Chapter 6
A consistent beeping could be heard as Camie regained consciousness. Opening her eyes, she found herself in an unfamiliar sterile room that smelled of antiseptic. The bed underneath her was uncomfortable and the only light that could be found came from machinery next to her. Something shifted to her right. She sat up slowly and glanced towards the direction in which the noise had originated. A hunched form was seated in the chair next to her bed, the person snored slightly and a book lay on the floor from where it had fallen from their lap.
The door opened and without warning the light was switched on.
“Oh, you’re awake miss,” a woman’s voice sounded from the door.
“Awake and blinded,” Camie responded with her eyes scrunched closed.
The woman gave a small laugh, “Yes, I’m sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting you to be awake since the light was off.”
Eventually Camie opened her eyes to look at the short, plump woman in front of the bed. The woman was dressed in scrubs and taking another look around the now lit room Camie realised that she was in a private hospital ward. Beside her was Inasa, still sleeping, undisturbed by the light that shone down on them.
“Your boyfriend has been sitting there since they brought you in; he’s been worried sick,” the nurse said after she noticed Camie looking at the boy.
“Oh, we’re not dating,” Camie corrected her.
“Well then, you have a very good friend. Not many people stay this long.”
Camie turned back to look at the woman, “How long?”
“Four days sweetie,” she responded as she checked Camie’s vitals on the machines, jotting her findings into Camie’s patient file. “I heard you were missing for around the same time as well, before they found you that is.”
“That’s eight days!” Camie exclaimed in shook. Her head started to pang at the sudden action. The beeping of the machine increased and Inasa jerked awake as a result.
The woman looked ready to say something but Inasa interrupted the action.
“Camie, you’re awake!” he yelled which caused Camie’s head to pang again, “You should have woken me immediately. I was so worried about you. You shouldn’t just disappear like that. Why’d you leave so suddenly?”
The nurse gestured to Camie that she’d come back later, deciding to give the two youths time to catch up.
“At first we thought you chose not to take the exam which I thought was weird but that green haired shortie from U.A said that he saw you in the first phase. But then you didn’t show up for the final phase and we finally hear that you were passed out in the hotel four days later. You should have told someone you were going back there, the teachers checked us out the hotel that morning so they weren’t expecting you to be there. At least tell me when you aren’t feeling well. I mean you had us all extremely worried. Why did you just leave so suddenly without notifying anyone, that’s not like you?” Inasa bombarded Camie with questions and she hardly got a chance to answer. As he took a chance to catch his breath she tried to clear up his misunderstanding.
“I didn’t leave the hotel room,” she said, staring straight ahead.
He looked at her in shook, “What do you mean? You came out after fetching your hat, you sat next to me in the bus and we spoke until the exam started.”
Camie shook her head, “I never went to the exam.”
“But you did, we even saw the U.A kids in person.”
Again Camie shook her head, “I didn’t.”
Inasa shrank back from her a bit before he stood up and started to inch his way towards the door, “Just wait here, I...I’m just going to go call the doctor.”
He turned around sharply and ran out the room and down the hallway almost bumping into another patient. Camie heard his rushed apology before he carried on his way. She sighed and lay back down, staring up at the ceiling.
Eight days...eight days? Have I really been unconscious for that long? That could be considered a mini coma. Why was I out for so long, I’ve been punched before and it has never resulted in something like this? Could it have been because it was a strong punch? No, I’ve had stronger punches thrown at my head. I was just surprised since she doesn’t look that strong. You really can’t judge a book huh? How was I supposed to know she was part of a villain organisation?
Her head started to throb again as she thought about the events of that day and she brought a hand up to cradle her brow. As she massaged the area above her right eye, she looked around for a glass of water to quench her thirst. Finding nothing she took off the attachment for the heart monitor and wheeled the IV with her as she walked to the bathroom slowly. Turning on the tap she greedily gulped the running liquid down her throat. After she turned off the tap, she looked up at her reflection in the mirror.
I look thinner; it must be a result of lying on the floor for four days without any type of nutrition.
“Camie?” a panicked voice called from outside.
“In here,” she called back.
Soon her mother came into view, “You shouldn’t leave the bed darling, the nurses started to panic when your heart rate flat lined.”
“I was thirsty.”
“Okay, come on let’s get you back.”
Camie groaned as she realised her mother was tip toeing around her as if she was going to break at any given moment.
“Mom, I’m fine.” Camie said as she climbed back into the bed.
“Something’s wrong with her!” Inasa exclaimed as he re-entered the room, dragging a doctor behind him. Her mother and the doctor looked at Camie as Inasa marched to stand next to her, he pointed at Camie as he spoke; “She has amnesia.”
“Amnesia?” her mother repeated.
Camie rolled her eyes and smacked Inasa’s hand away, “I don’t have amnesia, I’m telling you that I didn’t go to the hero license exam.”
“See!” Inasa exclaimed as he faced the adults, “She was most definitely there, I saw her with my own two eyes.”
The doctor sighed and took a step further into the room, “We can run some tests, maybe do a MRI scan but I’m afraid that we can’t actually prove whether she has amnesia or not.”
Her mother nodded in approval and Inasa seemed satisfied with that.
“Tomorrow we’ll have a psychologist come in and ask some questions to make sure she hasn’t forgotten anything from earlier on in her life or whether it’s only these past few days. You’ll have to give them some information that they can use as reference.”
Camie’s mother nodded again and followed the doctor out of the room to sort out what they needed for the next day. Camie watched them go with disbelief on her face before she turned to scowl at Inasa.
“Was all that really necessary?”
“Yes it was. How else could you explain you being in two places at once?”
Camie remained silent, knowing the answer but choosing to keep it to herself.
The next day started smoothly, the psychologist couldn’t find anything wrong with Camie’s recollection of the past. She smugly bragged to Inasa about that as soon as the psychologist had left.
Her MRI was scheduled an hour after that and they both sat in the corridor outside waiting. Camie’s IV bag had been removed as she had didn’t need it anymore.
“I should head home and let my parents know that you’re awake,” Inasa said a few minutes before she was due to go in for her MRI scan.
Camie nodded, watching him walk down the long passage, when he turned around at the end she gave him a small wave. “Bye, tell them I said ‘hi’,” she called after him.
The MRI results arrived a little while after she had returned to her room and showed no irregularities which didn’t surprise Camie.
“I told you,” she pouted as she watched her mother take a seat next to her bed.
“It’s always good to make sure dear.”
Camie hummed as a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in,” her mother called.
A burly man entered the room, followed by a tall woman; both of them wore blue uniforms which indicated they were detectives.
They stood at the foot of Camie’s bed, looking at her but directing their words at her mother, “We’re sorry to disturb the two of you but we were hoping to ask your daughter a few questions about the time she was missing.”