Miguel Diaz floats along a fluffy, puffy river made of cotton balls. Someone screams his name, and he pops open his eyes on a familiar high ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
School. Huh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was he doing sleeping at school?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He tries to speak, to sit up, to understand what\u2019s going on, but he can\u2019t make his body work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMiguel?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even full of panic, he recognizes Samantha LaRusso\u2019s voice and he remembers trying to protect her and the moment Robbie pushed him off a staircase landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miguel wets his lips in anticipation of speaking, but the only sound he creates is a whimper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMiguel, oh my God, don\u2019t try to talk. You\u2019re going to be fine. You\u2019re okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more times Sam says he\u2019ll be fine, the less he believes her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Something is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stares at Sam as she clings to his right hand. Why can\u2019t he feel her? Why can\u2019t he squeeze her fingers and reassure her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A stranger bends over him, maybe touching him, he can\u2019t tell. Lots of words. Blood pressure. Hospital. Oxygen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something is definitely wrong. Exactly how bad was his fall from the landing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stranger traps his head in a stiff collar and lifts him onto a stretcher. Is Sam still there? Is she still holding his hand? He can\u2019t tell because the stranger helps carry him away and he\u2019s back on a fluffy, puffy river made of cotton balls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sam insists on riding in the ambulance because there is no one else around who cares as much about Miguel as she does, not that it makes any difference. If anything, watching him pass out and have a seizure on the gurney only makes her more afraid. She cries so hard her face is a mask of tears and snot, but she doesn\u2019t let go of Miguel\u2019s hand the whole way there. Even though he hasn\u2019t reacted to her touch from the moment she reached his broken, twisted body on the staircase, she can\u2019t stop hoping his fingers will curl around hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a squeal of tires, the ambulance pulls in front of the emergency room and things happen fast. Miguel is whisked away to places she can\u2019t follow, a policeman is asking her questions she can\u2019t answer, and her phone starts the incessant beeping and ringing that won\u2019t stop for days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Sam finally, after forty-eight hours of agony, visits Miguel in his hospital room, he looks different. His body seems shrunken to half its normal size, his eyes are bruised and sunken deep into his face, and his color is closer to almond milk than mocha. He is a pale replica of himself, tubes and wires slithering out from every corner of his faded hospital robe, his upper body frozen inside a contraption made of screws and metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Diaz talks to the nurse, so Sam has a few moments alone with the silent, unmoving figure on the bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHey, Miguel,\u201d she breathes, not expecting a response and getting none. \u201cIt\u2019s me. Sam.\u201d A machine beeps and hisses, his chest rises and falls, but nothing else changes. \u201cI\u2019m so worried about you. Please get better.\u201d Without even thinking about it, she sinks into the plastic chair beside his bed and clasps his hand. \u201cPlease, Miguel. You have to wake up. Okay?\u201d She squeezes limp, warm fingers. \u201cOkay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n #<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fluffy, puffy river made of cotton balls vomits Miguel up without warning, and he opens his eyes to burning lights. He doesn\u2019t know where he is, when<\/em> he is. He feels like a man out of time. He tries half-heartedly to call out for help, but no sound emerges from his parched throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He feels something, though. He hears something. A voice. Someone is there. Thank God. To be so disoriented and alone would be too much to bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He tries to speak again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At last, his ears register a voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMiguel, relax. Your mom is getting the doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He knows that voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSam?\u201d he tries to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then she\u2019s leaning into his field of vision and his eyes adjust, the light stops burning, and he is awestruck by her blue eyes and beautiful face framed by long blonde hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMiguel, you\u2019re safe. You\u2019re in the hospital. Your mom went to find the doctor. Okay? Can you hear me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She grasps his hand to her chest, and he remembers the last time she held his hand when he couldn\u2019t feel her, couldn\u2019t hold her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He can feel her now. Though his body lies heavy and offline, he wants to please her. Wants to touch her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With what feels like monumental willpower, he forces his fingers to move. Slowly, he squeezes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The End<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <3 Anna<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tortured Vampires, Sexy Shifters, & Cheap Books: Sign Up For My Monthly Newsletter<\/a> Today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Written by Anna Abner Copyright 2020 by Anna Abner Miguel Diaz floats along a fluffy, puffy river made of cotton balls. Someone screams his name, and he pops open his eyes on a familiar high ceiling. School. Huh. What was he doing sleeping at school? He tries to speak, to sit up, to understand what\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[878,732,877,331,729],"class_list":["post-4349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-cobra-kai","tag-fan-fiction","tag-fanfiction","tag-free","tag-whump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Wkl2-189","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4350,"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions\/4350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annaabner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Enjoy this Free Red Plague Sneak Peek PDF<\/a> full of excerpts and extras!<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"