Chapter 34
I woke to the sound of beeping. It was the familiar drone I'd heard before of hospital monitors checking my vitals. My eyes snapped open. Wait a minute, hospital? I sat up, my arms snapping up to my head, which throbbed.
The nurse walked in my room, saw me, and gasped, immediately dropping her clipboard.
Then, she ran out of the room. Dazed and confused, I looked around.
Beige walls, a black TV. Numerous IV lines clipped to my arms and a tube down my nose.
Bandages all over my limbs, and an aching pain which wouldn't stop.
"No way..." I breathed. This couldn't be true. I had to be dreaming. I was disoriented—having lived in a medieval world, jumping back to the modern one was jarring. Was I really... back home? Rubbing my hand on my temple, I winced. Was it just all a dream?
"Ah, so there's our Jane Doe! Finally awake, I see." A doctor wearing a white coat and blue scrubs walked into my room. She had dark hair tied back neatly, and a bright smile on her face. Too bright, for someone who just woke up from a coma, if you asked me.
"Excuse me?" I furrowed my brows, confused.
The doctor stepped closer to me, still wearing a bright smile, as if she'd expected that reaction. "Do you remember anything? Your name?"
"Ros—I, I mean, Tamera," I caught myself before the name even left my mouth. The name, Tamera, was foreign to me now—I hadn't used it since I'd left this world. It was jarring. "Where am I? How did I get here?"
The doctor smiled. "You are in the hospital, Tamera. My name is Dr. Matthews, and I've been taking care of you."
I furrowed my brows, confused. "I'm not dead?"
She shook her head, a slight chuckle, "No, you were hit by a car, but you're not dead," Her voice trailed off, as if preparing to tell me some sort of big news. "But... you've been in a coma for the last three months, Tamera."
The words fell like glass daggers on my chest. "What?" I pondered what she'd just said, and the words repeated over and over in my head. "Three months? H-how..."
The doctor sighed. "Because you didn't have your ID on you at the time of the accident, the paramedics were unable to determine your identity, or your emergency contact," She said slowly.
"Normally in cases like this, we would transfer you to another branch, but one of our administrators generously advocated for you. "
I nodded slowly, realizing. To them, I was a nameless nobody, and there was no guarantee I'd ever wake up. If that one administrator hadn't decided to let me stay, they might've even pulled the plug on me. Then I really would be dead.
The doctor continued. "We were starting to lose hope, that you would never wake up, but then... Well, here you are," She smiled. "A miracle."
"Yeah..." I said, then furrowed my brows, deep in thought.
"Now, if you're feeling a little better, I'd like to perform some cognitive tests on you, and make sure you are cleared to leave," The doctor approached me. "Then, they'll take care of you at the office and you'll be out of here."
And just like that, they sent me home, with a massive bill, and even more questions.
I returned to my apartment just as I had left it, quiet and lonely and a bit dustier now.
The same drab gray walls, and there were even dishes still in the sink.
Everything was the same—except for the "eviction notice" posted on my door in big red letters, and the pile of bills that had amassed in my dropbox.
I didn't even flip the light on, just walked slowly over to my couch, taking everything in.
"What a mess..." I groaned, kicking the pile of bills, then flopping down on the cushions.
Three months worth—did I even have enough money in my bank account to pay it all off?
No doubt, I'd been fired by now from my office job.
Nobody knew where I was. Would I be homeless and living on the streets now?
In three months of being in a coma, I hadn't had a single visitor.
The reality hit me like a ton of bricks.
Not my aunt, not my uncle, not my coworkers, not even my old college friends I still kept in touch with.
The doctor said I was a Jane Doe, and there were many hospitals in this city.
.. so perhaps, they just weren't able to find me?
Hope built in my chest. Maybe they were worried sick, wondering where I was.
I opened up my phone, and instead of a massive amount of notifications and people wondering where I was, I was hit with—nothing. A few missed calls. A few texts about bills. A termination notice from my boss.
That was it.
In the three months I had been gone, no one had been looking for me.
It was like I'd just disappeared. If they were looking, surely they would have found me.
A police report, something—but they weren't. Instead, their lives moved on without me.
I was unimportant, insignificant. My life didn't matter.
The harsh reality set in. Nobody cared. At least, not enough to look for me.
I sighed, curling up into a ball on my couch, sliding a blanket over my head.
My mind flashed through all the memories I'd made in this new world I'd found myself in.
Duke Leeland's bright shining eyes whenever he spoke about me, Prince Roland's gentle concern for Lady Katia—my own nervousness at the dance when the wineglass broke, and the way Rowan had risked his life to save me more times than I could count.
Again, all of my friends' faces flashed before my mind. Katia, Rowan, Julian... Will they miss me? I wondered. Would they mourn me, unlike my friends and family did here, in the real world?
I rolled over. I need a fresh start.
The next morning, I got to work right away.
The first thing I did was go to the courthouse and changed my name.
The new one I'd chosen for myself was "Rosa Lee," in honor of my time spent in Averine.
Whether it was all a dream or not, in my heart, I felt my time spent there was real.
The next thing I did was dig into my savings to pay all of my outstanding bills for the last three months.
Then, I found a decent apartment in a new city.
I was in a taxi now, on my way out of the city to start my new life. But before I left, I had some things I wanted to settle...
"Driver, right there. Could you stop?" I asked, pointing at a big white house on the end of a long driveway, surrounded by a perfectly manicured lawn. Confused, the driver nodded. "I'll only be a moment," I promised him, before jumping out of the yellow cab and onto the concrete driveway.
Standing before the massive, multi-story house, the old me would have felt intimidated. But the new me? The one who had lived in a manor three times this size, had looked death in the face and survived? Well, I wasn't fazed. Instead, I walked right up and knocked on the door.
An elderly woman greeted me, her face flashing with recognition. "Tamera?" she gasped. "W-what are you doing here? I thought that—"
I stopped her. "I know, Nadia. I just have something to tell my aunt and uncle, is that alright? Are they home?" Nadia, the housecleaner and my former nanny, nodded. She directed me to the living room, where my aunt and uncle had been lounging.
My aunt stood there, poised and immaculate as ever, not a hair out of place, not a crease in her silk blouse. For a second, there was something like a surprise in her eyes. "Tamera? What on earth are you doing here?"
My uncle stood up. "You look thin."
I sighed, gathering my confidence. I'd rehearsed over and over the words I would say to them, felt the anger in my chest, but now that I was here... I felt nothing. "I'm here to say goodbye," I said slowly.
They looked at each other, confused. "After three whole months, that 's what you came here to say to us?" My uncle scoffed. "You didn't even come for Christmas, or the Annual Benefit Ball. And you missed Jimmy and Adelaide's wedding, for God's sake." He shook his head.
"I know you two used to date, Tamera, but disappearing for three months and not coming to the wedding is a little—" My aunt started, but I cut her off.
"This isn't about Jimmy," I grit my teeth. Of all people, he was the one I hated the most.
My aunt, a bit offended, leaned back and furrowed her brows. "Then? Care you explain where you've been for the last three months?"
"In the hospital," I said slowly. "But you didn't even bother to look for me."
"Tamera–" my aunt began.
"I was in a coma for three months!" I yelled, not able to hold myself back any longer. "And you never thought, just once, that maybe I wasn't okay? You just assumed that I ran off in some childish tantrum?"
"Well, for you, that's not off the books..." My uncle started.
"Enough," I seethed. "I don't want to hear it from you. Not your haughty little laughs, not your back handed compliments. Everything you two have is because of my parents, and you treated me like shit!"
I couldn't stop myself now. The words poured out like hot lava.
"My whole life, I've been your doormat. For you to look at, laugh, and trample on.
You never cared about me. You never cared at all.
Not when I was struggling to pay bills, not when my friend died, and not even when I got in an accident.
You just sat back in your fancy little house, my FATHER'S house, and laughed at my misfortune! "
For once, my aunt and uncle just sat there and listened, staring into the gorgeous white carpet.
"You never cared about me. And I don't know why it took being in a coma for three months for me to see that," I clenched and unclenched my fist. "And I'm done being your plaything.
I'm done letting you walk all over me. So, I hope you're happy with yourselves.
I hope you have the life you've always wanted.
The inheritance? It's all yours. Go ahead and take it.
Do whatever the hell you want with it, I don't care. Because this is goodbye. for good."
I turned before they could even form a reply, leaving my aunt and uncle standing there with gaping mouths. The seething rage I'd felt in my chest had started to die out, and was replaced with a numbness. I didn't feel any better, I realized. I just felt worse.
__
Over the course of the next week, I'd managed to move what little I had into my apartment and find a job. My aunt and uncle wouldn't look for me, especially not after what I'd told them. Good riddance, I thought, gritting my teeth.
Orientation started tomorrow, and my co-worker had been kind enough to offer to carpool with me. To be honest, I wasn't all that excited—going back to excel spreadsheets and looming deadlines, and having to start over as the new hire getting everyone their coffee.
I thought starting a new life would make me feel better. But so far, all I'd felt was guilt and grief. It didn't make me feel more at peace, I just felt numb.
As I crossed the street to my new apartment, there was a brief moment at the crosswalk where I wondered.
.. If I get hit by a car again, could I go back?
The world was still, the idea of it tantalizing, as I stood frozen in the crosswalk, cars racing by.
I found my heart longing... for a place somewhere else.
A faraway land much different from here. A world that I didn't belong in.
Then, a car honked, and I felt the wind of it toss my hair as it swerved around me and the driver uttered out a string of curses. Shaking my head, I continued forward. It was a stupid thought.
That night, I found myself growing lightheaded as I got ready for bed. The entire day, I'd been having bouts of headaches and tiredness. Must be from the stress, I thought. Then, I fell asleep.