Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A dense, bottomless, endless darkness without any way out.

Evil spirits laid out the prayers they pulled from their saddlebags before the demon.

My ability to reason, which was beginning to sprout anew, was not strong enough to order my eyes to open, but I could intermittently feel the touches on my body.

The pressure appearing precisely on my belly grew cold, persistent, and at times painful, causing my breath to stumble in my throat.

I felt my chest rise. It rose with fury and descended slowly. It rose and descended... This vicious cycle repeated constantly.

Finally, when my head slumped to wherever it fell, and I involuntarily realized that my hand, which I wanted to bring toward my belly, was trapped from some point, my dry lips couldn't even part to let out a sharp plea.

Along with the pain piercing that very same spot, my back arched like a drawn bow and lifted into the air. For a moment I thought I would regain consciousness, but that lasted perhaps less than an instant. As I tried to recover my senses, I was condemned once more to a somber darkness due to the heavy blow dealt to my consciousness.

***

When I opened my eyes, I found my hand over my belly.

The pain, whose origin I still did not understand, remained in my body, but another situation shocked my mind.

I didn't know where I was!

I couldn't remember. I didn't remember anything at all. My mind was like a blank canvas that hadn't received a single brushstroke, and I was lost in that canvas.

When I looked around carefully, my unease grew. I was in a spacious room surrounded by neat white walls, whose smooth floor reflected the light. Not a table, not a chair; not a window, not a clock... Only a round bed placed right in the center of the room, which seemed almost like a circle, and upon it lay my weakened body.

When the soft upholstery of the bed combined with the white dress made of fine fabric with thin straps that I was wearing, I felt like I was in an experiment room rather than a hospital. Touching the dress, I realized the fabric was far too alien to my body; this definitely did not belong to me. The moment I began to think about who had put it on me, my heart tightened.

I inhaled deeply and tried to suppress the chaos in my mind. Maybe I had been in an accident. Maybe the car I was in had overturned or someone had hit me. I could be injured. Someone who found me might have called an ambulance and brought me to the hospital. Maybe my mother, my father, and my siblings were outside waiting for me to wake up.

But... I found no traces of injuries on my body. Not a seam, not a bandage, not a cast. My skin was completely intact. "Maybe...", I whispered beneath my breath. "I just fainted."

But what if it wasn't that either?

The possibilities pushed against one another inside my head. I gradually sought refuge in more illogical and distant hypotheses because nothing made sense. Finally, I clung to one of them. The most reasonable, the most comforting one; that the moment I was in was nothing more than a dream...

When the door located a few meters away caught my attention, I swung my legs off the bed to stand up. In that very second, I felt as if thousands of needles were simultaneously piercing my groin.

"If it were a dream, it wouldn't feel so real!" I tried to keep my voice strong as I shouted louder. "Is anyone here?!" When my voice bounced off the walls and returned to me, I tried once more. "Can anyone take a look?!"

It didn't take long for me to realize that no one was listening to me. I carefully pressed my bare feet against the floor. There wasn't a single spot on the shiny white floor. And despite the lack of windows, the room was bright and spacious. I understood the reason the moment I looked up. There was a glass ceiling stretching from one end to the other above my head.

I walked until I stood next to the door. My vision had blurred due to the pain I felt while walking. As I blinked to clear my field of vision, I experienced another shock with the scene before me.

The door had no handle!

As a new unknown was added to the unsolved questions inside my head, I pounded on the door with the palms of my hands.

"Can someone look at me already?! What kind of hospital is this?!"

Not even a click was heard.

I began to pound on the door harder and consecutively. "Someone open this door once and for all!"

The last blow I was about to land hung suspended in the air as the door opened. I was about to relax at having finally made my voice heard, but that was not the case. Because of the woman standing in front of me, I understood there were other things I had to question.

The pale, tall, and thin woman looked at me with worried eyes accompanying the sullen grimace on her face. Without giving me a chance to ask questions, she pointed to the bed with her raised index finger.

"Get back to bed immediately. You shouldn't be on your feet."

Another woman approached hurriedly. She wore a dark blue dress that covered every inch of her body, and on the tray she carried were dressing materials. She didn't look at me; she bowed her head before the woman in front of me and spoke in a timid voice.

"Sage Diren, I assure you I gave her the medication in the required dose."

The woman in her nineties whose name I learned was Diren pressed her thin, wide lips together. "If it were as you say, she would still be sleeping right now. Wouldn't she?"

At that moment, I observed the white hallway they were in.

The only room in the massive hallway was the space I was standing in right now.

"Help Rozelin back to bed. I am going to examine her."

I stopped the short woman approaching with the dressing materials by raising my hand.

"Wait a moment. Haven't you given me any explanation? What hospital is this and why am I here?"

Diren, the woman, ignored me and repeated her order with a look. I didn't resist. Every second I remained standing, my pain multiplied.

I sat on the bed and rested my back against the headboard.

Diren entered immediately after. She looked at my extended legs and motioned for me to spread them slightly apart.

"I am waiting for an explanation," I said, fixing my eyes on her dull eyes. "You must have found me at a foundation. I think I lost consciousness there." I tried to remember what happened at the foundation; it seemed impossible. Up to the moment I climbed its stairs, everything was recorded in my memory, but a second later, the flash went off and the tape was cut.

"Regrettably, I have no authorization to give explanations. The only thing I can tell you is that you are not in the place you call a hospital, Rozelin."

I frowned. "I'm not? Where am I then?"

She pulled a pair of rubber gloves from one of the loose pockets of her dress and put them on. As her raised fingers opened and closed, she said: "Uncover your belly." Then she added: "Don't make me repeat my request, please..."

She was about to lean over me when I pulled my legs up toward my belly. "No, I won't allow it, and I want to get out of here right now!"