Nightwhispers: Prologue/Rihko
Rihko blinks, the soft edge wake flickering into her head as light and awareness filters back in. The plain white plaster on the ceiling overhead spackled with strange flowing patterns that she uses as a focus to pull herself awake. Blinking again awareness finally on the surface the bed surrounding her, medical in shape, and she has an IV needle sticking into her bruised arm. Medical equipment lines the sides of the bed and the room, while big windows look out onto the San Diego bay. The sun is just peaking over the horizon heading down for its nightly sleep. The room is eerily quiet, beyond the gentle hum of medical equipment. No other patients, a single room, after a quick look around.
Rihko groans a little, and brings a hand up to rub at her face, sitting up in the bed. She slowly shakes her head, and then lays back down in the bed and glances out the window. Then she abruptly sits up in the bed again, and looks around once more. She eyes the IV bag, then slips the needle out and starts to get out of bed.
Pain in every joint is nearly overwhelming, breathing difficult, probably cracked ribs. Bruisers line her exposed body. The IV slips out easily though, but the bag still looks relatively full, freshly changed recently.
Rihko gasps, from the effort, sitting there and panting. She looks down at herself, then slowly, carefully, gingerly moves down the bed until she gets to the end. She reaches down, searching for the medical chart.
It's not hard to find, and although a lot of it is chicken scratch notes filled in by a doctor, it mentions something about a vehicle collision, mentions multiple injuries and surgery. There are sutures down near her pelvis to back it up. It also mentions something about a coma. And a date, April 20th, 2011.
Rihko is stunned... she slowly puts the chart back, and tests her feet against the floor. 'What...' she thinks. 'This isn't right... I'm not... no, that didn't happen.'
One of the monitoring equipment breaks into an alarm, filling the room with an annoying squeal. The sun's fiery presence filling the edge of the sky with a beautiful red. The harbor shimmers in the light. Inside, there aren't any lights left on for the coma patient, and the fading light leaves shadows all across the ground, the digital monitors providing the only artificial light.
Rihko winces at the loud, shrieking noise. She pushes herself up onto her feet, holding onto the bed for support, and staggers over to the monitor. "Shut up, shut up! What is it?" she mutters, giving it a quick glance and then jabbing the mute.
The thing protests at the abuse but eventually Rihko's button pressing gets the thing to quiet down. However out in the rest of the hospital there appears to be a commotion, and within a few moments of her steadying herself on her feet a male dressed in nurses scrubs charges into the room. The Hispanic man's eyes bug wide, and he blinks, shaking his head, staring in wonderment at Rihko.
Rihko tries to draw herself up, head raised and shoulders back, and stares right back at the man. She takes a moment to compose herself, to sort through the myriad of questions flashing through her mind, and then finally just asks him, "What?"
He whispers under his breath, something in Spanish (Holy Mary mother of God...), and then he switches to English, "You... you have been in a coma for the last few weeks, they... didn't expect you to reawaken." then he blanches, "You shouldn't be on your feet, you almost died!" he moves quickly forward toward Rihko.
Rihko grits her teeth against the pain, and then shakes her head. She moves to the side, trying to keep some distance between her and the... nurse? Orderly? and her look turns wary. "I got better," she says, quietly. Obviously. If she had really fractured her pelvis she wouldn't be standing. Or she just regenerated already. "Where am I?"
The man stops pressing forward, and holds out a hand, "Really, stop moving. I'll stay away, just don't move..." he pales again, and looks over his shoulder to the doors. "You were brought in after a car accident... the man who was driving died on impact, as did the man who hit you."
Rihko stops moving, and then slightly shakes her head. "Who... who was the man driving?" she asks. She glances away from the man for a moment around the room, then back to him. "Who... who... who are you? Has anyone come for me?"
He says, "I'm not sure, you'd have to ask your doctor." frowning a bit, "Please calm down, you really can't take what you're doing to yourself." He frowns and points down at the chart and says, "You didn't have ID on you when you came in here, hence the Jane Doe."
Rihko slowly sits down on the bed, giving the nurse a blatant 'I don't trust you' stare. "Where are my things?" she asks. "Can you get a hold of the doctor?" She pauses, and her lip trembles a little. "I... I don't know where I am or what happened, and I'm scared."
The man hesitates, moving a little closer, attempting to put his hand on Rihko's to comfort her. "You'll be okay. Just... stay here and I'll go get your doctor." He turns to move out of the room, not having answered more than half her questions.
Rihko gives the nurse the big, sad, scared eyes until he goes away, then drops her act, eyes narrowing and nostrils twitching a little. She gets back up off the bed and begins searching the room, quickly, looking for... well, anything she would recognize as hers. Anything that would clue her in. Or something she could use to defend herself if it came to that. The day was wrong. The chart was wrong. The -people- were wrong... she would have expected a skunk, or a wolf, or something.
There's one of the drawers have some jewellery that Rihko recognizes as hers, and a few other valuables. As for a weapon she finds a sharp medical instrument, and a one of the stools could be used as a heavy blunt object. The sun now dipped over the horizon only leaving the sky a flat red, and the room darker. The orderly had apparently forgotten to turn the light on in his haste.
Rihko slips the implement into her hand, doing her best to hide it, then settles herself back down onto the bed to wait. She wants to run, to bolt, to go down the hallway and out the doors and to hell with anyone who gets in her way... but she doesn't know where to go from there, or what to do, or, really, anything. She needed some information. So, she waits, watching the sunset creeping across the wall.
There's more rustling outside in the hallways, although the wing of the hospital seems rather quiet. The man, Angel, re-enters, and shortly afterward a woman, pert and blonde enters, at first with a face of disbelief, and then shock when she sees Rihko. She bolts forward and says, "What are you doing, you shouldn't be out of bed!" moving for the chart. She turns for a moment and gives the man a look, and he moves toward Rihko.
Rihko leans back as he starts approaching, and shakes her head, eyes widening. "Don't. Don't touch me. What is going on? And who are you?" she asks, glancing at the doctor, then back to the man.
The woman urges him to continue, and then says softly, "I'm your doctor, you were in an accident. What more do you need to know beyond you will kill yourself if you keep moving around. You have a fractured rib that came very close to piercing your heart."
Rihko holds her empty hand in front of her, palm out, warning the man away. "Give me some details. Who was driving? Why am I in San Diego? Why are you all so... normal?"
And at this the woman gives a very odd look, "Are you suffering from memory loss dear? We were hoping /you/ might be able to fill us in on who you were. The man driving burned, and the man who hit you was a truck driver and drunk. You were ejected from the vehicle, which surprisingly enough saved you, because it went up in flames." she sighs, and runs her fingers through her hair. "and what do you mean by... normal?"
Rihko takes in a shallow breath, then slowly lets it out, the noise ragged. "I am Rihko Kirijo. I live in Fairhaven, California. I am checking out. Bring me a phone."
The woman glares at that, "A name is a good place to start, and no, you are not leaving until I am convinced you won't /die/." She sighs, "Look, if we get you a phone and get in contact with your family, was it Fairhaven you say? But if you think you're walking out of here today, I'll have you strapped to the bed. The only reason you weren't restrained was you /were in a coma/!" she snaps.
Rihko narrows her eyes, and glares at the other woman. "I got better. Fine. Phone." She holds out her hand, palm, almost as though expecting someone to hand over a cell phone immediately.
She looks a little incredulous and turns to the orderly, "Would you be a dear and get our patient a phone." She moves closer and holds the clipboard in front of her. "Your insurance was claimed by the driver who struck you, but we still need your patient information. Would you please fill this out?" the pen, one of those metal nice ones.
Rihko leans away from the doctor, nervous, skittish, and on edge. Wrong wrong wrong. She didn't have any family. Phones wouldn't reach them. But... but... her family... she carefully hides her implement behind her, then snatches at the pen, and grabs the clipboard.
The woman attempts a comforting smile, but really she's young and her bedside manner is better compared with a brick. She says, "In any hope, you'll be able to leave in a few weeks, once your injuries heal. However ma’am, do you remember yet where you were going? If you're not from around here, how will you get back home?" genuine interest it seems.
A few moments later the man comes back with a cell, he moves over quickly and offers it out to Rihko.
Rihko stares at the page, blankly, thinking about the question, and then she shakes her head. "No. No I don't remember. I can figure it out though." Her fingers clench around the pen and she takes the phone, dialling a number from memory. One she used to call at least every other day, before PN day. One she never thought she'd call again - her parents, in New York.
The phone rings for a while, and then a familiar voice answers, "Hello?" Rihko's mother's voice. The voice almost stings in its familiarity, like she was hearing it from childhood again.
Rihko is utterly, completely, totally still as she hears the voice on the other side of the phone line, holding her breath. "M... mom," she whispers. "I... love you..." The woman sniffles, then, eyes tearing up, and takes in a ragged breath. "I miss you."
"Who is this?" the voice cuts sharply, that strict sound she's heard so many times. When she hears the words mom, she says, "Yuko?" she guesses, the voice sounding similar to her daughter she speaks to least.
Rihko's body shakes quietly, once, then again, before she lets out a sob. "Noo. Mom, it's Rihko," she pleads, and wipes at the tears on her face. She sniffles, and turns then pen around in her hands, looking up and at the doctor, and the nurse again. "You remember your daughter, Rihko, in California, right?"
Rihko is responded with silence, and then her mother just flat out hangs up, perhaps thinking it's some sort of joke call. Soon nothing but a dial tone is there to comfort Rihko.
Rihko reaches out and sets the phone down, as far away from her on the edge of the bed as she can reach, her hand shaking. She fights back another sob, and wipes at her face, then stands up. "I..." she sniffles, and shakes her head. "I am leaving." With that, she begins heading to the door.
Angel reaches out to grab Rihko, to prevent her from leaving, his hand wrapping around her wrist, quite securely.
Rihko stops, abruptly. She slowly turns her head and stares Angel down her teeth clenched and a little snarl building in her throat. "Let. Go." She gives her hand a twist, pulling at his grip. "I am going."
The man looks to the doctor for support and gets a response that says if you let her go, you let go of your job. So begrudgingly he grabs her shoulder with his other hand. He says, "I'm sorry miss, doctor's orders."
Rihko gives her shoulder a shrug as she brings her hand up, pushing the nurse's hand out of the way with her arm and pressing the hard point of the metal pen against his throat. She snarls, and bares her teeth... apparently beyond using her words at the moment, but someone not in the mood to be fucked with any more.
The man now looks scared, but attempts to fight back and restrain her. The room is still relatively dark, the light having gone down outside and the three are only lit by the machine LEDs. The doctor now makes motion to help, moving around to flank Rihko. The shadows surrounding them are thick with spite and anger, just like Rihko.
Rihko presses with the pen to keep Angel off balance, then delivers a knee straight to his groin. If that fails to break his grip, she uses his grip on her wrist for leverage to either pull him or shove him over, flipping the pen into an underhand grip and swinging it in an arc at the doctor, greeting her challenge with an inarticulate scream of rage.
Rihko hits home right on the doctor's throat, the pen entering rather easily, while the orderly falls to the ground. The rage surrounding Rihko shimmers, and instead of red blood, the woman appears to bleed black, it drips down her as she gurgles and falls to the ground, flooding onto the ground and spreading out. The orderly would be screaming if he was capable of breathing, the wind having been knocked from him from the knee.
Rihko stands there, watching the doctor bleed out for just a moment, growling under her breath. Then she steps over the doctor, collects her stabby tool from the bed, and stalks out into the hallway.
Rihko hits the door and it doesn't open, as if there's nothing to leave through, behind her the blood seeps out and overtakes the orderly, and then floods toward Rihko. When it hits her feet, she suddenly feels ice cold all over. It moves over her feet and up, and feels like it's running up through her veins. And soon there's nothing but a black sea of chill in the void, she can see herself despite the lack of light, and her human skin is pulsing with black veins. Then it hits her head and it all ends.
