*Trigger warning. Look to description for details.

I don’t know where I am.

The sheets against my skin do not feel like my sheets.

The bed beneath me does not feel like my bed.

The air around me doesn’t smell like my home.

I lose my sense of consciousness once more.

------

Why are my eyes heavy? Why does my body feel even heavier?

I can hear a soft beeping. Is it medical equipment?

I hear soft shuffling. Who is here with me? I can’t seem to sense who they are based on their smell.

Where am I?

What is happening?

 It smells of disinfectant and clean linens. I forced my eyes open just enough to get more details of my surroundings, keeping the rest of my body still as a stone. The room is dim, but my eyes quickly adjust. I look around the room and recognize that the sounds are in fact medical equipment. I am laying in a twin size bed, hooked up to the medical equipment all around me. There is a door to the left of the foot of the bed that seems to be a bathroom. Straight to my left, there is a window on the wall. I cannot see trees, but I can see the sky, so I assume that I am not on the ground floor. There is a door to my right that seems to have a keypad lock on it that requires a badge to lock or unlock.

Hearing the shuffling once more, I look towards its source and see a person shifting in their sleep, sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed. I can’t tell who they are. Have I even ever met them before? It doesn’t matter, my eyes are growing heavy once more. Too heavy to keep open.

This time, my sleep is full of odd dreams. I can’t seem to string them together into anything coherent. All I see is blurry colors and all I hear are strange sounds. Yet, something about them seems familiar.

------

The next time I wake, I wake with a start. I try pulling my hands to my chest, but a sharp sting in my wrists stop me before they get too far. Looking down with a panic, I see that I am handcuffed to the bed. I don’t remember being handcuffed when I woke up before. Smelling a familiar cologne and hearing a jingling sound, my eyes snapped up to the person sitting in the chair beside me. He seems so peaceful there, hands in his lap, eyes closed in blissful slumber, the jingling coming from the keys attached his belt loop knocking against each other as he shifts in his sleep.

“Jace?” My lips feel too dry to be talking, and my voice sounds funny.

His tired eyes popped open, showing me that the hate that I had last seen in them persisted. Before I knew what was happening, Jace was on top of me: his knees on either side of my stomach, squeezing, and his hands around my neck. I can feel him squeezing his hands, taking his time in applying the pressure. I could tell he was taking joy in the journey of killing me. I could feel my heart rate rising as the pressure increased. The heart monitor attached to my finger confirmed this with a blaring beeping echoing throughout the room. The pressure was becoming too much to handle.

The heart monitor was now screaming that my pulse and oxygen were dangerously low. Jace moved to pull the monitor off my finger and I got momentary relief before he was right back at it. It was getting hard to keep my eyes open.

Think.

Think.

But, it’s hard to think when you can’t get any oxygen.

------

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She’s dead.” Jace jumped off of me and started pacing the room, running his hands through his hair, his eyes wild. “Fuck. I wasn’t supposed to kill her this fast. What is everyone going to think?” He suddenly stopped his pacing, a determined look now in his eyes. He opened the door a crack and went out, letting it close with a soft click.

I take in a deep breath of air that burns my throat and lungs. I quickly use the keys I’ve snatched off of Jace to undo the cuffs keeping me in the bed. I have no clue what plan Jace has, or when he’ll come back, so I have to work fast. I carefully rip the IV out of my arm and move to stand up, and doing so, I almost collapse from the stiffness in my legs. How long have I been out?

Willing my legs to work, I make my way to the window. Looking through it, I confirm that I am not on the ground floor. Damn it, it would have been so much easier to just crawl out of the window. But no, I had to be mid way up some sort of tower.

Knowing that going out the window is a fruitless option, I make my way to the door on the opposite wall. I give it a slight tug, but it does not want to open. Panic is creeping its way into my head, but, I remember that I have Jace’s keys. I place his ID badge to the lock mechanism and am rewarded with a soft ding. I open the door just enough to hear what is happening outside the room. I hear nurses and doctors bustling about, but no noise indicating they are close enough to hear or see me leave, so I open the door a bit wider.

My suspicions were correct, as I do not see anyone in the near vicinity. I sneak into the hallway, always checking my surroundings as I head to what I am hoping is a locker room. Volunteering in a hospital is really paying off in helping me find my way, as well as finding hiding spots in the process.

I finally make it to what I assume is the locker room, but I pause, hearing at least three voices inside. “Damn, must be break time,” I mutter to myself. My voice still sounds strange and I don’t know if I will ever feel fully comfortable speaking again. During my mental lament over the loss of my voice, I hear the door open and see the three nurses walk out. I grab the door, keeping it slightly ajar as I look around. I do not see anyone else enter, nor do I hear any other voices, so I head in.

I carefully go through the lockers until I find a pair of scrubs that fit me. I feel badly for taking them, but I honestly need them more right now, the breeze of the hospital gown is getting to be too much for me. After changing, I leave the locker room and head towards a PPE station. I grab a mask and head down the hallway with confidence.

If you look like you know what you’re doing, people usually will not question you.