"Is this even real?"
He heard the faint voice of a woman and opened his eyes. But the moment he did, all that he could see was a strange number flashing on the ceiling.
10997452188712
That number flickered with a faint hue of gold and vermilion. But he couldn't understand why he was seeing such a number, for such numbers were only given to mortal sinners, and he wasn't one for sure. Before he could comprehend where he was and what was going on, he heard the same worried voice again.
"Bloody hell!"
He lightly turned to look at the mortal, and she looked ethereal. Her worried eyes were bluer than the depths of the ocean and that pretty face of hers could even make the nymphs jealous. Who is she?
And then all of a sudden, the painful memory came flooding in. His back started burning up. He clenched his fist, but there was no respite from that horror.
He looked around and saw multiple wires and IV lines attached to him.
'How did I even land here?' he pondered.
"Are you feeling any pain, sir? Are you having any trouble breathing?" She asked inching close.
But he didn't want to answer as he was not feeling the pain defined by the people of earth. What he was feeling was acute torture, like being seared in the fire of purgatory and there was no way in which he could make her understand how that felt.
That beautiful mortal! How could she understand his pain when even he didn't?
Withering in acute pain, he looked at her. The light bulbs reflected gold against the blue of her eyes, and he tried to communicate with her and then suddenly recollected that she was a mortal and not from Vanaheimr.
'She won't understand Ruskaki. I need to open my mouth and speak.'
So he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible, "Are you done experimenting with me?" His brows knitted, for this was the first time that he was talking with a human, in their language.
In response, she didn't utter a word, but he could read panic written all over her face seeing his temperature spiking up. But before he could even utter words to calm her down, he saw her inching closer, hovering over his chest; the ends of her hair tracing unknown patterns over the flimsy fabric, that he had no recollection of wearing.
And just like that, he could feel strange tranquility spreading in his body.
'Who was she?'
'Why her touch, her presence was healing him?'
He pondered while she kept on trying everything possible in her control and that fascinated him.
"What is wrong with your heart?" she asked again.
Panic ran down his spine because he was not supposed to reveal his identity in front of mortals. That was like the unspoken rule which was not to be broken. Like ever! So without breaking that eye contact with her, he asked, "I don't know. Maybe you can tell me what is wrong with me because I don't even know how I landed here."
"Sir, you are at the Seattle High hospital. You came here with an open wound. Do you want me to call in anybody for you?"
"Open wound?" he exclaimed, for he was someone who could never be wounded like mortals and immediately his hands moved to his abdomen where he had felt a searing pain before he had blacked out. But not even a hair on his skin had been hurt.
"Well, that's what the chart said. But I didn't find any injury on your body. So please let me know if you are facing any congestion in your chest because we couldn't find a proper pulse earlier." She said, with the same puzzled expression on her face as before.
That puzzled look on her face bothered him. He had to do something to remove her suspicion. He had to make her listen to a heartbeat. So rubbing his finger over his chest, he lightly touched the connector of the vital machine with his fingertips.
And voila! He turned into a living and breathing human being with a perfectly beating heart. Then tilting his head a bit, acting as normal as possible, he suggested, "Maybe you should check it again as I feel much better now."
And the moment she placed her palm on his chest, her eyes opened wide in surprise.
Ba-Dum!
Ba-Dum!
But she wasn't satisfied and wanted to do more tests on him and that was something that he couldn't allow.
So without even thinking, as his mind already colluded, he held her wrist, attempting to stop her from worrying about him, but strangely enough, the moment he held her hand, he felt a sudden surge inside him.
This was something new, something that he had never felt before, and he delved into it, wanting to embrace her, wanting to hold her close. But soon the words in the hue of gold and vermilion started to flicker again. But this time his sins had increased.
10997452188713
And he immediately understood what he had to do. He had to run far away from her. So far away that he wouldn't have any of those sinful desires creeping into his heart.
So the moment she turned to leave the room, he escaped from the 10th-floor window. Height was something that he was never afraid of. It was raining heavily outside. The city of Seattle had never seen such a torrential rain, not in November.
In that heavy downpour, when everyone was seeking shelter, he paced ahead, wanting to get away from her as soon as possible, even though deep down he desired to embrace her in his arms and seek solace.
The cold water drops were slowly soothing the fire underneath his skin. But still, it was smoldering like a dormant volcano.
He crossed the bicycle shed, but then abruptly stopped for a moment to touch his back with his hands. Unknowingly at that very moment, he turned back, just to have a glimpse of her before disappearing from her life.
And there she was, desperately looking in search of him. So he turned ahead and left.
Walking aimlessly, he took the first right and continued, till he reached a residential area. Till now, he had been blanking his head from the past, but unable to take any more, he huddled on the ground, underneath a birch tree. Hugging his shivering legs he buried his head over his knees.
His tears mixed with the rain and trickled down for a while until sleep lulled him into peace but even his dreams were cursed.