Waking up

[Alex's POV]

Later that day, Alex was bored out of his mind. His phone kept running out of battery, and the electric outlet was too far away from the bed to charge his phone while using it. On top of that, Alex was feeling too weak to get out of bed, so he was forced to watch the little old television in his hospital room.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, it wasn't exactly surprising that no good shows were playing, so the skipping through channels had almost become a game.

Every time the channel skipped, the image would take a split second to stabilise and Alex would try to determine as fast as he could if it was something he wanted to watch or not, and skip the channel again if it wasn't.

He'd already quickly reached a speed of two channels per second, which would drive his dad crazy if he was watching.

Then suddenly, a specific image caught his attention and he abruptly, although belatedly, stopped skipping channels, leaving the image of a woman in a bright pink dress going on about "how it was something every decent woman would have done" to violate his vision.

He grunted and quickly closed his eyes, trying to remember what it was that had made him stop his little game.

He cranked open half an eye and skipped a channel back. And another. And another. He left the image on a live stream of the government hall, were the members of the parliament were squabbling over something and watched closely.

"Come on Alex," he mumbled to himself. "What did you see?"

"The average length of waiting lists for schools in this country are the longest of the continent! Do we really want to decrease the budget we give our schools?" a female politician was preaching on the screen. She was making a good point, but Alex wasn't exactly interested in politics.

He watched carefully for about five seconds and was just about to skip away, when he saw what he'd spotted unconsciously.

There he was! Haruw! Alive and kicking! He'd turned grey and sported a pot-belly, but he was just as imposing as he'd always been.

He wasn't in any of the ministers seats. No, he was the secretary! In the moment the camera had caught him, he was whispering something into the ear of the prime minister.

"No way!" Alex shouted in surprise and as if he'd heard it, Haruw startled on screen and looked straight into the camera. A glint appeared into his one good eye and he grinned.

Alex felt a shiver run down his spine, fumbled for the remote control hurriedly, turned off the television set and hid under his blankets.

"This is not happening! This is not happening! He didn't see me! Everything is alright!" he chanted quietly from under his covers, but he knew that he was lying. Haruw had noticed him somehow. Just like how Alex had accidentally spotted him. He had a bad feeling about this.

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A day later, Otto still hadn't woken up.

"Alex said she had a large bump on her head when he found her," Alex heard his father explain to Otto's parents in the hallway. "We did find a scar on her skull, but it looked like it had healed a long time ago. Can I ask you what happened the previous time she suffered a head injury? Maybe it can explain why she isn't waking up now."

"Previous head injury?!" Otto's mom asked incredulously, close to tears. "I don't know of any head injuries. Could it be she bumped her head and never told us?"

"No," his dad said in a confused tone, rustling through some papers. "Judging by the size of this scar, you definitely would have noticed this thing. It would have been right above her temple and she would have complained about a headache, maybe even vomited."

After that, Otto's mom broke down in tears, her husband held her silently.

"So that's what that spark was," Alex thought to himself. He'd unconsciously healed Otto. It explained why he felt so drained and it probably was what had initiated the leap too.

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Another day passed.

Otto still hadn't woken up and Alex had made up his mind: he had to go see her. He'd been procrastinating it for far too long already.

The only problem was that he was barely able to stand. It was worse than that time when he'd caught Neferet trying to walk. At least she had been able to keep her legs from trembling.

It felt as if he had been in a coma for months, even though he knew that he'd only been out for a few minutes, thanks to the safety systems his father had put into place. But he hadn't realised how much this episode had drained his body until he'd tried to stand.

So now he was staggering along slowly, holding on tight to whatever he could find.

He hesitated when he reached the door to Otto's room but entered anyway.

The first thing he noticed once he was inside, was how quiet it was. As if the world was holding it's breath. Only the steady beeping of the heart-rate monitor broke the silence occasionally.

Why wasn't anyone here? He had expected someone to be guarding the precious person in the room, hoping and waiting for her to wake up. But there wasn't.

Maybe this was a good thing. This way he wouldn't have to explain why he had left his room or why he had come here.

He staggered to the bed in the room. He didn't bother to turn on the painfully bright hospital lights, the light from the street lantern outside the window was more than enough to see.

He clamped his hands onto the cold metal rail of her hospital bed and felt his throat squeeze shut once he saw the still figure lying in the bed. Alex felt a nauseous wave wash over him and grunted as he held on tightly to the bed.

He refused to hurl. This episode wasn't going to drag him down! He simply refused to let it happen. He dragged himself to the chair next to the hospital bed and tried to concentrate on his breathing.

"Hey Otto?" he asked once he'd calmed down a bit. "Why won't you wake up?"

He stroked a strand of hair from her face. Just like his father had said, there was no trace of the bump on her head. But that was a good thing right?

When nothing happened, he continued in his Egyptian tongue: "Neferet, sweetheart. I miss you."

To be honest, it scared him senseless to see Otto lying here this lifeless. It made him feel the same terror he'd felt when he'd found Neferet in the dessert.

He knew they weren't the same person, since they lived thousands of years apart, but they looked so uncannily similar! Ok, her eyes had been a different colour and she'd hidden her hair under an itchy wig. But apart from that, they could have been sisters.

Or maybe twins was a better way to describe it; both their own person, but so very similar.

Suddenly Alex noticed something was wrong. The peaceful beeping of the heart-rate monitor had quickened and the previously motionless Otto had started stirring.

"Neferet!" Alex called, still stuck in his memory, and grabbed her hand. Otto started frowning and sweating but didn't stop stirring.

"Oh, God. What's happening? HELP! Someone help!" Alex shouted as loud as he could, breaking the peaceful quiet of the night. "Neferet, please wake up!"

Right that moment Otto's eyes flew open. Her eyes darted around the room quickly, full of panic, but once her eyes met his, she calmed.

She was still breathing heavily and the sweat was dripping from her face, but the look in her eyes became so tender that it caught him off guard.

"I'm glad I could see you one last time," she murmured and kissed his hand softly. The next thing he knew her hand went limp and she closed her eyes.

A nurse came rushing in and pushed him aside. It was only then that he noticed the continues sound of the heart-rate monitor flatlining.

She died. Otto had died!

Nurse after nurse came streaming into the room, each of them pushing him a little bit further away as they hurried to reanimate Otto.

Finally, some steady hands guided him away from the room. Alex's stomach turned. He barely reached a nearby trashcan in time.

"Shh, it's ok. Everything will be ok," he heard his father say, a steady hand rubbing his back gently as he leaned on the trashcan, holding on for dear life.

Mar's voice sounded as if he was in a far away room, but his steady arms wrapped around Alex and pulled him off the ground. After that everything went hazy. He was pretty sure his dad was still talking to him, but all he could hear where Otto's last words ringing in his ears.