Another week, another update! This week I picked a photo prompt of a goldfish staring out of a clear bowl, empty of anything else. I tried to download it to go with my post today, but it was corrupted. :( I'm sure many of us have felt like Yuri does in this chapter. Enjoy!
Lost Inside: Chapter 39
Yuri
couldn’t breathe. His stomach hurt, and his head throbbed. He dropped to his
knees, blindly reaching for the floor. He gagged, stomach heaving. He didn’t…
He couldn’t… Images flickered.
Peten
ducking under his bed when his door slammed open.
His
mother bowing to his father.
Hiding
those magazines in the back of his
closet—snorting at the irony, even at fifteen.
Seeing
his mate for the first time in the midst of a boring merging meeting with the
new Clan.
Joy.
Pleasure. Pain.
Yuri’s
stomach turned itself inside out, and he vomited. He yowled, his ears pinned to
his head, as they moved faster and faster. He was young; he was older. His
father towered over him, and Yuri cringed away, huddled on the floor.
Knowing
he was going to die.
Unable
to save his mate.
“Benny!”
he screamed.
***
Beeping
again. Yuri groaned. He knew that sound. Quick on the heels of sound came scent.
Yuck. Antiseptic and sick.
He
was in a human hospital.
He
blinked slowly, pushing his eyelids up. It was dim in the room, the shades were
shut. Benny dozed in a chair beside his bed, a frown wrinkling his forehead.
For
long minutes, Yuri just looked at his mate. His head hurt, and he knew the
memories were there, waiting to crowd down in on him again.
Yuri
didn’t want them. So much of them hurt to remember. He liked being with his
mate now. He rubbed his face with
both hands, grimacing at the pads and wires pasted all over him. Moving his
head made him dizzy. He groaned, then gripped the rails on the bed, trying to
hold on as the room spun.
“Hey.”
Ellis showed up in the doorway. Dav stood behind him. Benny snorted, then sat
up with a quick gasp. He stared at the annoying beeping next to Yuri’s bed.
“Hey,”
Benny said. His voice was rough. “He’s still sleeping.”
“No,
he’s not,” Yuri snapped. His head was beating like a drum, and his stomach was
swirling. He was tired of being in the hospital. It smelled, and he always felt
like a fish in a bowl. Everyone was always looking at him. He didn’t like it.
“I want to go home.”
“You’re
awake!” Benny stood up, bending over the bed.
“I
said that.” Yuri crossed his arms over his chest. “I want to go home.” He
ignored the fact moving his head made him want to hurl.
“How
about we talk about what happened, first? Do you remember?” Benny’s voice was
hesitant.
“I
don’t want to talk about it.” He didn’t know why Peten had been at Benny’s
apartment. Damn it. Just thinking about him sent a cascade of memories
associated with his ex-best friend. Yuri groaned and scrunched his eyes shut.
“Ellis,
can you get the doctor?”
Yuri answered the
doctors’ questions with short replies, yes or no when he could. He was sick of
their poking and prodding. He’d hit his head, again, but they thought the shock
of seeing Peten, and the resulting flood of memories, were at least partially
the cause of his headache. The other part was the lump on the side.
Since they were so
willing to talk over him, Yuri ignored everyone. He rubbed his arms, then
folded and unfolded the sheet over his lap. He was back in one of those blue
gowns, and he was cold.
“Can you all just
shut up? I want to. go. home.”
The beeping was loud
when everyone stopped speaking at once. Benny was looking at him with his
eyebrows raised, but Dav and Ellis were grinning. The doctors had their usual
blank doc faces on.
“I’m sick of the
smell. I don’t feel good, and I don’t wanna do any tests. I want to go sleep in
my bed, with my mate, and I don’t care what any of you think.” He looked at
Benny. “Well, except you.” He cared what his mate thought. “Please take me
home.”
Benny came around the
side of his bed and sat on the edge. He cupped his hand around Yuri’s cheek and
stroked under his eye with his thumb. “You scared me. We’ve been through so
much. You were out for a long time. Your memory is coming back, and I’m so glad
for that, but we aren’t sure exactly why. They need to do tests now that you’re
awake.”
“I just want to be
with you. Mates stay together, and I know you can’t stay here.” Ellis had told
Yuri all about what happened. “I know you killed Sheshtun. I know the clan is
here.” His memory was working fine. He didn’t need tests. “Can’t we just go?
You can take care of them while I’m resting in a place that doesn’t reek of
sick people.”
“Okay, Yuri.” Benny
leaned forward and pressed their lips together gently. “Let me see what we have
to do.”
His mate was very
much an Alpha. He stood firm when the human doctor objected. Finally they gave
up, and left to get paperwork or something else. Yuri sighed and closed his
eyes. He could use a nap while they waited.
***
Peten wasn’t in their
apartment. Yuri was relieved. Who knew what else seeing him would do? Yuri was
sick of the constant ups and downs. In the time since his mate came back to
him, they’d had a never ending series of drama.
“Will you lay down
with me?” Yuri’s head was crazier than the tilt-a-whirl. He couldn’t keep his
ears up. Benny helped him ease into the bed.
Yuri snuggled into
him, pressing against Benny’s neck. He inhaled the spicy scent of his mate,
then tried to pull him closer.
“Ow!” Benny grunted.
“What? Did I hurt
you?” He hadn’t squeezed him that hard. He pulled up Benny’s shirt. “You have
bandages! Did the doctors look at you while I was out?”
“I’m okay. I’ll be
healed in just a few days.” Benny flicked his ears. “And yes, Dr. Pannar
checked the scratches. That’s all they are, so don’t worry.”
Yuri sighed.
Scratches didn’t need bandages. “I know you’re fibbing. That’s not nice, you
know.”
Benny looked sheepish.
“Sorry. I’ll still be okay.”
TBC
Next week we see more of Yuri's transformation! Okay, so time to move on. Leave a review if you can, I promise I read them all and I try to respond as much as I can.
Yeah! That was a good thing to happen. And I am shure Yuri will realise that to. I like how you changed your way of writing Yuri the more he becomes himself again. Before I did not realise that you described him completly different. I just realise that now he is more like your "normal" characters. So this is brilliant. Because he was always different but subtly and now he becomes like they all normally are. I hope you get what I mean, I have do not know whether that sounds in english as good as I want it to sound :-D.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that he's remembering more but hard on Yuri at the same time. Tough physically, mentally and emotionally. Being home will be good for Yuri.
ReplyDelete