Chapter 466 - 466 Will power... and the Power of Love
466 Will power... and the Power of Love
The beeping sound of a machine and white empty lifeless walls. An overwhelming lack of disturbance that only cultivated a disturbing silence.
Nearly two years spent in the same place, recovering from an near-death injuries and trauma.
A neverending loop of pain and agony… a state which, for some reason, was better than death.
The memory of her last conscious night echoed through her mind with a furious reverberation that threatened to shatter her resolve to hold on to life.
The sound of rogue alphas pursuing her through the forest with menacing blood lust rolling off them in waves. It was all clear in the loud howls and feral growls that accompanied their demonic speed as they tore through the dark forest, relentlessly pursuing her through the woods.
The sound of the rushing river was still fresh and clear in her mind… and so was the need to run towards in hope of finding safety… or delaying her death sentence if even by a minute.
The harrowing memory was fresh. The clearest thing she could remember, was the crimson colour of the wolves’ eyes that had been sent after her.
Murder was painted in their eyes. They wanted her dead… all because she had escaped him. With how weak her wolf was, even the mundane rogues would have proved too much for her to handle but somehow she was far more valuable for him to trust such an important job to weaklings.
His resolve in seeing her life snuffed out was that much stronger…
.....
This time, as the nightmare started over, the woman forced the dream away from her mind, trying to change the flow of events.
She knew what was going to happen… and yet it happened anyway. She didn’t want it to happen that way again… and yet, she didn’t seem to have a choice.
She struggled. She fought. She was tired of watching it over and over again. Tired of death’s relentless taunting and of the experience of being rushed away by the current.
The sensation of nearly drowning under the merciless battering waves. She was tired of it all. She was afraid of going through it one more time. She’d relived that day countless times already… stuck in a loop that didn’t seem t end. Each time she lost consciousness and awaited death’s cruel hands, she was thrown right back to the start.
To the rushing vines and demented trees that freed her from the Rogue King’s clutches and granted her the mission of delivering a message… then rushed to the ending scenes of her failed mission.
She’d lost hope of ever waking up from the painful loop and even lost herself to the throes of her suffering.
However, this time… this time was different.
She was tired… fed up, exhausted, frustrated, angry… and numb.
She didn’t want to feel it again. Tears stained her eyes. She wanted it all to stop. She wanted to wake up from it all. She didn’t want to die any more. She didn’t want to relive this day again either. She wanted to live. That’s all that mattered now.
Death had not come to her like she’d expected… but now… she was tired of what lay between life and death.
It was a fate that she was now perceived to be worse than death. If death wouldn’t claim, then she might as well try living and not stay in the in-between.
After constantly reliving the memory of being hunted down, hitting her head on a rock and nearly drowning, she’d had enough.
With all the strength she could muster. With all the willpower left in her weakened body and mind… and most importantly, with all the love she held for her missing grand daughter, Beatrice forced her eyes open and took a very deep breath.
The nurse that had come to check on her that morning gasped in shock, stepping away from the bed as her patient miraculously pulled herself out of a deep comma. “Where is she? Madeline… Where is she?”
Drained and utterly exhausted, Beatrice didn’t scream after that.
Instead, she finally fell into the first slumber since that day. Sleeping peacefully without a dream in her mind. Her mind was finally quiet. She was safe… she wasn’t in the presence of the murderous rogues that had nearly claimed her life. She was safe…
Sleep had never felt better.
..................
Voices… several voices… no, a few of them. They were countable.
None of these voices were familiar to her though. Beatrice’s peaceful slumber was constantly assaulted by the voices that crowded about her bed.
Slowly, she began to decipher what these voices were saying, “She’s just resting now, but you can be assured now that she’ll make a quick recovery. Her wounds are all but healed and now that she’s out of the comma, she’ll be fine for sure.”
“Really, I’m so glad. We’ve been worried sick,” a feminine voice trembled with delight. ‘Who is she supposed to be?’
“Simmer down, Lyla. You’ve never even spoken to her before,” a male voice tried to be to be her voice of reasoning, but that didn’t seem to work.
“I know I’ve never met her before but I can tell she’s someone important, you know,” the girl replied gleefully.
“No, Lyla, I don’t know. You might have been watching one of your shows again,” the boy sighed.
“You enjoy them too. They are awesome… Ugh, Peter, this is different. I’m not talking about fate or anything like that. I genuinely mean what I’m saying. How many people her age have you ever heard of surviving the injuries she had?” this time, the girl made sense.
Beatrice chose that moment to wake up. Her silver eyes fluttered open just in time to meet the faces of the people that had watched over her for nearly the past two years.
Their voices died down as the nurse hushed them. They had noticed her stirring and turned her attention to her, “She finally woke… Her eyes,” the girl staring at her suddenly backed away.
“Silver is an unusual human eye colour,” the nurse confirmed, unsurprised. The woman walked up to the sleeping woman and began to check her vitals, “Don’t worry ma’am. You’re safe here. Just relax and we can slowly get you back into the world.”
Beatrice opened her mouth to speak but closed it almost immediately when pain radiated from her throat. She’d already exerted enough force to send her into a coughing fit. Before anyone could react, the young man brought her a cup of water which she greedily drank.
The cool water was soothing to her throat. However, it also notified her of how long it had been since any food had entered her system. “You will have to take it easy for the first few weeks. Your body hasn’t moved in a long time, so you’ll have to be careful not to over-exert yourself.
Actions like walking, eating or even writing won’t come easily to you in the first weeks, but with some therapy, you can return your body to the way it…”
“Where’s Madeline?” the woman’s voice was hoarse and barely audible, but from the saddened look on her face, she wasn’t paying any more attention to the nurse talking to her.
Years of working with traumatized patients kicked in. Instead of getting frustrated, the nurse slowed down and changed her approach, “Who’s Madeline?”
“She’s my… grand-daughter. I told her to run to the capital but I don’t know if she made it. You said I’d been unconscious for a long time. How long have I been…” Beatrice couldn’t find her words.
She tried to lift herself from the hospital bed but her limbs failed her. She was far too weak. The kind of weakness that plagued her body was far too great to have been caused by a few weeks of sleep.
A deepset frown appeared on the nurse’s forehead, “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, ma’am, but you’ve been unconscious for nearly two years.”
“T-two… two years… No. No. No,” Beatrice began to hyperventillate. Her memories came rushing back in a merciless torrential wave. She could remember it all…
The Rogue King talking to the moon goddess at the Origin. His eventual sealing that would have been a good thing to the rest of the world. However, somehow, he had been able to send his generals after her.
She remembered the recurring nightmare that had been her prison for a very long time. Now that she thought more about it, it made a lot of sense. Her nightmare had repeated so many times that it felt like an eternity.
Beatrice couldn’t tell how many times it was that she’d fallen into that river and started drowning under the heavy current that swept her away.
Now, however, everything had gone silent. She’d forced herself awake. She was fine and safe. Trying to move was hard, but she had to. The storm of memories that assailed her forced her to do so. There was no time for her to just lay back and relax, “I can’t stay here. I have to go. Where am I?”
The nurse frowned, thinking over her next choice of words. The woman was not in the right condition to walk out just yet, but holding her against her will would not be easy either, “You’re in the Sirius royal capital… and regarding discharging you, we can’t do that until we know you will be fine. Did you not hear the part where you’ve been like this for more than a year?”
“I heard that. I’m not deaf,” Beatrice snapped at the nurse.
The Seeker sighed and lay her head back on the white pillow below her, “I know what happened to me… but it’s that same reason that I cannot stay here. I either have to find my granddaughter Madeline or find the prince of Sirius. If I’ve been here as long as you say I’ve been, then I’m that much later to warn the king of the danger that’s coming.”
For someone who’d just woken up from a comma, her speech was remarkably coherent. This was what told the nurse that she wasn’t disoriented but if that was the case, then the woman’s waking memories were a cause for worry.
“What did you say your name was again?” the nurse asked.
Beatrice turned to the woman, just in time to catch the glint of understanding in her eyes. There was hope she could convince these people to help her. Better than that, they probably could help her get to where she needed to go, “My name is Beatrice. I’m a member of the Golden Moon pack.”
Turning to the pair, she finally observed the man and woman that had also come to attend to her. These ones weren’t dressed in any uniforms which meant they didn’t work here at all. The nurse noticed her confusion and began an introduction, “This is Peter and the lovely lady with him is Lyla. They are the ones that found you and rushed you here over a year ago. They’ve been visiting you frequently since that day, making sure you were receiving treatment and making a steady recovery.”
As the nurse wrote down a few things, she chuckled to herself, ‘Grand-daughter, pfft… she doesn’t even look old enough to have a teenage daughter.’