Page 114 of How Does It Feel?

An older man in a lab coat gently pressed me down so my back hit flush against the hospital bed again. “Take her easy there, champ, you’ve been out for a while. Now just take a few deep breaths for me, and your family and friends will be in shortly. Your grandpa Earl just went to grab the others.”

A cold stethoscope pressed against the warm skin of my chest. I looked down to see my body in a stiff blue hospital gown, not a beautiful black ball gown.

I pulled the stiff cotton blanket up to my chest, feeling uneasy. Something was wrong.

“Where am I?” I asked the graying man before a small swarm of familiar faces filtered into the room.

“Now I’m sorry, but we can only have a few in at a time, this will be too much for her. All vitals are stable and looking good,” the doctor stated before he smiled tightly and walked around the crowd of people and out the large door, closing it behind him with a click.

Cliff and Cecelia stood at the end of the hospital bed. Each had grabbed ahold of one of my feet and held it, the warmth of their hands squeezed as the movement shifted over the rubber-bottomed socks I wore. Several others from the park and Willow Springs had gathered around my bed. A few girls from town stared glossy-eyed at me, their golden hair nearly washing them out completely from view under the harsh lights. Several of their faces were puffy and red as if they had been crying a lot.

The second I saw them, everything inside me shattered. They all looked so bland, so unremarkable, so. . . plain.

So human.

Not like the faces of the gorgeous Fae—

Earl stood to my other side, shaking slightly in his feeble frame as he dabbed his eyes with a whitish-gray handkerchief.

“It’s all my fault—the whole thing—I’m so sorry, Callie.” Earl blubbered into the handkerchief as he pulled the worn ball cap from his head and twisted it in his hands.

“We can’t seem to get ahold of your mother or sisters, we used the contact info on file, but it seems to go to a disconnected line. Your family must be so worried,” Cecelia mumbled as she squeezed my foot in a motherly sort of way.

“What happened? What’s going on?” I asked.

Dread and madness coiled around me, knowing in the back of my mind the words I would hear.

“We found you in the woods behind your house, you were surrounded by destroying angel mushrooms, Callie. It turns out they have the highest toxicity that has ever been recorded in fungi. The whole town is in an uproar with all the scientists that came in taking samples and removing spores,” Earl said as he crossed his arms over his chest, pacing back and forth. “I’m so sorry, Callie. This is all my fault.”

“It is. Don’t you think you’ve done enough? You ought to wander down the hallway to the psych ward and stay there,” Cliff bit out aggressively at Earl.

Everything felt so unfamiliar. I couldn’t remember anything. It was like I had popped into someone else’s life, and none of it clicked into place.

A nurse I hadn’t realized was next to me cleared her throat. “The mushrooms toxicity clouded your system so aggressively that it nearly killed you. Had this man not found you when he did, I’m afraid you wouldn’t be alive right now.” The small dark-haired nurse pointed at Earl.

Cliff practically growled at the foot of the bed.

“Enough, I’m sorry, but this is too much for the patient. One at a time,” said the tiny nurse in blue scrubs as she ushered the crowd toward the door. “Callie, sweetie, who would you like to stay first? Just one, please.”

“Umm . . . Earl, I suppose,” I mumbled, trying to piece things together.

Flashes of the beautiful Fae prince showed through my tired mind. I thumbed the V-shaped scar on my thumb, still trying to remember.

The room cleared reluctantly, and the nurse followed behind, leaving Earl and me alone in the hospital room after she kindly showed me the buttons to call for her should I need anything.

I felt tired, and a sting on my leg caused me to move uncomfortably on the hard bed.

Wait—

I moved my leg and felt a sharp, grating pain. The same exact place the beast’s teeth had scraped over my skin. Wait—

Suddenly everything clicked into place, and I remembered everything.

I grabbed a cup of tiny ice chips and filled my mouth as I steadied myself.

“Calypso.”

I choked on the ice at the sound of my real name and dropped the large cup onto my lap, spilling small crystals of ice everywhere.