearing off and giving way to the dull throb of pain through her entire head and face. She winced and laid the mirror back down, sighing and closing her eyes.
“Figure it would hurt more than this.” She said, opening her eyes again as the doctor gave a small chuckle.
“There are a significant amount of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs pumping through your system, so you won’t feel much of anything for the next day or two until you get released. Do you have any family that you can stay with?” He asked her now, turning back to the screen and punching in more notes. “Your address is listed as in town but we don’t have anything but your ID and phone which was locked. Is there anyone you would like us to notify?”
“Uh. If I can have my phone I can call my sister. All my chargers were in my bag too.” She said, looking around now for her stuff but not seeing it anywhere. The doctor sat her phone down on the table from a counter at the back of the room and plugged a cable into the small USB port on the table.
“Phone is right here for you to use, your bag and everything inside it was taken as evidence by the investigators. You have a spare cable from the nursing station right now but we’ll need it back before you leave.” The doctor smiled now as her phone booted up, walking out of the room before turning back, “If there’s anything else you need please hit the call button. You’re not cleared for solid food yet but liquids are totally fine and a nurse can bring you a room meal menu.”
“Do I have to pay for the meals?” Arin groaned, already expecting the answer.
“They’ll bill it. I don’t involve myself with that stuff.” The doctor said as he walked away, off to another patient in some crisis or another as Arin laid her head back once more, groaning at the dull pain in the back of her skull. She picked up her phone to see if Cath had left her anything, but she only had two messages. One from her aunt, and one from her goddamn landlord.
“I’m in the hospital.” She stated, texting that back in a fury. A notification popped up almost immediately that it was read, as he simply texted back ‘Don’t care. Due by tomorrow.’
“Dickhead.” Arin said out loud, closing the text and scrolling past the one from her aunt, probably asking for money again like she did every other month. She couldn’t keep this shit up, lights getting cut off, most likely evicted tomorrow unless someone miraculously responded to one of her manuscript submissions with a massive paycheck. All she could do was sigh and open the news, dreading what kind of insanity might have happened while she was unconscious. Things were getting stranger every day already and these images of a beach kept flashing back in her head, but it wasn’t one she remembered seeing anywhere.
The headlines were populated almost exclusively with stories of the bank heists again, with many happening across the country in the span of a week. Arin stared at her phone, dumbfounded while trying to make the series of robberies make sense. They were in Los Angeles right before she was knocked out, yet in the days since they had hit Atlanta, Indianapolis, Chicago, Portland, Little Rock, and somehow Oahu in that order before finishing it off in Orlando with one of their biggest pull-offs yet. The news was only broken up by the headline of some major executives being murdered, with no explanation as to how.
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“How the hell are they managing this?” She whispered to herself, beginning her ritual of thinking out loud and typing in notes for herself. There was no way they could have travelled quick enough to hit every bank in the span of time that’s passed, especially if they weren’t using planes or some other quick transport. Maybe it was a massive publicity stunt? No, the rich folks wouldn’t let people play with their money just to advertise. The masks were thee same at each one, and there were still reports and buzz online about what the Strays had done after each heist. Arin tried to let out a low whistle before her nose scrunched up in pain as her face tried to move in ways it no longer could.
“Fantastic,” She sighed, setting the phone down and stopping herself before she could rub her eyes out of habit, trying to avoid any unnecessary pain. She was brought back to the present by a woman knocking on her room door, wheeling in a small cart with a computer set up. She stood next to her bed and smiled at her, turning to the computer and scanning her ID.
“Name’s Angie, heard you got in quite the matchup. I just need to get some of your information for billing and insurance so we can have that taken care of.” She said. “Do you have any sort of coverage?”
“Nope.” Arin sighed, shutting her eyes and laying back defeated. “So the asshole that did this isn’t on the hook for the bill?”
“Afraid not, since they can’t find him as far as I’ve heard. They can let you figure that out once they do though. I’m just going to mark self pay and let you get some rest, honey.” Angie mentioned, clicking around on the screen and hitting a few buttons before rolling the cart out again. “Hope you start feeling better, and hope they find that jerk.”
“Thanks…” Arin mumbled, overcome with anxiety now. There was no way she would have an apartment to go back to, likely no family either since her sister obviously wasn’t concerned. Now a massive hospital bill to top off the shit-sundae life had handed her. She tried sitting up, noticing her body was much less in pain than her face. She looked at the mirror again, catching a glimpse of her bruised, swollen face. “Come on, Arin. Don’t do the stupid thing. The bill is going to suck regardless, so might as well get better…”
Before she I knew it the IV’s were being yanked out of her arm and sticky pads holding wires to her were torn from skin. No turning back now, her mind was made up, the lines were out and her heart monitor was now emitting a low beep. She snatched her phone from the bed table and began a mad rush toward the door and out of the hospital, unfortunately familiar with the layout after all this time since mom had been gone. She paid no attention to the nurses or staff passing her in the hallway, alternating between staring at her or completely ignoring her depending on their pay grade.
“Ma’am! Ma’am you haven’t been cleared to leave!” A younger nurse began shouting at her, walking faster as Arin picked up her pace in turn. Her chest burned from the week of inactivity, muscles already starting to atrophy from inactivity. Her stomach was suddenly grumbling too as her body made it very clear she wasn’t supposed to be doing this. The nurse kept after her for a moment before finally turning around as Arin reached the door, making her way to freedom hospital gown and all. The nurse simply shook her head and turned back, noticing a receptionist at the desk watching her, “We don’t get paid enough for that.”
The receptionist nodded in agreement as they went about their work.
***
Arin didn’t stop until she was three blocks away, clutching the hospital gown closed so everyone didn’t see more of her than she already didn’t want. The reactions of others would have been comical if it wasn’t her in the situation, with some giving her a wide berth on the sidewalk or looking at her as if she was an escaped zoo animal while others just saw it as a normal day in Atlanta. Not that Arin could blame them, things were weird around the city, and this was just the latest event in a long line. The alleyway she had stopped in was dark and wet, with concrete walls stretching across a few dozen meters before opening to the next street. Arin finally leaned against the wall as she reached the alleyways midpoint, desperately gasping for breath as her lungs burned. She found breathing through her nose impossible, almost choking her. She began to panic as the adrenaline of her escape wore off.
“Holy shit. Okay, ground. Ground.” She put a hand to the brick wall in front of her, feeling the rough, damp stone against her fingers. Her breathing slowed a little, letting her focus a bit more on the exercise to calm herself. “Okay, I can touch the brick. I can touch the ground. There’s a pipe on the wall. I can smell… I can’t smell anything. Fuck. Fuck, okay. It’s okay, Arin. You can see everything around you. Just focus on what you can.”
The pep talk was working as she looked around her and gathered her bearings, finally looking down at her feet and noticing a swollen face staring back at her. She started to jump before realizing it was her reflection, and she no longer looked like Arin, but this lump of flesh and gauze. Tears began hitting the puddle, causing ripples to run across her face in the reflection. Everything stung, tears tracing lines down her face and into the gauze wrapped around. Even closing her eyes hurt, she didn’t recognize herself, and how the hell was she going to get back home now? All she had was her phone, even then the only person she could call was Cath and she was probably halfway across the world right now. She closed her eyes again, hoping to some cosmic power that this was all a nightmare and she would wake up in bed. Maybe that’s what everything had been? Maybe she would wake up and mom would call and ask if Arin was on her way to dinner, still alive and healthy as can be. If only…
Arin opened her eyes in surprise when scents began filling her nose again. If she had anything in her stomach, it would have come up almost immediately upon the smell of an Atlanta back alley suddenly hitting like the brick wall in front of her. Bodily fluids, rotting garbage, and wet, mildewed bricks were just the first to make it through, overloading her senses as she scrunched her nose in disgust and held her hand up to pinch it closed on instinct. She realized too late how much it would hurt, preparing to wince in pain as her fingers made contact with her nose, but it never came. She was barely touching anything through the gauze, now poking out on the tip of her nose instead of pressed in on the bridge. Arin began feeling around her face, noticing no pain as fingers probed at the various gauze pads stuck on. She began pulling them off, the only pain coming from the adhesive sticking to her skin. Finally, she was able to see her reflection clearly in the puddle, looking just as she had before going out that night a week ago.
“What the hell?” Arin whispered, feeling her fingers over smooth skin once more. Nothing was off, not even a scar or mark to show where she had been injured just moments before. Her split lip was suddenly whole again, and her nose pointing the right direction once more. Eyes grew wide as she began to question everything again, thinking back on the vision of that beach at sunset, uncannily lit with no shadows… it all came rushing back as she started feeling nauseous again, not because of the smell this time. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Nope. I have brain damage. That’s it.”
Arin began making her way out of the alley, moving toward the opposite side from where she had entered. As she left the narrow brick walls and turned onto the sidewalk someone almost ran into her before stepping back and briefly apologizing before staring at her, taking a moment for recognition to sink in. “Arin? That you?”
She had been trying to avoid any kind of eye contact but finally looked up, seeing a familiar face she couldn’t quite navigate through the hurricane behind her eyes. He looked her up and down, noting the hospital gown she was still clutching closed while holding her phone.
“We went to high school together, Joshua. Remember? We barely survived trig. Are you… you alright? You don’t look like you’re alright.” Joshua said as Arin finally studied him instead of trying to awkwardly look away. Dark brown hair and a strong jawline against dark skin, along with deep blue eyes and a small blemish on his cheek that had been covered up by a beard since she had seen him in school. She noticed the concerned look on his face begin to turn to apprehension and eventually fear over the space of a few moments. “Okay that’s not cool… uh… never mind.”
He let go of her arm and kept walking on his way, glancing back at her every few steps as if to make sure she wasn’t following. He had gone pale, eyes growing wide before he had left, with no reason immediately visible to her as why. She felt her face, wondering if the wounds healing had all been in her head. Her confusion only deepened upon feeling hair on her face, a scruffy beard growing along her cheeks. She quickly pulled her phone up, opening the front camera and staring dumbfounded as it gave her a look at… Joshua.
Arin spun her camera around to every angle, desperately trying to see if it was some trick or filter or some ridiculous mental break she may be having. No, there was no explanation for what was going on. Where she was on her phone screen was only showing Joshua. She tried opening her mouth and raising eyebrows as Joshua in the camera mimicked her actions.
“Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god.” She muttered, continuing to move along and finally realizing where she was. “Oh, thank fuck.”
She somehow managed to end up about two blocks from her house, the MARTA station she had been on her way to just a week ago sitting across the road from her now. Arin picked up her pace, hustling home and making it to her front door before realizing she didn’t have a key. She banged on the front door in frustration, letting out a shout and realizing it was Joshua’s voice coming out. A sudden realization sent her around the house, jumping the back fence and making her way to a window at the house’s rear. Pushing her palms against the glass, she lifted the window and was finally able to climb through, collapsing finally and taking several massive gasps to try and get herself back. The wounds on her face was gone, but she felt exhausted of stamina. As much as she wanted to immediately go and figure out what was going on, there was no strength left after the whirlwind of events she had just been through. It was only moments before Arin fell asleep there on her dining room floor, a slight pixelated haze shimmering in the air around her body as she suddenly returned to looking like herself. She slept on, unknowing.