Home > Chrysalis (The Formicary #1)(2)

Chrysalis (The Formicary #1)(2)
Author: S.E. Harmon

The controlled chaos continued to swirl around me. People on both sides of the table spoke to one another, asking and answering questions. Most of what they were saying went way over my head. That didn’t mean much. I blinked blearily. Making a peanut butter sandwich was over my head right now.

“There he is.” A man appeared in my line of vision, close to my face. I cataloged his features with a clinical detachment. He had silver hair and kind blue eyes with a lot of laugh lines. The rest of his face was concealed with a mask. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

I wasn't sure if it was good to be back or not. Standing on a serene hilltop in the most beautiful place in the world, completely pain-free, was hard to beat. I was hurting so much right now that I couldn’t even tell where my injury was.

“Do you know who shot you?” he asked.

It took me a few seconds to realize the doctor was talking to me. “Shot? Me?”

My voice sounded slurred and strange. I tried to sit up, and suddenly, the controlled chaos was directed my way as several people made sure that didn't happen. “Whoa, there.” The doctor patted me on the shoulder. “We're giving you a little something that's going to help you sleep.”

I didn't want to sleep, but I didn't have much of a choice. I could already feel it working. My eyes drifted shut on a heavy blink. Something was wrong here, but I couldn't quite wrap my mind around it. I also couldn't work up enough energy to care properly. Two more blinks and my lids refused to lift again. Worry later. Right now?

Sleep.

 

 

2

 

 

I woke up alone.

My eyes felt scratchy and my throat a little raw. I tried to sit up to get a better look around and regretted it almost immediately as pain zinged through my head. I lowered my aching cranium to the pillow.

A memory flashed through my mind of a woman with long raven hair smiling at me and holding out a baby goat in her arms. Isn’t she just darling? It’s your turn to hold her, but be careful, sweetheart.

Her again. Mom. I was tempted to stay there with her, caught up in that easy, wide smile and those kind brown eyes, but I was distracted by a disturbing thought. I didn’t know her name. How could you not know your mother’s name? Did I even know my name?

I tried to calm myself and my racing mind, but it wasn’t an easy task. Of course you know your name. Gray. Grayson. No, wait. I shook my head to clear it. That was the name of my partner... who was nowhere to be found. Had he even bothered to check on me?

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with my freaking name. Or Grayson’s last name. I shook my head frustratedly. I needed…I needed to move. This time when I attempted to sit up, I actually managed it. My head felt three sizes too big for my body, like I was a human bobblehead. But I managed to stay upright.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, which deserved a good cheer. My feet touching the cold-ass floor was one step closer to getting out of this fucking place. Too bad I was weak as a newborn kitten.

I scooted my butt closer to the edge of the bed, so that I was more off than on it, and then attempted to stand. I was grateful when my wobbly feet held my weight. But that was about all I could do. My attempts to take a step didn’t work. I felt like I was mired in quicksand.

Okay, you tried. You failed. Back to bed.

I couldn’t manage that, either. I was also getting tired and winded just by standing there. I didn’t even know how much longer I had before I’d hit the floor. I was sure that would be fanfuckingtastic for my recovery.

The door opened, and a nurse bustled in, humming under her breath, her hands filled with medical supplies. Resignedly, I waited for her to notice me. It was for the best. Yes, she was going to foil my plan of escape, but honestly, I had no idea how to get back in bed. I also had no strength to walk forward. I was stuck in no man's land where stubbornness was king, and I was his loyal subject.

She put the supplies on my bed tray in a neat row, still humming, and then she spotted me. Startled, she stared at me for few seconds. I stared right back. She only had to lift her brows, and my face colored. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m an idiot, and I should’ve known better. Can we get on with the rescue before I faceplant, please?

Using that secret super strength that all nurses seemed to have, she helped me shuffle back to the bed. Then she helped me get on the bed, which required a lot of huffing and puffing. Our creative maneuvering worked, though, and soon, I found myself stretched out in the same position I started. She helped me get comfortable, fluffing my pillow with vigor. After she stuffed it under my head, she pulled up the bed rails, effectively caging me in as she created an impromptu adult crib.

“How are we feeling today?” she asked as she practically snapped the covers up to my chin.

Like a three-year-old, thanks. “Fine,” I said begrudgingly. That wasn’t the least bit true, but I didn’t see how it would help to complain that I felt like I’d been run over by a Mack truck… then used as a hood ornament for the rest of the trip.

She pulled over my bed tray where she’d put her supplies. My gaze went straight to the syringe and the clear little vial of medicine next to it. I didn’t recognize the name on the label, but I didn’t need to—I knew a sedative when I saw one. They might as well have named it You Go Nite-Nite Now. If she thought she was going to stick me with that, I was ready to disabuse her of that notion.

“I’m assuming that syringe isn’t to take blood,” I said shortly. She ignored me, and my heart rate kicked up a notch. “Where’s Gray?”

“This isn’t Grayside, hun.” She broke the seal on the clear vial, and my scowl grew. “You’re at East Regional in Clark, Michigan.”

“Gray,” I said more stringently. I didn’t care what hospital I was in. Or the state. “Grayson. I need to see him.”

“Grayson?” She paused in preparing her torture needle. “Dr. Laurie is otherwise occupied.”

Laurie. The name meant nothing to me, so I hoped she had the right Grayson. “Too occupied to see his boyfriend who’s been shot in the fucking head?”

Her eyes widened. “Um.”

“What?” I said exasperatedly. I was damned tired of feeling left out of the loop. My mind was soup right now. I had no extra brain power to spare to figure out…well, anything. My distraction gave her the opportunity she needed to jab me with the needle.

Before I could do more than snarl, I succumbed to the darkness again.

 

 

The next time I woke up, I felt perfectly lucid. That was a good and a bad thing. I’d been convinced that lucidity would bring clarity and help me remember some finer details about my life that seemed to be missing… just little things like who the hell I was and who’d shot me in the fucking head. Nothing too important.

No such luck.

I reached up to rub my forehead, but I couldn’t quite get enough arm extension to do so. It only took me a second to realize why as I peered down at my wrist. I was fucking handcuffed to the bed railing. Now that I knew it was there, the coolness against my skin was impossible to miss.

A nurse bustled in dragging a vitals machine behind her. Her brown hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and her scrub top had puppies on the front. I glanced at my patient board on the wall and saw that her name was Brenda.

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