21 Return

Nick's eyes shot open, they were glowing a bright red. His body tensed up as he took in a lung full of air, it was as if he hadn't taken a breath in over a minute. His eyes slowly began to fade back to their normal brown color as his body relaxed, allowing him to breathe normally, though heavily. He began to look around, the first things he saw were screens. They were some kind of computer screens covered with numbers, he watched a few medical shows so he knew vitals when he saw them.

He began to look over them, noticing they were elevated. Though, he didn't need the screens to tell him that, his heart was practically beating out of his chest and he was breathing like he did after a particularly brutal training session. Wait... Nick raised an eyebrow and looked around, his heart rate somehow becoming even faster. I'm... back?

He couldn't tell much from looking around, other than the fact that he was indeed in a hospital. Either he was back on earth or he was in a coma in that other world for a couple hundred years. Nick began to stand up, taking everything that was attached to his body off. He realized how cliche it was to do this, but he didn't really care. He felt fine, he was not in any pain and he wasn't hooked up to any elaborate machines so he figured he was in fine condition.

If his theory holds up, about a month should have passed in this world while he was in his coma. He was in that other world around two months, though he was unable to properly keep track of time there once he started traveling with Alyssa. Nick winces as memories start flooding into his mind. Memories of his fight, of having his hand cut off, of killing a man, of getting stabbed. Man, getting stabbed I guess is both a way in and out of a coma...

He was not sure what happened to him, he knew he was not acting like himself. It was like both his body and mouth were on auto pilot, like he was going berserk. He felt like he could have stopped himself, but he did not feel the need to. Oddly enough, even though he killed a person it had less impact on him than when he killed the ogre.

He could remember the kill, the feeling and sound of the bandits neck crushing under his foot... It just didn't matter, he couldn't honestly say that he felt bad about what he did. In his mind the bandit deserved it, just like the ogres deserved that they got. The bandit had done horrible and unspeakable things, by killing him he put an end to the bad that that particular bandit could have and would have done. Death was like a preventative measure for future crimes, that world accepted that fact and made a job out of it.

It is kind of like being a cop, though instead of lethal force being a last resort, like on earth, it was the preferred and most effective method to get rid of a threat. Nick used to be against death as a punishment, many criminals preferred it to imprisonment, so why give them the easy way out? Though, that was his view before he met a demon. He didn't know what religion was correct, if any were, but he knew that there was punishment after death and it was a lot worse than life in prison. He didn't know any specifics, Azara was reluctant to talk about the underworld, but he was told that the punishments for evildoers were particularly harsh.

Nick sighed and shook his head. The first thing I do when I get back is think about that world again? I should be calling my parents or something, not worrying about the fate of some low life. As he stood around and though about his situation the door suddenly shot open, a doctor and a couple of nurses rushed in the room. They were tossing around a bunch of medical phrases, from the sound of it they seemed to have thought that Nick had died or the machines malfunctioned.

The doctor and most of the nurses had already ran past Nick before doing a collective double take. Nick didn't know what to do in front of the wide eyed gaze of the medical staff, after a couple seconds he gave them a nervous wave. "H-he's awake!" The doctor yelled, throwing her hands in the air in a cheer. She looked like she just scored a goal in soccer or something.

This didn't seem like the kind of reaction a normal doctor should have, but he accepted that it was probably not every day that someone randomly woke up from a one month long coma, so it must have been a pretty exciting moment. It must have been especially exciting to them, having rushed into the room thinking something was going horribly wrong with either their equipment or patient.

"Yep, wide awake..." Nick replied, all of the nurses still just looking at him with wide eyes. He understood they were stunned, but it was like they just looked into medusa's eyes. After a couple more long seconds of the doctor celebrating and awkward eye contact, the nurses eventually began to move.

"I-I-I'll go contact the family." A male nurse said, rushing out of the room. Another nurse, this one female, rushed after him.

"I think I saw them heading to the cafeteria!" The pursuing female nurse yelled.

Mom and dad are here? Nick looked at the clock on the wall, it was currently two in the afternoon. Shouldn't they be at work or something? I've been in a coma for a month, they couldn't have possibly stayed at the hospital this whole time. He looked around at the people still in the room, at this point it was just two nurses and the doctor. At least he assumed they were nurses, he honestly couldn't tell.

He also just assumed the only female in the room was the doctor just because she was the first in and the one shouting orders. He was confident in that assumption, he was also confident in the assumption that he was her first coma patient. She was still celebrating, she was more excited that Nick woke up than he was himself. Eventually she stopped celebrating and took a deep breath with a wide smile on her face. "Well, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, so-"

"No, no questions. I was stabbed by a kid in my class and I went into a coma, I know all of that already." Nick cut off what the doctor was saying, he felt kind of bad when the doctor's smile wavered slightly. She was obviously super excited, and he kind of took the wind out of her sails. "I guess I would like to know how long I was in the coma..."

The woman's smile came back, she seemed easily excitable. "A month and two weeks." This time it was Nick's turn to be surprised. All he could assume was that he went into a coma in that other world as well after what happened.

"Huh, alright then..." He looked outside of the large window in the room, a light dusting of snow was coming down outside. "November 19th..." He had currently missed more days of school than he had actually spent in school by a large margin... He had a lot of catching up to do.

"I actually have a couple of calls to make, please wait here and get comfortable." The doctor quickly rushed out of the room, leaving the two nurses alone with him. They were uncomfortable, it seemed like they didn't really know what to do. Nick just decided to ignore them, walking over to a nearby couch. Thinking about his school and the doctor mentioning calls made him realize he should probably text Mark.

He had no idea where his phone was, so it was not like he could text him even if he wanted to. In all honesty, he was more excited to catch up on the shows he was watching and the new videos from his favorite YouTubers. With a quick glance at the TV he couldn't see anything interesting, a riot, or peace rally, or something, was the site of some kind of shootout and was currently showing on the news. It was apparently caused by a 'peaceful protester' firing a gun at a cop that pepper sprayed a woman for throwing a rock at him. I see nothing has changed.

After a few more minutes of absentmindedly watching the news and the nurses awkwardly going about their business, the door shot open once again. This time instead of a doctor and a bunch of nurses, the people at the door were a teary eyed mother and father. Nick couldn't help but smile at the sight of them, he had missed them during the past two months. It was only a month and a half for them, but he was sure they missed him even more. Nick had something to distract him, they probably couldn't think of much else besides him being in a coma.

They both ran over to him and began to smother him with hugs before assaulting him with kisses. "You're back!" His mother said, her voice shaky from crying.

"My boy..." His father said, making no effort to hide the fact that he was also crying.

Nick was not crying, though he did feel his body trying. He just didn't want to cry. He wasn't sure why he didn't want to cry, but he kept his tears in anyway. "Yeah, I'm back..."

The reunion was full of tears, hugging, and kissing. This easily went on for over twenty minutes, a doctor had to eventually break it up. He wanted to run tests, he wanted to test for both brain damage and also physical problems. Originally, both his mom and dad objected to the tests being done right after waking up, but that changed when the doctor told them that he might be able to go home today if they did the tests as soon as possible. It was kind of surprising to him how fast they changed their tone, actually.

For several hours the doctors ran their tests, once they were done they returned Nick to his room to wait for the results. His parents were anxious, they were hoping he was okay. When he was taking his tests his parents returned home and grabbed him a change of clothes, a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. They also brought him his phone and a pair of ear buds. He spent most of the time talking to his parents, but he also did his own thing on his phone.

He googled his name, he was bombarded with news stories about his stabbing. From what he could tell, nobody has been charged with the crime, but their lead suspect was Dan. This news was reported even on the national news on the big stations, apparently it was a big deal. He wasn't sure how he felt about all the publicity, he was also uneasy about what would happen once word got out that he was awake. From googling his name he also found out that someone with the same name as him made a huge leap in cancer research, he felt that was more worthy of the national news than his stabbing.

There was a lot of drama around the whole incident, most of it was just people guessing about what happened with their limited information. A couple of people had the right idea, nobody had it completely right. One website theorized that Dan had jumped him with multiple friends, which was accurate but not completely. The school did not talk to the press, so almost nobody knew why Nick had trouble with Dan. However, a lot of people had theories on that... A couple of them revealed a disturbing fact.

Dan's father was a high level mafia enforcer. Currently, his father was serving several life sentences after being linked to thirty different murders. He somehow avoided death row, but he would die in prison. Dan had strong ties to the mafia, if he was not careful he might get a visit from one of Dan's fathers coworkers. It was a scary concept, Nick was probably the most powerful human alive but he was powerless against a bullet to the skull.

Nick would be lying if he said he wasn't worried, but he was definitely less worried than he should be. He had stared certain death in the face after being captured by bandits, he was not too worried about the possibility of the mafia coming after him. They were probably going to try to intimidate him, get him to not talk to the cops and not take it to court. He didn't care anymore, he would take it to court. Attempted murder is a serious crime.

However, it was not technically Dan that did it. He would probably get jail time, a couple years maybe, nothing serious. Nick thought briefly about taking the matter in his own hands, after all Dan was really no better than that bandit he killed. The world would be better without some kid intimidating and beating people into submission. But, did he deserve death?

He didn't know. He does not know exactly what Dan has done. He beat him to near death, but it's not like he ordered the stabbing. He didn't try to help afterwards, but that was no reason to kill him. If he killed Dan for just this than he would be no better, in fact he would probably be worse.

Nick sighed and ran his hands though his hair. "Something wrong, sweetie?" Faith noticed her son looked troubled and became worried.

"Ah, it's nothing. I just have a lot to think about. One second I'm on the ground, the next I'm waking up a month and a half later..." Obviously it was a lie, but he wasn't going to explain to his mom that he was having a moral issue with killing the person who beat him and left him to die.

"Alright, well, if you ever want to talk about it you know we are here for you. If you need it, we can also hire someone to help you through it." Faith meant well, but he had already come to terms with the fact he got stabbed. Now he needed to deal with the aftermath.

Second later the door opened once again, the doctor who examined him entered with a cop. Nick raised an eyebrow, but he assumed the cop was there to question him about the stabbing. "I have the results of the test. Officer Johnson would like to ask you a few questions about your wound afterwards, if you are up for it." Nick nodded in response.

"Alright, well, the results show no sign of any brain damage and it also shows that you will not need any kind of physical therapy or further treatment." All three of them sighed, though Nick was not that surprised. "However... these test results are strange to say the least. In fact, I would go far as to say they are almost impossible." This caught Nick's attention.

"Your son... He was paralyzed most of his life. He only regained mobility recently, correct?" Nick's parents nodded. "He is more physically fit than most adult men. Hell, you son is more fit than some athletes. Honestly, your son looks more fit than he was when he first was put into the coma. Like he magically became stronger while unconscious."

Well, magic helped... His parents, the cop, and the doctor were all visibly confused by these results. Nick wasn't confused, but he pretended to be shocked and confused in order to avoid awkward questions he did not have answers for. "Ever since our son regained his mobility he always works out, but I had no idea." Faith replied.

"Yes, well, this is a bit more than just fitness. In order to get the kind of muscle your son has he would have to go through rigorous training, training that would even tire out elite athletes. We would like to keep your son and run some more tests, but we would understand if you would rather take him home. We can't keep you here any longer than you want to be." The doctor closed the file he was holding.

"Sorry, but I don't think that will be necessary. Our son has been through a lot, the last thing he needs is a bunch of doctors running tests on him." This time it was Steven, his father, that spoke up.

"Alright, well, I will leave you to Officer Johnson." The doctor silently but quickly left the room, the cop moving over to Nick. Once in front of him the cop got on one knee and looked him in the eye, he spoke in a low and calm voice.

"I would like to ask you a few questions about what happened. If you want, we can talk alone, or with your parents present." Nick assumed he was doing this to try to comfort Nick, but it was more creepy in his opinion.

"My parents will want to know regardless, so it would probably be best to do it with them here." He felt his mom take hold of his hand, it was comforting even though he didn't need to be comforted.

"Alright." The cop pulled up a chair and sat on it, taking out a notepad. "Can you tell me what you remember?"

"Alright, well, this is what happened..."

Nick began to explain the events of that day, how he got what looked to be some kind of love letter. When he arrived where the letter told him to meet he was met by five guys, four of which he did not know the name of. One of them being Dan, the man who he fought, who wanted revenge for his humiliating loss in their initial fight. He went into detail about the brutal beating, he could hear his mother silently start to sob as he explained it. He also talked about how he got free and tried to fight back and run away, only to get stabbed.

His statement was not completely true, but it was close enough to the truth to hold up. The cop carefully wrote down every detail, occasionally asking a question to get a bit more information. He asked for descriptions of all of the men involved, luckily he was able to vividly remember their faces. It was hard to forget something like that, the first time you truly experience evil. He was able to tell the cop about their faces, he also mentioned he would be able to point out a picture if he saw one.

The cop thanked him and left, telling him that they might have to call him in for more questioning or to point out faces. "How about we go home? We can get some food on the way home. I'm sure you are hungry." Faith stood up and grabbed her bag, offering her hand to Nick in an attempt to help him up. He had not noticed, but he was actually pretty hungry.

"Sound good, I am kind of craving fast food."

"Anything you want." Steven grunted as he stood up. Nick turned his head as he heard a light knocking, there was a familiar woman standing in the door to the room, his eyes went wide.

"Alyssa?" It took a second, but Nick eventually realized something that he had not noticed previously. He didn't know why he didn't realize it, but both his old personal nurse and now his traveling companion in the other world have the name Alyssa. I suppose it is a kind of common name...

"It's nice to see you. It's unfortunate that we are meeting again under these conditions, however."

"Yeah... Why are you at the hospital, anyway?" Nick was still kind of focused on the fact they both had the same name, it was a weird coincidence.

"I work here." She laughed, leaning on the door frame. Steven and Faith were pretending to look for something in order to let them have their moment.

"Ah, right..."

"I'm glad that you are healthy, especially with what you went through. I have to get back to work, but it was nice seeing you again. Take care!" Alyssa waved goodbye and made her way down the hall.

"Bye!" He was not sure if she heard him, but he was glad that he got to see her one more time. Even if it was a painfully short reunion.

It took a while, but eventually they got back home. It was ten at night, it was strange for him to be at home after all of this time. It felt like he was on some kind of vacation for a couple of months and he finally got back home. He had a lot he wanted to do, but the first thing he wanted to do was get some sleep before school tomorrow. He was kind of worried, he didn't know if he would go back to that world or not.

The last memory he had of that world was him being stabbed and passing out. He lost a lot of blood, both from having a body part chopped off and from having a sword thrust through him. The medical magicians got to him pretty soon after the injuries, but he knew well how severe the injuries were. When you use medical magic on a piece of your body you gain general knowledge of the wound, he knew that it was not looking good for him. Well, there was only one way for him to tell if he would go back or not.

"By the way, about school..." Faith began to speak.

Oh god, please tell me she didn't over react and take me out of school or something... "Yeah?"

"Technically, you have school tomorrow. However, if you don't feel like going back yet, I won't force you to go."

Thank god, I can still go to school. "I'll go, I'm not in pain or anything."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. The police know now who did it, I can rest easy knowing I don't have to worry anymore." Nick smiled to reassure her, though the smile was fake. He knew well that there would be some kind of retaliation, he just didn't know when.

"Alright..." Faith yawned. "I need to get some sleep, I have work tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm tired too." He gave his mother and father a hug before heading to his room. After changing into his pajamas he climbed into bed and closed his eyes. Nothing compared to his soft bed on earth, not even the bed he had in the castle. Even with his slight anxiety it took no time for him to drift off to sleep...