“How long until she’ll wake up?” I heard a voice that sounded like Natalie’s say.

“Depends on her health. The healthier she is, the quicker she’ll wake up and heal. I won’t be able to send her home though. She is much too weak. Whoever came in here and stabbed her really good. Her shoulder will heal with time and will just have to get the wrap changed every so often and you only have to keep that on her for a week. The skin was gone, but it will be scabbed over soon. If she feels good enough to take the wrap off she can, and if it gets worse again you can come back here, or we can give you some to take home. Her thigh was the problem. The person who stabbed her went right through her bone. She has screws in there and that will be a long process before she’ll have mobility in her leg like before. The good news is that her concussion is healing well and unnaturally fast. She seems to be very healthy to be able to heal so well. Before I can let you go though, I’ll need your parent’s signature. She can go in a week or so, depending on her progress.” I heard Dr. Jeremiah say. “I’ll be back in a little while. She should be waking up soon and I assume you would be the best person to tell her what happened.”

“Okay, I’ll contact her parents. Hopefully they won’t come home from their vacation for this.”

“Terrible timing, but I will be off. I have many more patients to check on.” I heard running footsteps and then I heard a door click shut.

I groaned as I opened my eyes. I could feel the pain in my thigh and every minute it just got stronger. I looked over and saw Natalie came running over to my bed. I also saw another familiar person, that I couldn’t quite remember came over too. “Candace, what in the world happened to you? Did some crazy lunatic stab you with a knife or were you attacked by a monster?” Nat asked. She sounded really upset.

Before I answered Natalie I turned to the familiar girl. “Are you Brooke?”

She nodded. “Yeah I am.”

“Okay well what happened was I had a dream. Some huge twenty foot chicken was there and it attacked me. It had super sharp claws and it grazed my shoulder and then dug into my thigh. Its claw got stuck in my thigh and I was pretty much dying. Then I killed it and moved on.” I didn’t have too much energy and I didn’t want to over explain anything if I didn’t have to.

“Are you scared of chickens?” Brooke asked suspiciously.

“Yeah, why?” I had no idea why that concerned her.

“You just met one of the deadliest monsters out there. It’s called the Granlopisus. It doesn’t get defeated much, because it’s so strong and usually attacks weaker magicians. It will normally appear in the sky and fight you there, because during the day it is a cloud, and during the night it goes into magicians dreams and tries to kill them. Most monsters can’t hurt you in dreams if they can appear there at all, but that’s the only time the Granlopisus can harm you. Unfortunately whatever it does to you in the dream will become reality, even if it kills you. If you die in a fight against one, then you won’t ever wake up.”

“Why the chicken though?” Natalie asked for me. She must’ve known that was what I was going to ask.

“Because the Granlopisus can take on the form of your biggest fear. Since it enters your dream, it enters your mind and can see what your biggest fear is. It can see what you’re scared of and then can take on the form of any fear. It can become multiple things, large things, little things, you name it and the Granlopisus can take on that form. You’re lucky to have killed it.”

“I guess I’m lucky.”

Brooke laughed. “It wasn’t luck. You’re the most powerful magician in the world. You’re the one of the prophecy. If anyone could defeat the Granlopisus it’s you.”

“Prophecy? I’m sorry but I really don’t remember anything.” I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain went through my leg and I lay down again.

“I forgot you couldn’t remember anything.” Brooke said. She looked like she felt really bad about that, but I didn’t care.

“Candace, I’m going to put a heal spell on you today. Your leg is really bad, and then once we leave, I’ll put a more powerful heal spell on you. We can’t have screws in your legs or a banged up shoulder if we want to continue.” Natalie said.

“Thanks!” I was happy. I couldn’t stay in here anymore. I didn’t fully understand what she had said, but I didn’t care. The sooner I got out the better.

“I’ll heal your memory too.” Brooke chimed in. That made me smile. I was sick of not remembering anyone or anything. I wanted to be myself again.

“Thank you guys so much! I really do need that.”

“Dr. Jeremiah said that to get out you would need your parent’s signatures, or at least one of them.” She turned to Brooke. “Would there be any way to get the signatures?” I assumed Natalie had turned to Brooke, because she must’ve been more experienced in magic. I wasn’t overly sure, but it was my guess.

“Well first of all, Candace is eighteen so she’s legally an adult so you won’t need your parent’s signatures, but there is a way if you want to get them.”

“That’s true I didn’t really think of that.”

I heard a click of the door and I suddenly saw another familiar face, but once again I couldn’t quite remember exactly who it was. “Hey Brooke, so sorry I’m late today!”

“Who are you?” I asked. The boy gave me a look of disgust, as if I had done something or that he couldn’t believe I’d forgotten him. It wasn’t my fault. I had no idea if I’d done something, and I didn’t even know who I was when I woke up, so he shouldn’t be upset!

“Brent Brown!” Brooke said angrily. That’s when it all clicked. That guy must’ve been Brent, my jerk brother, or so I was told. It now made sense why he didn’t talk back to me. “That is your sister! She has a serious concussion, she can’t remember anything, she had a surgery last night, and she has a split bone! You should be nice to her. Just get over it already! It was one night, and one room!” Brooke blew up at him, and I was glad she had stuck up for me, because I wasn’t in the mood to defend myself, nor did I have the energy. I also didn’t remember why he was mad at me, which probably would’ve been helpful.

“Candace none of this is my fault! If you had just done one little thing that I had asked, none of this would’ve happened!” Obviously we were never very nice to each other.

“I’m sorry; I have no idea what I did or didn’t do! I barely remember you! I’m not going to apologize for something that you did! I want you to leave, I need to rest and you’re bugging me!” Natalie was trying to hold back a smile, and I guessed that probably sounded more like me.

He totally ignored me, but his face was flushed, so I could tell he was really upset and I must’ve hit a sore spot. He walked over to Brooke. “You should probably rest. I don’t want you to strain yourself.”

“Brent, please just-” Brooke started.

“No Brooke, I’m not going to talk to her. Just rest and have a short nap. You need to be ready to go by tomorrow. I’ll just wait here and when you wake up, we can talk again.” I couldn’t believe that that guy was my brother! If he was and Natalie and Brooke were telling the truth, then he was the worst brother anyone could ask for.

“Sorry Candace. I’m sorry you have to deal with him.” Nat said quietly-wait Nat? I remembered!

“I used to call you Nat didn’t I?” I slowly asked. Just in case I was wrong, I didn’t want to sound too dumb.

“Yes you did! Is your memory coming back?”

“I think it slowly is. Just bits and pieces, but don’t worry about Brent. I’m probably used to his annoying attitude.” Nat smiled.

“Now you’re sounding more like yourself. Who cares about him though? He’s just losing money, since he refuses to stay in the same room as you for too long. He’ll be broke and then we can’t continue our mission with him, because I’m not paying for his flight to Egypt.” Mission….Egypt…the memories suddenly came rushing into my head as if I had had a dam blocking my thoughts and suddenly it broke.

“Nat, I remember! I remember the mission and Egypt!” I couldn’t believe it. I was just so happy; I could finally remember something about my life. That joy was short lived, when I tried to sit up again. I gasped in pain again as my thigh moved.

“Candace, I’ll do the spell soon okay? You need to rest and no one’s here right now.”

“Okay.” I paused. “Nat, what happened to Maddie?” I couldn’t believe I had forgotten about her. She was the one who had put me here first, but I still didn’t want her to be hurt. She was just too innocent and I could tell she didn’t want to hurt me.

“I woke up when I heard you shut the door. I didn’t know what was up, because your pajamas were on the floor so I figured you’d changed. So I decided to go out after you, but I was too late. You had just hit your head when I found you. I got to you just in time, and I somehow got Maddie to stop. I think it was the fact that I almost killed her, and she seemed to want to do anything for me. She’s been waiting with us ever since.”

“Where is she?” I didn’t know how Nat had managed to talk down Maddie, but I was glad. I liked her, and she could be a dangerous enemy.

“She’s with our stuff. She can do magic and she turned herself into a purse.”

“Oh wow. Who would’ve known-”

The door clicked open again and in walked Dr. Jeremiah. Brooke sat up in her bed. “Mr. Brown and Ms. Genstine, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I am going to check on Candace and it would be better if you didn’t have to see the cut. Brooke, if you would like to take a walk with them go ahead. I’ll do a check up on you after I’m done with Candace. You will probably be able to go tomorrow.”

“Alright sounds good. I’m going to get something to eat if anyone wants to join me.” Nat said and she, Brooke, and Brent walked out of the room.

Dr. Jeremiah turned to me. “So Candace, how are you feeling right now? Any memories coming back?”

“My thigh hurts, but otherwise I’m good. Yeah, my memories just came rushing back actually.”

“That’s good. How’s your head feeling?”

“It’s fine.”

“No dizziness?”

“Well I haven’t exactly tried to walk lately.” I said sarcastically.

Dr. Jeremiah laughed, but he had a cold look in his eyes. “Yes, we were going to start getting you to walk around today, but there is obviously a short delay. We’ll see what we can do, but you definitely need to rest your thigh. It’s a pretty bad cut you got.”

“Please, can I just walk?” I begged. I doubted I could do it, but I was sick of sitting in bed.

“No, you would fall over. You seriously hurt your leg, there’s no way you could walk now. If you want you can try to get up. I’ll pull the covers back and then slowly, very slowly you can sit up, but no more than that alright? I don’t want to strain your leg.” Dr. Jeremiah pulled back the covers and he pulled the pillow out from under my head.

I decided to get it done quickly. I quickly pulled my butt back, and straightened my back. I was soon sitting up, and it had barely hurt at all. I was smiling and was very proud of myself for not wincing at all.

“Candace I said slowly!”

“I don’t do slowly. I don’t know the definition of slowly.” I joked around. I wanted him to think that if I was joking, then I was starting to get better. Unfortunately he took it the wrong way.

“Candace, you have to do things slowly! I know that’s very hard, but if you want to fully recover then you have to take the process slowly. It’ll be a long road, but in the end you’ll be glad you were careful. If you’re reckless the chance of reinjuring yourself is greatly increased.”

“I’m sorry, but I was joking.” I said. I didn’t try to sound sorry, because I wasn’t sorry for trying to be nice and have a little fun.

“Alright, I’m going to unbandage your cut just so I can see how it’s looking. I also need to put a new wrap on it. You may not want to look, but if you want to you may.” I just shrugged which kind of hurt my shoulder, but I ignored the pain. All I could think about was standing up again. That’s all I wanted, and it wasn’t something I would get.

“Okay here we go.” I felt him slowly unwrapping it. “Do you feel the movement or does it feel like nothing’s happening?”

“Yeah I can feel that much.” I snapped. I wasn’t happy with him and my anger continued to grow.

“That’s good. The last part will hurt a bit, because any puss may stick to your wrap and that will hurt your thigh since it will pull at the stiches, but they won’t come out.” I nodded and braced myself for the worst. He slowly pulled it off and I couldn’t stand the pain any longer. I just wanted to get it done. When he went over the cut I had to bite my lip from screaming. Finally he was done and it seemed like I could breathe again.

“It’s looking pretty good.” I decided to look down at it, and to me, it didn’t seem too gross. It was just pink around the stiches and there was a very small amount of puss, but it didn’t bother me at all.

“Okay so when can I get my stiches out and when can I walk?” I was scared to hear the answer, but I figured with Nat’s healing magic, I would exceed his thoughts by a lot anyways.

“The stiches can come out in two weeks, and then after two weeks you can go. Maybe even one week for the stiches, or one week until you can go home. When you can walk is a bit of a harder question. You’ll get your screws and plates out of your thigh bone in about six to eight weeks. So probably about eight to ten weeks you can slowly begin the walking process. Hopefully you can gain full mobility in your leg again.” My eyes widened. Eight to ten weeks until I could walk? There was no way I could wait that long. No way at all. I needed Nat to do that spell and right away!

“I know that’s a bit hard to process, but you should get back on your legs soon enough. Now, I’m going to check your burns and shoulder. I wouldn’t recommend looking at the shoulder, because your thigh is beautiful compared to your shoulder. The skin is all gone, so you may not like that. It looks a lot more serious than it really is.”

“I can handle it.” I didn’t like how he treated me like a baby. I was an adult now and I didn’t appreciate being treated like some little kid.  

Dr. Jeremiah slowly pulled the bandage off and I didn’t look at first, because what was the point in seeing half of the cut, when I could see the entire thing. “Candace, before you look, you should know that the knife hit your shoulder on the fleshy part. Most of your skin is gone, and it will grow back fine, but you can see what’s going on inside your body. You will be able to see some muscles and bones.”

“Cool.” I didn’t care how gross it was. I was sick of being treated like a weak, little kid. I was an adult and I was not weak.

“If you insist.” I decided it was good enough to see.

I looked over and it was pretty much my neck area and then the top layer of skin from my actual shoulder. My neck area was the worst, and I was glad that I didn’t have to see much of it, because it was so gross. I could see my muscles through the few layers of skin that were left. I waited for it to start bleeding right then and there. I didn’t want to jerk my head away so I slowly turned my head away and back to Dr. Jeremiah. “How long will that take to heal?”

“It will take a few weeks, but that’s not something to worry about. Skin grows back, and there will be permanent scarring, but nothing too serious.”

“Alright, so it won’t affect my recovery with my leg right?” I asked.

“No not at all. It just made you weaker now since you lost blood through it, but you’ll be fine. It should heal quickly enough.” I decided not to reply. I wanted Dr. Jeremiah to leave. I wanted Nat to come back to heal me. I needed to get out of my room and I needed fresh air.

Dr. Jeremiah wrapped my leg up again and then my shoulder, and finally he stood up. “I’ll leave you to your thoughts now. I’ll come back tomorrow morning to do another check up on you. Hopefully it will look even better tomorrow. I’m going to sign Brooke out, after I do one final checkup. I’ll be back shortly for her checkup.” Dr. Jeremiah walked out of the room and I sighed.

An idea popped into my head. A dumb idea, but it was an idea none the less. I looked at the windows to make sure no one was coming, but the curtain was over them and the door was shut. I slowly swung my legs over the side of the bed and didn’t feel any different. I put my good leg down on the ground and once again felt no different. I put a little weight on my bad leg and felt a bit of pain, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I bounced myself on my bed and didn’t feel too severe of pain so I figured I could hop around the room if the pain was too serious. I slowly put weight on my good leg and stood up. A smile lit up my face and I couldn’t believe how happy I was to be standing again. I slowly brought my bad leg down and felt a little bit of pain as it touched the floor. I kept putting more and more weight on it until I couldn’t take it anymore. I lifted it up again and began hopping around the room. It felt nice to move, but it did hurt really badly every time I landed.

I, being who I was and not paying attention to what people said, completely forgot that Dr. Jeremiah would be back with Brooke. When I was a little ways from my bed, I heard the door click open and I stopped and stood as still as possible. Maybe no one would see me. That was a hope that definitely wasn’t going to happen. Dr. Jeremiah looked at my bed right away and I heard a gasp when he realized I was gone. He quickly scanned the room and his eyes settled on me.

“CANDACE BROWN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” He yelled. I hopped over to my bed and sat down. I ignored him and pulled my covers to my neck, so I could ‘sleep.’ “Candace, what did you just do?” Dr. Jeremiah asked again.

“I just lay down to sleep, can you not see that?” I asked.

“Candace, this is no little deal. You can’t joke about this this time. You were hopping around the room! Your leg will take so much longer to heal now!” I had never heard a doctor so angry.

“I’m sorry if I don’t like being cooped up. I was only on my good leg, don’t worry!” I defended myself. I didn’t want to get bullied by him or treated like a little kid. “Have you ever been cooped up for this long? Unable to get out of bed? Can you sit still, because I sure can’t!”

“Candace, I know it’s hard, but if you wanted to go somewhere, someone could’ve just taken you in a wheelchair.”

“I don’t care. I wanted to get up on my own two, I mean one leg. I can do it. I know when I feel pain and when I don’t. I know when there’s too much pain, and when I need to stop. I know when I need to get out of the annoying bed and move around if I want to keep my sanity!” I was so angry now. He didn’t trust me to make my own decisions for me. This was my decision not his!

“You have to be careful. If I ever catch you doing that again, I’m going to have twenty-four hour surveillance on you.”

“If you do that I will sign myself out and leave this hospital.” I snarled. He would not have twenty-four hour surveillance on me. I was not bacteria under a microscope.

“You need your parent’s signatures.”

“No, I’m eighteen and a legal adult. I can leave whenever I want.” Dr. Jeremiah’s eye widened in horror.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Watch me. You go over the line, and then I leave.”

“I have other matters to attend to.” Dr. Jeremiah knew he had lost and there was no way he could keep me there any longer than I wanted to be. He walked over to Brooke and began to do a check up on her. I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep, but I couldn’t. I was too angry to try and sleep. My body needed sleep, but my mind was wide awake and showed no signs of shutting down.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Dr. Jeremiah left. Nat came in soon after and came right to me. “Candace, you awake?” I heard Nat whisper.

“Yep, did you really have to take that long?” I had to ask. I needed to move again and the only way I could do that was getting healed or hop around again.

“Sorry, but Dr. Jeremiah would not leave. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. Can you just do the healing spell on me?” I felt bad for asking, because Nat had already done so much for me, but I needed to get out of the hospital and fast.

“Someone has no patience today. I suppose I can.” Nat grabbed her wand from the air and made sure no one was able to see what was happening. “Sana,” Heal, Nat said. I quickly fell asleep and Nat collapsed in her chair. My eyes closed and I entered the world where I was free of pain.

When my eyes opened, I had no idea what time it was. I didn’t know if it was twelve o’clock midnight, or twelve o’clock noon. “Nat?” I whispered. I didn’t want to wake her up if I didn’t have to. She didn’t wake up, so I decided to see how well the spell had worked. I moved my leg around and I didn’t feel any pain. I pushed my sheets back and sat up. I turned on the lamp so when I walked I wouldn’t run into anything. I glanced at Nat, but even with the lamp on, she showed no signs of waking.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and put a little pressure on my bad leg. I once again felt no pain. I put all my weight on my good leg and stood up. I put my bad leg down and put some pressure on it. I finally had my full weight on it and I felt pain shoot through my leg, but I ignored it. I could deal with a little bit of pain. I knew when it would be unbearable. So I began to walk. At first my leg hurt really badly, but the pain slowly went away as my leg unstiffened. I made sure I wouldn’t run into anything or make any loud noises so I wouldn’t wake Nat up, or make any nurses come running. 

I remembered I still had no idea what time it was so I looked at the clock in my room. It said it was one fifty-three in the morning. I glanced over at Brooke’s bed. She was sleeping and didn’t seem to move as I walked around the room. I figured no nurses would come and began to wonder how the nurses and doctors would figure out what happened. I figured they would make some excuse or say some super dumb, unrealistic thing happened.

I walked around the room a few more times and then finally decided to go into my bed and sleep. As sad as it was to say, I was tired out from the walk. After not walking for so long and not even moving, walking was something that definitely tired me out, even if it was just a few laps around the room.

I finally was under my covers again and I quickly fell asleep.