Chapter 21
21. A special allergy?
Numbed down pain.
I
That’s all I feel when I find myself waking up, a low, drawled groan leaving my mouth as I slowly regain
consciousness. My throat is scratchy, and it feels like something died in my mouth. Faintly, I hear a
beeping sounding next to me, and I slowly turn my head to see what it is.
A machine. A machine to measure my heartbeat, the kind you see in hospital rooms with serious
patients.
Why was I a serious patient, then?
That’s when all the memories came back to me through the haze of my mind.
Stone and his goons. The beating in the cafeteria. Falling unconscious as soon as the security guards
managed to get the attackers off me. Someone screaming the word ‘hospital’ while I faded to ck.
Crap.
I use my tired eyes to look around the room. The walls are painted white with ents of light yellow, and
there’s a window. It’s a private room, and there is even a TV mounted in the corner. All around me, there
are various machines taking my reading there’s, and an IV poked into my hand dripping saline. There are
wires hooked onto my chest. Many parts of my body are bandaged.
Just as I end up taking in the room, the door opens, and a nurse strides in. Upon seeing my open eyes,
her face lights up, and she immediately presses a button on the side of the bed.
“Mr. Greyson, I’m d to see you’re awake,” the nurse greets me with a polite smile and rushes towards
1.
I open my mouth to talk, but my throat and lips are too dry. So, I croak, “water.”
“Yes, of course, Mr. Greyson,” the nurse hastily retrieves some chips of ice from the trolley cart she just
rolled in, “The doctor was anticipating you waking up soon, so she instructed us to be ready. You are due
another change of bandages as well, and we were waiting for you to wake up for it, rather than do it
while you’re unconscious.”
The ice chips on my parched skin feel like heaven, and their moisture trickling down my arid throat finally
loosens up my vocals enough to talk, “what happened? I remember the fight” I ask.
“After you were physically assaulted by five individuals at the King’s College campus grounds, you were
brought into Empire State Hospital. We had to get you into the ER immediately, of course. You were out
cold and bleeding all over the ce. One of your assants used a brass knuckles weapon on you,
bruising your ribs quite badly. You’re very lucky that they aren’t broken. Apart from that, your midriff was
damaged, your left arm was sprained, and your right pinky is broken. It will take quite some time for them
to heal.”
“Why are there wires hooked to me?” I question, confused because I haven’t seen assault victims with
my injuries hooked to machines like this.
The nurse bites her lower lip, “there was aplication with a painkiller we administered to you. Were
you aware that you’re allergic to silver, Mr. Greyson?”
Surprise makes my brows lift to my scalp, “silver?”
“Yes. You were sent into anaphctic shock as soon as the painkiller medicine was administered, and
we had to operate on you to remove all sorts of silver from your system.”
So, that is why I feel like I’ve been gutted like a fish.
“I didn’t know,” I tell her honestly, “I didn’t know I had any allergies, period.”
“It was not on your medical record either. Perhaps it had recently surfaced, that happens,” the nurse
uses a small controller on the side of my bed to move my head to a more vertical position, and switches
to liquid water. I gulp down the cool fluid gratefully.
Great, now on top of everything, I had a silver allergy and had to have an operation performed on me.
“How long do I have to stay here?” I ask her, trying not to sound too pathetic.
Material ? N?velDrama.Org.
“That is up to the doctor to decide, he will be arriving in a few moments.”
“If you were to estimate based on my condition, how much will it be? Can you give me a number?”
“Sorry, young man, I cannot,” the nurse smiles kindly, “but do not worry. You’re way better now than you.
did before. You will get better soon.”
That was not very believable.
As she told me, a few secondster the doctor arrives and begins to fuss over me. He asks me for a full
ount of what happened at the cafeteria as he checks my bandages and vitals, as well as the readings
on numerous devices. Of course, the doctor also profusely apologizes for the reaction my body had to
silver.
“Such allergies are not unheard of, but extremely rare,” the doctor says as he begins to unwrap the
soiled bandages from my body, “the silver allergy is such a rarity.”
He tells me about how my family members and emergency contact, who was Gerald, has already been
notified of my waking up. They would be allowed to see me during visiting hours. They all had been very
worried about me, especially after the allergic reaction. Even my father had visited and demanded to see
the director of the hospital so he could request him to make sure that I was taken care of in the best
possible ways.
He nces at me with an apprehensive expression, “During the operation and the subsequent treatment
of your injures, I noticed that there were manyceration scars on your body, and older bruising that were
nearly healed,” his voice drops a notch, “these suggest extensive abuse, Mr. Greyson. Now, I know you
are twenty-three years of age, but I have to ask, how is your situation at home and school? Is this the
first time you’ve been physically assaulted?”
I want to scoff, but I quell that urge as I fear pulling anything vital with the action, “no, there’s nothing
wrong with my home situation. They’re just from fights.”
“I see. Do you get into these fights a lot, Mr. Greyson?”
“I don’t go actively seeking them out. But when they happen, they happen.”
“I see. Then, Mr. Greyson, why is your hospital record so damn clean? I could count the times you’ve
been
in a hospital on one hand. Mr. Greyson, disregarding the damage from the beatings, just how healthy are
you?”