Awake

ADELINE'S POV

My back hit the earth with a sickening thud.

The shock was instant. My spine screamed as if it had been split in two, and the ache spread like wildfire through every nerve of mine. The ground was wet, rainwater soaked through the satin of my gown, turning the fabric cold. My head struck something hard, and a warm trickle began to slide down the side of my face.

Blood. I could smell it before I felt it.

I looked up.

The terrace lights seemed distorted by the water in my eyes. I looked up again, and again. Each time, the world spun a little more out of focus.

Devon’s face appeared first in my barely zoned vision. Behind him, Conrad stood still and signaled him.

Devon turned, rushing back inside. I realized that they were trying to keep anyone from seeing me.

I tried to move but the pain slammed me back down.

My voice came out a rasp. “Conrad…”

For a moment, he only stared at me, panting like a chased deer until he finally came down.

Relief spurred in my chest. He would help me. He would carry me to the car and call for an ambulance.

He crouched beside me, hands trembling as he lifted my head. The movement made me cry out. More blood spilled through my hair, sticking to his sleeve.

“Does it hurt?”

Tears burned my eyes. I tried to nod, but even that felt impossible. My fingers clawed at the grass, reaching for him. “Please… help…”

He studied me for a long, unbearable moment. Then he exhaled, as if arriving at a decision.

“Maybe this is for the best.”

I blinked hard, certain I had misheard him. “W what?”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a white napkin, the kind they had used at the gala.

He unfolded it carefully, like it was a fragile piece of paper.

“C Conrad…”

He pressed it over my mouth and nose.

I struggled instantly, my arms flailing, fingers clawing at his wrist. I tried to scream, but the sound was muffled against the cloth.

“Do not,” Conrad hissed through clenched teeth, “make this harder than it already is.”

My vision blurred, my lungs burned for air.

I kicked weakly, but my strength was gone. The last thing I saw was Conrad’s face, bleak and expressionless, focused, like he was finishing a task he had planned all along.

I thought he had shoved me by accident.

"I'm sorry Adeline." He placed a kiss atop my forehead. "I just cannot have you ruining what I have worked so hard for."

Conrad.

That was the last name my brain registered.

I have thought about death. Many times, but never like this.

[FIFTEEN HOURS LATER • ST. MIKHAIL'S HOSPITAL]

×××

I was gone.

I was sure of it.

But all of a sudden, I had started to feel.

Cold steel was what I felt first, then the scent of antiseptics and embalming powder. My eyes snapped open and I sat up, feeling around my chest and skull at the same time.

I felt no pain, the back of my head was all stitched up and I felt no pain whatsoever there.

I also had a heartbeat.

A heartbeat.

H how... how is this possible?.

I looked down at myself. I was naked, with only a sheen hospital blanket, a corpse's thin covering, and I quickly hopped off the steel table and wrapped the material around myself.

My eyes adjusted to my dim surroundings and my heart tanked. Okay, this was definitely a mortuary. And there were other bodies here, to my left. Ugh, I quickly averted my gaze feeling extremely creeped out.

"What morgue is this?"

I looked around, dragging my wobbly feet toward the door.

St. Mikhail's General Hospital

The sign above the door was clear.

"Mikhail" The name sounded familiar but my brain was lagging behind by a lot. "Mikhail... Mik— Mikhail Leonidovich."

This was Mikhail's hospital.

My hand immediately shot out for the door handle, pulling on it harshly. But of course it was locked from the outside.

"Hello?" I pounded on the door with my fist. "Anybody out there? Nurse? Doctor? Cleaners?"

There was no response but I had started to hear muffled voices. "Hello!!!"

"My goodness, who is that?"

"Marta, do—"

Two nurses. Thank the good lord.

"Hi... the door is locked. I cannot get out."

"Are you a nurse that got stuck in there or something?"

I could not find the right words to phrase my rebirth-ish situation so I decided to flow with the lie instead.

"Yeah, yeah. Um... yeah, I came to get... morgue stuff and I got a call and I stepped away from the door and got locked in here."

"Which nurse are you? Your name and your discipline." the other voice questioned and I bit my lip.

"Nurse... dingle, orthopedics."

"The only nurse in orthopedics whose name starts with D is Daisy. And I am Daisy."

Fuck.

"Okay. I am not a nurse. My name is Adeline, Adeline Royce."

The silence stretched so long I could hear my own pulse in my ears. The nurses outside whispered furiously to each other.

"That cannot be," one of them, Nurse Daisy, said. "She was declared dead at midnight."

"I saw the body myself," the other muttered. "Head trauma, spine fracture. It was bad."

I pulled the cloth tighter around my chest.

“I am not dead.”

“Don't listen to her ghost Daisy, she is!.”

"I am not dead!" I shouted, hitting the metal door so hard my palm stung. "Do you hear me? I am alive! My name is Adeline Royce, and I need to see Mikhail."

The voices fell quiet, completely.

For a moment I thought they had run off to get security.

Then one of them continued, "Adeline Royce died last night."

"Then open the damn door and see for yourself." I yelled back. "Do I sound dead to you?"

I started pounding on the door again. Footsteps began to gather outside. They seemed like dozens of them now.

"She says she is Adeline Royce..."

"Impossible..."

"Someone check the log"

"I told you, she is dead."

I pressed my forehead to the cold metal. "Please," I said, softer this time. "Please just open the door."

I was just about to resort to screaming the door down when everywhere went quiet and the handle turned.

Light spilled in from the open door. I blinked, trying to adjust my eyes to the sudden brightness. As they adjusted, I finally noticed the figure holding the door ajar.

Standing in the doorway was a man built like stone. His hair was blond, his eyes steel grey.

“Mikhail.”