I woke up to the smell of bleached sheets and antiseptic. The lights above me were so bright that they hurt my eyes. It was too quiet.
Then I heard voices. They were familiar but I couldn't place them. At first, I didn't listen to the words, only the sound of the voices. Then I heard my name.
"Just tell me what has happened to my poor Elina!"
I realized that that was my mother's voice.
"Please, doctor, we must know."
That was my father.
"When the paramedics got there, your daughter was in the bathtub. She had deep lacerations over seventy five percent of her body. She was devoid of clothing and there was a bloodied razor blade on the floor, next to her hand."
"Are you saying that she tried to kill herself!?" my mother said, her voice getting shrill.
"Ma'am, calm down. I'm just saying that it is highly likely. But the odd thing is that your front door was open and your bathroom door, where Elina was found, was ripped off the hinges. The lock was torn from the door. That is the only thing that doesn't make sense."
I was trying to process what the doctor was saying, but it just made my head hurt, so I gave up. I opened my eyes again to see my mother and father standing at the edge of my bed, talking to the doctor.
"Mamma? Daddy?"
Both my mother and father started at my voice. They turned to me and I saw tears in my mother's eyes. They both stepped over to me on one side of the bed, and the doctor walked up to me on the other side.
"Elina, how are you feeling? Any pain or nausea?" the doctor said, in a calculated, cool voice.
"I'm stiff and I have a headache but other than that I'm okay."
He shined a light in my eyes. "Follow my finger with your eyes only.
The doctor, who I saw from his nametag was named Dr. Martialls, slowly moved his pointer finger from left to right in front of my face.
As I followed Dr. Martialls finger, he was staring at me. I couldn't tell why, but I really didn't care.
"Okay, you're vision seems to be working fine," Dr. Martialls said. I could practically feel the "but" coming.
He looked back at my parents. Then he looked at me. Whatever he was going to say wasn't meant for them to hear. I could tell by the look in his eyes. He was basically telling me that they needed to leave for a little bit.
I looked at my parents and said, "Momma? Can you get my blanket from home? I need it."
My mother and father smiled and nodded. "Of course, dear," my mother said. She took my father’s arm and left the room, shutting the door behind them.
"Thank you, Elina," said Dr. Martialls. "I hate to make your parents leave, but I need to talk to you about something sensitive."
I nodded. "Of course, Dr. Martialls."
"You can call me Collin. We need to be able to trust each other. I feel that the only way to gain your trust is for you to know my name."
I nodded.
"Like I said before, this might be a little sensitive. What did this to you?"
I looked at Collin. "I don't think I know what you mean."
"You didn't do this to yourself. You couldn't have. The lacerations are at an angle where you wouldn't have been doing it yourself. So tell me what did this to you?"
I looked away from him. I knew what did it to me. That thing did. That awful thing that cornered me in the bathroom and almost killed me.
I didn't want to answer Collin. I didn't want to think about the creature. The memory was still fresh in my mind, yet all I wanted to do was forget. But I figured that Collin wasn't going to get off my back until I told him.
"I don't know what it was. I don't know why it attacked me. All I know is that it did and I don't wanna talk about it."
"I need you to, Elina. I have a feeling that whoever or whatever attacked you attacked my sister as well. She was found in much the same situation as you were, except she was dead. I really need to find out who killed her, and I have a feeling that you are the only one who can help me with that.”
I looked down at my hands and thought for a minute. When I looked up, Collin was still looking at me, waiting for my answer. I sighed and said, “Oh, alright.”
“Thank you, Elina.”
I nodded and waited a minute so I could get the whole story straight. Then I looked up again and took a deep breath.
“Okay, so I was sitting in my house when then power went out. I kept hearing this horrible giggling. I looked around with the flashlight that I had, but I couldn’t see anything. But then, I heard something behind me. Then suddenly, the door just flung open and a weird, creepy guy-thing came through the doorway and started attacking me. I ran away from the thing, but it kept coming after me. It cornered me in the bathroom. I could still here it giggling. Eventually it broke the door and came into the bathroom and attacked me. Or at least I think that it did, because I passed out before it could touch me. But that’s all I remember. The next thing I knew, I was waking up here. “
After my story, Collin looked at me with a look of…confusion maybe? I couldn’t tell.
“Can you describe the thing that you saw to me?”
“It was tall, cloaked, and it had real long nails. And they looked like they were made out of, like, steel or something. Its face was completely covered, and it was dark so I couldn’t really see it anyway. All I could see was its teeth. Its canines were elongated and they were really sharp. Saliva was dripping from its mouth. But like I said, that’s all I can remember about it.”
Collin nodded. He wove his fingers together and rested his elbows on his knees. He sat like that for a while. Then suddenly he said, “Do you know how long you have been in this hospital?”
I shook my head. “Of course I don’t. I’ve been asleep remember?”
Collin nodded again. Then he said, “You have been in here for almost a month.”
I looked at him like he was insane. “How?”

“The wounds you suffered were bad. And when you woke up the first time, the pain was too much for you to handle. So we put you into a chemically induced coma. We waited until your wounds were healed enough for you to not feel any pain. Your parents just got in from Hawaii. It took us a long time to get a hold of them.”

“Yeah, they were in Hawaii at a business meeting. My younger sister was at a friend’s for the week. My older brother was supposed to come home two days after my attack. So, who called it in? About me I mean.”

“You did.”

Again I looked at Collin like he was crazy. “Again, how?”

Collin smiled slightly and admitted, “I don’t know exactly. All I know is that you called the police and when the paramedics got there, you were in the tub, naked, with the cuts, a razor blade on the floor and your phone in your hand. So in you delusional state, you called us.”

I looked at Collin. He looked at me.

“When can I go home?” I asked suddenly.

“In a few weeks. We need to keep you here for just a little longer, alright?”

I nodded. I laid my head against the pillow and looked up at the ceiling.

“So what was the point of me telling you all this?”

Collin stood up and raked a hand through his hair.

“Because as soon as you are allowed to get out of this hospital, you are going to help me find that thing that killed my sister and almost killed you.

I looked up at Collin and for the first time I realized the hard look in his eyes. And I also noticed that he was kinda hot. For a twenty four year old doctor I mean.