Three Years

Note: this story contains triggers of self-harm, language, and attempted murder.

Three Years.

The room is unfamiliar. I don’t know how I got here. I thought to myself as I woke up. I noticed I was connected to all sorts of machines and tubes. I hit the call button and a nurse came rushing into where I was. “Oh my god! You’re awake,” The nurse said as she pulled a tube from my mouth. 

“Where am I? How did I get here?” I asked. 

“Well, you were brought in here three years ago. You tried to commit suicide,” The nurse said as she helped me slide up in my bed. 

“Suicide? No way. I wouldn’t do that. I had it all—a great job. A perfect husband and we were trying for a baby, I wouldn’t commit suicide. What did I do?” I asked trying to figure out what I did. 

“You ingested poison or something like that, All call your husband and tell him you are awake,” The nurse said as she left the room. 

I know wouldn’t commit suicide. I had a great life. I just got a promotion at work to become a leading reporter at the Newspaper. I wouldn’t poison myself. I had such a weak stomach the smell alone would make me ill. I had to investigate and make sure I found out what was wrong before my husband showed up. I called for the nurse again but a different one came into the room. “How can I help you, Liz?” The nurse asked. 

“Oh, where did the other nurse go?” I asked. 

“Not sure who you are talking about. I am the only one on the floor,” The nurse said.

“Can I see my chart? I need to see a couple of things,” I said as my concerns grew about who was in my room. 

“Sure, Hold on,” The nurse said as she left the room.

After the nurse left I picked up the phone and called the only person who I knew wouldn’t think I would try to kill myself, my best friend Brandy. Brandy heard my voice and freaked out. She came rushing over to the hospital. Once she arrived we talked about everything I was missing. I asked her about Josh and she almost spit out the water she was drinking. “Liz, the nursing didn’t tell you?” Brandy asked. 

“No what’s wrong with him?” I asked.

“He divorced you, a year after you slipped into the coma. He is remarried to some bimbo he met here. I think she was a nurse or a widow or something like that. He stopped paying for your medical care and your parents have been paying for everything.” Brandy said as she pulled herself closer to me. 

“How did I end up here?” I asked.

“I don’t know but according to Josh. You drank too much alcohol and slipped into a coma. We never believed him because you didn’t drink. He insisted that you drank yourself into a coma,” Brandy said.

We talked for hours and the nurse finally brought into my chart. Brady left when visiting hours were over. She promised she would see me tomorrow and I went to bed. I was tired. 

The next morning my parents came into my room. My mom kissed me and we talked for hours and hours. I realized visiting hours were over and Brandy never came back. I tried calling her but there was no answer. I tried calling Josh but our number was disconnected. 

I flipped through my chart and it was word for word everything that Brandy told me the day before. I became restless and needed to move around. I got up and walked out of my room with one of the machines still hooked into my arm. I walked to the front of the floor where the nurses station was, I walked closer to the nurses’ station and I heard a woman talking “You told me she wasn’t going wake up. That bitch is awake,” 

I walked closer to the nurses’ station when I saw the first nurse who waited on me yesterday. I walked back to my room and tried to figure out what I just heard. The questions continued to fill my head. Who was she on the phone with? Where is my husband? 

I went back to my chart and continued to look through it. I noticed one strange thing. Brandy brought me to the hospital, not Josh. I felt uneasy about this situation, I knew I had to get out of this hospital.

I called my mother and told her about how uneasy I felt but she insisted that It was just me waking up after three years. My mom hung up the phone on me and I went back to bed. 

While I slept I could feel a pressure on my chest. I woke up to find the first nurse pushing down on it. I screamed and she ran away. I pressed the call button and another nurse came running in and I told her what happened. I described the nurse and she said “There is no nurse that looks like that.”

The next morning, I called Josh’s parents but they didn’t pick up so I left a message. I feel like everything would be answered once I got in contact with Josh. The day went on and no one came to visit me. I felt depressed and wished I never woke up from my coma. My life was all turned upside down. I had everything and now I have nothing except for more questions than answers. When night came I went to bed. I woke up around midnight. I needed some water. I could some whispering from outside my room. It was two women talking, I couldn’t make out too much of what they were saying but it sounded like one woman said “We need to do it tonight, Josh and I are supposed to be married soon and if he finds out she is awake he will call off the wedding.”

I listened closer and the other woman sounded like Brandy. Brandy is marrying Josh. Before I went back to bed I placed a chair in front of the door. I crawled into bed and fell asleep. While I slept I heard someone pushing on my door. The pushing stopped and I heard a voice say “Do you think she is on to us?” 

“No, she is so dumb. She doesn’t even know everyone is playing her. Her parents even don’t want anything to do with her.” I heard Brandy say through the door. ‘

I couldn’t take any more. I needed to end this tonight. I inched the door open and I didn’t see anyone out there. I carefully opened the door and slipped out of my room. I walked down the hall and looked around to see if I could find anyone. I noticed one of the closets was opened. I heard the same voices that were outside my room. I looked around and saw another opened closet a couple of doors down. I slipped into the closet and waited. I heard the two women walk back to my room. Once they realized I was gone they split up and began to look for me. I saw the other woman pass by me. I looked around the closet and noticed a bedpan on one of the shelves. I grabbed it and slid out of the closet. I crept behind the woman and knocked her in the head with the bedpan. The woman fell to the ground. My next target was Brandy.

I saw Brandy inside of my room. She was looking around for me. I heard her say “Liz, where are you? Come out, come out wherever you are.” 

“I’m right here, Bitch.” I said as I grabbed one of the machines. 

I noticed that Brandy had a knife in her hand. “He was supposed to be mine. He should have married me, not you,” Brandy said as she swung the knife at me. 

“Well, he didn’t want you. He wanted me because I actually loved him for him not for money unlike you, you gold digger,” I said as I threw the machine at her. 

The machine hit her right in the stomach and Brandy fell to the floor. Security came rushing into the room and arrested Brandy and the other woman, who was Brandy’s friend Lana. Brandy confessed to the cops and security that she was the one who poisoned me by slipping me something in one of my drinks. She wanted me out of the way so she could marry Josh but he refused to marry her because I was still alive and when she heard I woke up, she knew it was time to kill me. Lana would come to the hospital every night to check on me and make sure I was still in a coma. 

I finally could sleep that night and when I woke up I saw Josh staring at me. “Hey cutie,” Josh said as he touched my face. 

“Hey, I want to go home,” I said as I hugged Josh.

“Then let’s go home,” Josh said as he pulled me closer to him.