In Another Life (5 page)

“Hello?” Sebastian heard his voice shake, the music no longer pulsating in his ears, it had been replaced by his own, racing heartbeat.

“Sebastian?” Bill’s voice sounded hoarse on the other end of the line.

“Yes, Bill, it’s me. Is everything alright?”

Then Bill said the words Sebastian had been dreading; “Sebastian, it’s Marie. Something’s happened.”

*

Sebastian didn’t like to use his name and wealth too flippantly but he had to get to Marie so he made an exception. He immediately called for a private car to drive him straight to Manchester, to St. Jude’s Hospital so he could be by the side of the woman he loved.

Bill’s details had been sketchy.

“There’s been an accident.”

“She’s in a coma.”

“Stable.”

The details seemed to conflict one another. If Marie was stable then why was she in a coma?

As he sat in the car Sebastian tortured himself, imagining her alone and in pain, trapped within a crushed car. He should never have let her drive back so late at night. He should have insisted she wait until the following day to head home. This was his fault.

He’d thrown up several times since leaving London. Each time he’d frantically waved at the driver to pull over before he cracked the car door and leant out in to the early morning air. Dawn was still hours away as Sebastian vomited on to the hard shoulder, his body shuddering.

His entire being was awash with overwhelming emotions. He felt distraught, scared but worst of all, powerless. He had access to vast amounts of money but not one single pound could fix the situation he was about to walk in to. The damage to his beloved Marie had been done. The more he fretted over her, the more he shook. But he’d be there soon. He’d feel better when he saw her, he was sure of it.

*

An eerie symphony of beeps and drips played around Marie Schneider as she lay motionless within the web of lines and monitors. The ventilator kept a constant rhythm as it took each vital breath for her.

Carol Schneider watched the machine with keen interest, unable to comprehend how it was keeping her daughter alive.

“Why can’t she breathe?” Carol implored the young nurse who was working the night shift and monitoring Marie.

“Because of the coma.”

“But she’s still alive?”

“Yes.”

It made no sense to Carol. She watched machines breathe for her daughter with tear filled eyes. She didn’t dare go over and touch Marie. She appeared too fragile as she lay lifelessly on the bed, her skin the colour of porcelain and seeming just as delicate. Carol feared that if she even squeezed Marie’s hand the spell keeping her alive would be broken and her little girl would disappear right before her eyes, never to return.

Bill wrapped a comforting arm around his wife as they stood just beyond the ICU, looking in through the glass. Doctors and nurses constantly milled around Marie, checking her vital signs, repositioning some of her lines.

“She’s stable now,” the young nurse told them, sounding hopeful.

“So she’ll wake up soon?” Bill asked, his bushy eyebrows lifting expectantly.

“We don’t know,” the nurse replied awkwardly. “I’m afraid we don’t know when she will wake up.”

“How can that be right?” Carol asked her husband once the nurse had walked away and they were alone.

“How can they not know when she’ll wake up?”

“I don’t know, honey,” Bill replied, his mouth drooping at the sides.

“She has to wake up!” Carol declared fervently. “She’s our little girl, she has to wake up!”

“And she will,” Bill told his wife sincerely. “But until she does we have to be strong for her, can you do that?”

Carol nodded and leaned her head against the broad chest of her husband. Bill held her tightly, seizing the opportunity to privately release a solitary tear. It was all he could afford to do whilst with his wife. He needed to be strong for her, he knew that.

“Our little Marie,” Carol sobbed, her body heaving with despair. “How could this have happened?”

*

When Sebastian arrived at the hospital he was directed towards the ICU. He raced there with an urgency and purpose he’d never before felt in his life. Nothing mattered except getting to Marie. As he rounded a corner he spotted the familiar figures of her parents locked in an emotional embrace and he slowed his pace. In his desperation he’d almost forgotten that he shared her, that she wasn’t completely his. They had an emotional stake in her well being too, arguably a greater one than he had.

He walked over towards Marie’s parents and turned to face the glass window behind them. Through it he could make out his fiancée and when he saw her his breath caught in his chest.

Marie was attached to so many monitors with numerous wires connected to her slender hands. Her arms appeared to be in splints, resting in straight lines at her sides. Her face was covered by large, plastic tubes which disappeared down her throat like some macabre tentacle covered monster. Glancing to the machines it was obvious that these tubes were breathing for her.

What little of her face Sebastian could see appeared swollen and distorted, the colour of her skin darkening as angry bruises prepared to be released to the surface. And where she wasn’t broken and bruised she was deathly pale. She was his beautiful Marie but she was tragically broken.

Sebastian let out a pained gasp and leaned uneasily against the glass. His body felt weak from shock and exhaustion, the initial adrenalin which had fuelled his journey from London beginning to wane.

“Sebastian?” Carol removed herself from Bill’s strong arms and came over to the tall, lean boy who was due to marry her daughter.

Carol didn’t say anything else. Instead she threw herself around him, pulling him tightly to her. She smelt of Estee Lauder and hand sanitizer. Sebastian embraced her back, needing the physical connection. They both trembled with despair. When eventually she pulled away from him she saw that he was crying.

“Here,” she fumbled nervously in her jeans pocket and handed him a crumpled tissue which he gratefully accepted.

“Thanks,” Sebastian sniffed as he wiped at his eyes. He noticed Bill, strong as ever, managing to maintain his composure.

“Thanks for calling me,” he nodded to the older man.

“Of course.”

The three of them looked in on Marie. It was bizarre to see her so still when previously she’d been so full of life. It was as if she had been frozen.

“Did they say when she will wake up?” Sebastian asked the obvious question.

“They don’t know,” Carol replied mournfully. “But she’s stable, which is a good sign.”

Already her parents were desperately bunching together any shred of positive news so that they could weave themselves a blanket of hope to wrap around them when things became too much.

Sebastian nodded though he didn’t really understand. He just wanted to run in to the ICU and shake Marie awake, tell her that he was there for her and that everything was going to be alright.

“Can we go in and see her?” he asked uncertainly.

Carol nodded as fresh tears fell from her reddened eyes.

“We were a bit scared to go in, in case we knocked something,” Bill explained, eyeing the machines connected to Marie with unease.

“We should probably go in and talk to her,” Sebastian suggested, “let her know we are here.”

“But do you think she can hear us?” Carol wondered aloud. Marie didn’t appear to have any comprehensive of the living world.

“Possibly,” Sebastian answered hopefully. “We should talk to her, just in case she can hear us.”

“Okay,” tentatively Carol stepped closer to Sebastian and headed towards the sliding doors to the ICU but not before applying a fresh layer of sanitizing lotion to her hands.

“I’ll stay here,” Bill declared authority.

His wife turned and gave him a quizzical glance.

“You can only have two by a bed,” he explained. This appeased his wife and she nodded in acceptance and allowed Sebastian to guide her in to the ICU.

Bill was grateful for the excuse to stay outside in the corridor, in the harsh strip lighting. He wasn’t ready to see his daughter like that; broken and comatose. She was still his little girl and to see her clinging on to life, potentially on her death bed, no father should ever have to see that. Bill was a strong man, but the women in his life were his Achilles heel. They had the power to bring him crumbling to the ground.

*

The air within the ICU smelt medicinal and bleached. Carol hovered nervously close to Marie as they approached her bed. She was one of four patients currently being treated in there.

“Marie, baby, it’s me,” Sebastian had to raise his voice to be heard over the machines supporting her.

“I’m here too baby girl,” Carol said, her voice almost breaking.

Before them Marie was motionless, seemingly oblivious to their presence. None of her vitals changed, everything remained as it was.

“It’s going to be okay baby,” Sebastian told her. He struggled to look directly at her. This lifeless body didn’t seem to belong to his beautiful, vivacious fiancée.

“Do you think she can hear us?” Carol whispered anxiously to her future son in law.

“I hope so,” Sebastian said, wondering that if Marie couldn’t hear them, what could she hear? What was happening to her subconscious mind?

Marie’s eyes fluttered open and intense white light immediately blinded her vision. Instinctively shielding her gaze with her left arm she squinted and tried to look at her surroundings.

She realised that she was sat upon the ground, her right hand supporting her. Turning, she averted her eyes from the bright light and looked down. To her surprise she was sat on what appeared to be grass, at least she thought it was. The texture was right but the colour was off. The grass she was sat upon was a deep, emerald green, much richer in colour than any grass she’d encountered before. Confused, she rose to her feet and dusted herself off. As she ran her hands over herself, casting off any stray shards of grass she noticed the outfit she was wearing.

She was in a hospital gown.

Marie examined the fabric. It boasted the standard NHS logo and was made of thin, flimsy cotton. A faint breeze danced around her, clarifying that beneath the gown she wore nothing else. Marie shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling extremely exposed.

Looking around she saw she was within a field. Only it wasn’t a regular field. It was a space filled with that luscious, emerald green grass, above which the sun bore down, warming her skin. Marie tried to look up at the sky, covering her eyes with her hand as she did so. The sun seemed enormous, hovering on a cloudless horizon. It looked as big as the moon, no bigger. Marie struggled to understand what she was seeing or where she was.

The gown meant that she must have been in hospital at some point. But why? Had she gotten out? Was she currently in some drug induced state? That would certainly explain the intense colours and lack of memory.

“I need to find someone,” Marie decided aloud. With purpose, she began to walk towards edge of the field. The emerald grass was pleasantly soft against her bare feet.

Despite the proximity of the sun the warmth it emitted was pleasant, not overwhelming. Her skin didn’t prickle as though it were being burnt instead it felt bathed in a wondrous glow. It was an intoxicating sensation which made her entire body tingle with relaxation.

As Marie headed across the field she spotted what appeared to be trees in the background and beyond them, little houses. But the houses appeared to be sparkling. Surely that was just a trick of the light?

Pausing, Marie took in the view ahead. A tall hill ran off behind the little houses atop of which was a grand structure with turrets and countless balconies. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.

“Where am I?” Marie wondered. This place made no sense. Nothing seemed the least bit familiar to her.

She considered the possibly that she was dreaming. The gown was a most useful indicator to let her know that something wasn’t right. She looked down at it again, it was the only thing which seemed familiar.

Approaching the edge of the field and the lining of trees Marie stopped once more to study them. The trees were impressively tall. Much taller than they had originally seemed at a distance. Marie had to crane her neck to look up at them which instantly made the world around her spin slightly on an axis. Ignoring the dizziness, Marie continued to look up.

The trunk of the tree appeared to consist of numerous plants, all of them joining together, plaiting in an intense rope which then clawed skyward. The colour of the tree was a bright, almost neon green. It looked so artificial. Marie dared to reach out and touch the trunk, wanting to be certain that it was real as it appeared so fake, as though Jack might come down it any second with a giant in hot pursuit.

Marie’s fingers tentatively connected with the tree trunk. It was solid. She ran her hands along it and then tapped against it. The sound she made was dull and low. The tree was not hollow.

“This can’t be real,” Marie mused as she circled the tree trunk, taking it in. As her eyes continued to look to the heavens she noticed the colour of the sky. With the sun no longer directly above her, her vision wasn’t quite so obscured. The sky was a most brilliant shade of turquoise, more vibrant than any tropical ocean. Her mouth fell open. This whole place, wherever it was, wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. The colours, the textures, they were all too extreme, too vivid. Real life was duller, consisting of more subdued hues.

“I’m dreaming,” Marie declared to herself, wishing she felt more certain. With her hand still resting upon the tree trunk there was no denying how extremely real it felt beneath her palm; the surface hard and rough.

Finally she looked down, away from the brilliant sky, letting her gaze drift down to the floor. The emerald grass still carpeted the ground but now there were flowers dotted around. Flowers of the brightest pinks and the deepest purples. They swayed slightly as if moving to some unheard music.

Marie lowered herself so that she could examine a flower more closely. The scent of candy floss filled the air as she looked at the bright pink bloom. Each petal was heart shaped, collected around a central point which looked like a bright sapphire gem twinkling in the light.

“What on Earth?” Marie pulled herself closer to the flower. She had never seen anything like it. It was the most beautiful flower she had ever seen. She wanted to pick it, to take it with her and forever hold it close. It was as if she was drawn to it and would never want to be parted from it.

Reaching out, Marie cupped the flower in her hands and the smell of candy floss intensified.

“It’s so beautiful,” she gushed and the flower swayed more dramatically in her hands as if swooning at the compliment.

Straining, Marie tried to listen for whatever melody made the flowers sway but she heard nothing. The world around her was eerily silent and still. Still fixated on the plant, Marie considered pulling it from the ground and taking it with her as she ventured further in to this strange dream she must be having. But something inside her told her not to touch the flower. It was inexplicable but she felt like she knew to leave the flower. It would instantly die if she picked it. It would wilt in her palms, the colour draining from it and then it would shrivel up and turn to dust, carried away on the breeze, gone forever.

How could she possibly know that? Marie released the flower from her grasp and cautiously backed away from it. This strange, colourfully magic world was unfamiliar yet oddly familiar at the same time. The conflicted feelings made Marie feel anxious. If this truly was a dream she hoped she would wake from it soon. She needed answers.

Where was she? Why was she in a hospital gown?

Knowing that the flowers and trees would hold no answers for her, Marie began to walk past them, heading for the sparkling houses and beyond that, the palace atop of the hill. With each step she took she drifted further in to a wondrous place brimming with fantastic smells and sumptuous colours. Marie felt like she was within the pages of a fairy tale story which was of course impossible.

There was another field behind the trees and at the edge of that were the little houses. Now that Marie was closer to them she saw that they were actually sparkling, it wasn’t just a trick of the light. Their walls were made of gold adorned with glitter and they shimmered majestically in the distance.

Now she was closer to them, the houses also appeared to be not so small. Each one in her eye line was easily as large as her parent’s house back in Manchester. But that was where the similarities ended.

These houses were made of gold and boasted large, circular windows and pointed roofs. Again, they looked like they belonged in some fairy tale village where all the inhabitants would burst out through their oval doors and burst in to song.

The doors to the homes were painted in an array of brilliant colours from yellows, to pinks to deep dark blues. Everything looked immaculate and as Marie got closer to the houses the air began to smell of cinnamon, oranges and burning wood. It was a smell which instantly reminded her of Christmas.

But what on Earth was this place?

Marie assumed she’d have to knock upon one of the oval doors. The thought made her stop moving briefly as she contemplated that perhaps whatever resided in the house wasn’t a person, or more worryingly, wasn’t friendly.

“I’d really like to wake up,” Marie whispered to herself, shivering not from the cold as the air around her was still pleasant and warm, but from nerves. The longer she spent in this strange place the more real it seemed. The more familiar it seemed.

“I’m losing my mind,” Marie sighed, shaking her head.

Her bare feet passed over from grass to perfectly polished cobble stones as she crossed over in to the built up area. She was about to proceed when someone or something grabbed her and abruptly pulled her back on to the soft grass.

“Woah there!” a voice cried. Marie turned sharply to look at what had grabbed her. She was shocked to find herself looking at a man. A very human man. He was around six feet tall with dark hair which hung loosely around his shoulders. He wore a pristine white tuxedo and regarded Marie with keen interest. As he held her in his gaze she noticed that his eyes, like the walls of the houses, sparkled, as they were made of gold.

“Who are you?” Marie demanded, sounding sharper than she’d intended.

“Pardon me, where are my manners?” the man asked. His voice was deep and smooth with a welcoming tone and his words wrapped around Marie like treacle, rooting her to the spot and enveloping her in sweet warmth.

The man bowed before her, shifting his eyes to meet with hers as he did so. He was devastatingly handsome. His eyes were friendly yet mischievous, as was his grin. The suit he wore clung tightly to him, hinting at the impressive physique beneath it. He was the sort of guy who rode a motorcycle and mothers would urge their daughters to give a wide berth to. He looked like he was trouble. But he was devilish and cheeky with it and Marie found herself being painfully aware of the fact that she was only wearing a hospital gown. She instantly felt exposed and embarrassed.

“I’m Orion,” the man explained before straightening back up.

“Marie,” she blushed when she addressed him which infuriated her. He was probably nothing more than a product of her own dream she needed to get a grip.

Nervously Marie fiddled with the gown, wishing it wasn’t so horrifically revealing. If he walked behind her he’d get more than glimpse of her bare buttocks. Her cheeks reddened at the thought of it.

“I’m forgetting my manners yet again,” Orion apologised. Marie blinked at him. His manners were impeccable compared to most guys she had met.

“Would you like me to show you around?” Orion gestured to the houses beyond them, back on the cobblestone path.

“That would be lovely,” Marie felt herself under his spell, lost to his golden gaze. He extended an arm for her to hold on to in a gentlemanly manner and Marie was about to accept it when her mind suddenly snapped back to the absurdity of it all.

“Where am I?” Marie asked, loathing how confused it made her sound, next she’d be asking what day it was, which in fairness she truly did need to do.

“Where are you?” Orion smiled fondly at the question; humoured by it which made Marie blush, the red of her cheeks deepening.

“Why, you’re in Azriel of course.”

“Azriel?” Marie placed the word in her mouth and released it on her lips. Even though the place had a name it didn’t explain whether or not she was dreaming.

“Azriel?” she queried again. “What on Earth is Azriel?”

“This,” Orion gestured to the space around him. “This is Azriel.”

Marie squinted at him in confusion. He looked so surreal in his white suit and with his impossibly golden eyes which continued to regard her with curiosity, like she was some sort of exotic bird he had just found.

“And where is Azriel?” she’d never heard of the place before. Surely this was all a dream.

“In the Stormont quarter, beyond the Callendarth Vale.” The words rolled effortlessly off Orion’s tongue as though they were completely familiar to him whilst Marie’s frown intensified.

“Those places don’t exist,” she declared. “You made them up.”