Ree-ree loves me just the way I am.
The beeping sound of the monitor guided her back to life, and she was staring at the bright lights being held by the white ceilings of the hospital ward, her mind racing at the thought of where she was.
He loves me even if I am not as curvy as most women.
The pounding headache in her head didn't stop her from not recognizing the quiet conversation happening between the doctor and her mom.
Mom???
Charlotte hurriedly sat up on the bed and noticed she was currently stationed in one of the hospital wards, receiving IV drips and putting on the ugliest hospital dress she had ever seen in her life! The bed was hard, and the pillows were even worse. She wondered why they made the patient's bed this uncomfortable or was it her body finding it hard to relax in this setting. A TV was currently playing mute before her and she turned to her left to see a nurse injecting the IV bag with something that was clearer than water. But she knew it wasn't water.
What happened to her?
Charlotte began to slowly drift off to panic land and grew more uncomfortable. She suddenly couldn't even breathe properly, and her chest was starting to ache badly, tightening and unclenching with each forced breath she took.
''Ree-ree,'' She began with tears forming in her eyes slowly. ''Please if you're here with me move something quickly.''
Both the nurse and the doctor froze. Her mom standing beside the doctor balled her hands into a tight fist as she glared fire and dagger at her daughter.
They watched as the girl continued to struggle with her breath when Ree-ree was taking forever to respond. The Asian nurse was the first to snap out of her daze and began to help her patient breathe properly. But Charlotte was refusing to breathe until Ree-ree moved something.
He might be upset that she ruined their date last night by collapsing in such an embarrassing way. She promised him that they were going to see his favorite movie. She had never been more angry and disappointed in herself before.
''No–no! Leave me alone. Get your hands off me—I don't want to breathe, leave me alone!''
The confused doctor stared as the nurse and his patient began to struggle on the bed. He gazed in horror when his patient intentionally started to cease her breath, calling out to the mysterious name of Ree-ree to answer her.
He turned to the mother of the patient and asked politely, ''Who is this Ree-ree?''
Miranda starts to also panic, but she did a good job by masking her uneasiness with a fake smile at the doctor.
''Is he a family member we could call in to have her more stable?''
''Get your dirty hands off me, you bitch! I am not breathing until he responds to me—Ree-ree!!!'''
The doctor was by her side immediately when she violently began to tear off the drip inserted around her wrist and wanted to jump off the bed.
Out of desperation to calm the storm that was brewing, Miranda quickly knocked over a trolley of medicine and food behind them. Her daughter froze, and her head snapped quickly in her direction.
''Ree-ree?''
Silence.
The doctor and the nurse just focused on getting the drip inserted back around her wrist, having her lie down back on the bed.
''Is that you?''
An oxygen mask was quickly placed to cover both her nose and mouth as the tear slipped from her eyes to trail down her cheeks.
''You're here,'' She breathed out, and they all hovered over her form and watched as she slowly drifted back into a deep sleep. A sleep they were all sure was going to last for several months like the last one.
☆
''We have been studying your daughter for more than eight months since the incident of her passing out in a restaurant, Mrs. Winchester.''
Miranda swallowed back the lump forming at the back of her throat, her hands fisted around the handles of her purse, her lips pressed on each other in a vain attempt to hold back the tears. It's been eight months since she flew all the way from France back to America when she got the news that her daughter had passed out again. They separated when she graduated from college and got a nice job as an assistant to a young CEO of a flourishing newspaper company. She moved out of the house to rent her apartment, miles away from her.
Miranda grew sick of staring at the body she dragged to the backyard in the dead of the night to bury so many years ago. She sold their house and ran straight to France while leaving everything behind to start over with a new French boyfriend.
Her life was starting to be meaningful and sweet. Just like she wanted. He was a rich widower that had a remarkable son who treated her just like he would treat his mother. He wasn't stuck with an imaginary friend, saying crazy things as being in-love with an entity that doesn't exist. She tried to forget everything that concerned her sick daughter for three years, but it was harder than it seemed. With the ghost of her first love haunting her in her dreams, the nightmares of the past and a single call that her abandoned child, in a small town in Florida has been rushed to the hospital in an emergency.
She wept bitterly in the dead of the night, on the plane, on her way down to the hospital and when she finally laid eyes on her sweet little girl lying unconscious on that same bed eight months ago. Supposedly in a weird form of coma.
Her heart broke, and she never remained the same again.
Her first child was suffering severely, but she was busy indulging herself, enjoying a fun family time with Daniel, her stepson, and his girlfriend.
It was truly unbelievable.
Everything was all her fault. She thought she was finally free from this sickening mental disorder. She didn't know it left her to hide under the skin of her innocent daughter.
''Although we are yet to know why her body is still suffering in this bizarre state of shock, but we have recently discovered a malignant body growing right at the center of your daughter's brain.''