Kida woke up to the ominous steady beep of a heart monitor. She wasn't in a regular hospital room; the walls were different and there were large windows looking out into a grey corridor. The glass door held a biohazard symbol and she didn't recognize any of the equipment around her. She looked down to see what had happened to her skin, but she was covered in a strange blanket. Her throat was impossibly dry and itchy. Suddenly she felt like she was on fire, her mind flashed back to her office and she screamed. What kind of pain was this? She remembered the purple smoke and suddenly realized that the only thing on those shelves that was purple was her masterpiece. She was still screaming but it wasn't a conscious choice. Her mind wasn't focused on the pain and she wanted to keep it that way. Her body writhed under the blanket and she could feel the tears on her face. She must have miscalculated the pain her creation would cause and had never been so glad that she hadn't done animal testing. All at once her thoughts turned to Samson, this had never been the plan. What would happen to him now that she wasn't in the lab? She would have never trusted anyone to decide his fate if she killed herself and feared that he would be thrown back into one of those harsh metal cages and used for testing again. What if he hadn't survived the earthquake?
People in hazmat suits had crowded into the room and were bustling around and trying to calm her but she wasn't in control. The pain had taken over her and was putting up a fight against whatever they were doing. But then, with just as little warning as it had started, the pain was gone. It was only minutes later that they started to leave.
"Wait! Please, is Samson ok?"
One of them turned around to look at her but Kida couldn't see their face. They tilted their head quizzically. There was silence for several seconds before they turned again to leave.
"No! Please! Is Samson ok!!?"
They left her alone again and she found herself crying. She hadn't realized how much she had come to love that rat. She wondered about the others that had been at the lab and worried that they had been hurt; but when she thought about Samson, her heart jump into her chest and she could feel herself panicking.
"Please." She whispered to the empty room. The big open space felt oppressive and threatening somehow, it made her feel like she was suffocating. Her throat felt like it was made of lava from all her screams, but it was nothing compared to what she had just gone through. Her eyes started to feel heavy, but she didn't want to sleep, she didn't like this place. Somehow, she felt like sleep was dangerous, like it was the worst thing she could have done. She fought with it until her eyes betrayed her and she slipped away.
She woke up to the same sound as the last time and it wasn't long before the pain stared again and the hazmats returned. They seemed baffled by her and she wasn't surprised; if it was really her poison that had caused this, she had designed it to be baffling. It was never meant to be used externally though, even she didn't know what it would do. Not to mention the fact that it had been contaminated by who knows what.
The pattern kept repeating. She would fight sleep until she couldn't. she would wake up and the pain would start. The hazmats would come. They would try in vain to help. The pain would stop. They would leave. And she would try will all her might not to sleep.
Kida didn't know how many times it had happened, but she was fighting sleep again, determined to win when she heard a knock on the glass. She looked over and sweet looking girl in scrubs stood on the other side. In her arms she held a glass tank with a mesh lid. Kida's eyes got wide and her drowsiness left her. The nurse smiled. She opened the door and brought Samson inside. Kida was shocked.
"Is it safe for you? You're not wearing a suit."
"Don't worry, we've run every test imaginable. Whatever you were exposed to is contained to your body. Even that smoke that comes off of you isn't harmful."
She set the tank by Kida's bed and started to remove the strange blanket. Kida noticed that her skin looked normal apart from being a sunburnt shade of red.
"Thank you. Can… can I hold him?"
The nurse smiled again.
"Yes, you can. My name is Shaed, by the way." She said placing Samson into her waiting hands. "Is there anything you can tell me about what you were working on that might help us treat you?"
Kida frowned and looked down, focusing on Samson in her lap. She didn't know what to say, her creation alone would never have had this affect. Would it? Who knows what mixed into it during the earthquake. She pursed her lips.
"I'm not really sure." She said finally. "There was more than one mixture on that shelf and countless chemicals. Whatever landed on me has never been seen before and would no doubt, be deadly to try and recreate. I shouldn't even have survived."
Shaed looked disappointed but didn't press any further. She turned to leave but Kida stopped her.
"Wait. Am… am I allowed to have visitors?"
Shaed's smile returned and she nodded.
"The hospital has notified your emergency contact telling her that she and anyone else can stop by during visiting hours."
Kida nodded and Shaed left. Evelyn was her grandmotherly landlord and the option Kida had for her emergency contact. Kida knew that she would never be able to visit, she never left her building. But Kida also knew that Evelyn would go above and beyond when it came to taking care of her. She had even sent one of her sons to drive her back to her apartment after getting stranded two hours away when her car got totaled by a drunk driver. The driver died in surgery and Kida walked away with only a mild concussion. Kida knew that if Evelyn knew she could be visited, then everyone who had ever heard her name would also know.
Kida gently placed Samson back in his cage and swung her legs off the bed. She grabbed the IV roller for support and slowly stood. She was surprised at how normal she felt until she was hit by a sudden wave of nausea and quickly sat down again. She was getting tired again, but this time she didn't try to fight it. She lay down and let sleep wash over her like a wave.
Kida woke up peacefully, the sun just beginning to shine through her window. She blinked in surprise; she wasn't in pain. She sat up and examined herself. Her skin had returned to its normal hue, a naturally tan shade the color of caramel. She felt normal but grew uneasy as she waited for the pain to come. It never did.