Save My Soul

by K. S. Haigwood

  Save My Soul

  By K. S. Haigwood

  Published by K. S. Haigwood

  Copyright © 2012 by K.S. Haigwood

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  For Riley: May you always make your own dreams come true. I love you.

  Back to contents

  Contents

  Copyrights

  For Riley

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Epilogue

  Visit the Author

  Chapter One

  "We're losing her Dr. Chamberlain!"

  I could hear a faint beeping but could not, for the life of me, figure out what I was supposed to do. It seemed like I was supposed to do something, at least try to do something. I didn't know why I was here, or even where here was for that matter. Moreover, why was there a woman telling a doctor that they were losing someone. It couldn't be me…could it?

  "Shit! C'mon Kendra, you are not dying on my operating table." A man's voice said to me, clearly ignoring the woman. It was a deep voice, a rather nice voice actually. Evidently, the very insistent doctor, who was obviously trying to save my life, had no plans of letting me meet my maker anytime soon. I couldn't feel any pain, but then again I couldn't feel my body at all. It was as if I was dreaming but could only hear the noises around me. I couldn't see anything but darkness, and I still didn't know what I needed to do.

  I tried to open my eyes, but it was as if my eyelids had been sewn shut. They were so heavy, and just the thought of prying them apart was too exhausting to consider. What the hell was going on? What had happened to me?

  The woman, apparently a nurse or another assisting doctor, spoke again. "I can't get her to stabilize doctor; she has too many injuries. She is bleeding from every appendage of her body, and there is no telling how much blood she lost before the ambulance brought her in. If we don't get the wounds closed soon, she's going to bleed out and we're going to lose her."

  I heard a loud noise, as if some heavy object had slammed into a wall. I jumped. Well, I'm sure my body didn't move, but it scared the hell out of me nonetheless. The doctor spoke again in a rather unkind tone of voice. I had a hunch he was the culprit who threw the object. "Just do your damn job, Sherri! It isn't your call whether she dies or not, it's mine!" I could just imagine him pointing at his chest with an angry scowl on his face. "Do what you were trained to do, or get the fuck out of my O.R.!" I was guessing that it would be God who made the decision if I died on the doctor's table, but if Dr. Chamberlain wanted to play the part, I would let him if it meant I could open my eyes again.

  "Yes, Doctor." Sherri whispered, then evidently went back to work on fixing my injuries, because she didn't say anything after that, and he didn't tell her to leave again.

  I heard soft beeps. I presumed it was coming from the heart monitoring machine. Then the sound suddenly changed from beeps to one continuous drone. Watching years and years of hospital series and movies, let me know what path I was heading down. It looked as though the determined doctor wasn't going to get a say about it.

  Flatline.

  I felt strangely calm at the realization that I was dying, and that bothered me a little. I mean, shouldn't I be panicking or something? What confused me the most was that I was still here, still in my body. Shouldn't I be walking toward a bright, white light right about now? There was nothing. I was stuck in complete darkness, listening to the people around me try to bring me back.

  "Give me the damn defibrillator. Turn it to one-twenty. Shoot her up with atropine. Mason, get in here and fix these bleeders. Sherri, get the hell out of the way!" He was barking orders at the other staff, and from the sound of small metal instruments, they were doing whatever the hell he was telling them to do.

  "Adam, I was fixing…" Sherri pleaded, but he didn't let her finish the thought, let alone get the words out of her mouth.

  "It wasn't a request, Sherri. Get the hell out of my operating room, and if you ever address me by my first name while we are on the clock, it will be the last time you scrub in with me. Get out!" I heard a door open then close gently, but none of the other nurses had stopped working on me throughout the whole shouting match. Well, it wasn't exactly a shouting match; "Adam" was doing all the shouting. It seemed to me that there may be something a little more personal than work going on between Sherri and the stubborn doctor.

  "Clear…" Another voice said, and I heard my body jerk on the operating table. Eerie, but true, don't ask me to explain it; I've only been dead once. It was really troubling me that I couldn't see or feel anything. At least one of my senses had not been taken away from me yet. I could hear just fine, but the rest of my senses were…pretty much nonexistent. I couldn't even smell, not that I wanted to. I hadn't ever been in an operating room but I was sure the room smelled sterile and of iodine, with that faint hint of old and new blood, that metallic coppery smell that you never seem to forget exactly what it is.

  Blood.

  I could only imagine what I looked like. And again the question, "What the hell had happened to me?" I couldn't remember what I'd been doing all day, or even last week for that matter.

  I heard a single beep, and then another before I flat lined again.

  "Dammit! Shit!" I heard Adam take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "Again…do it again at one-eighty. I'm not going to lose her. Debbie, call up and get another bag of blood, no…make that two, AB Negative, STAT! Get more fluids, too."

  "Yes, Doctor." I could tell by the urgency in Debbie's voice that she was
not about to question Dr. Adam.

  "Clear…" Again I heard my body jerk then settle back on the table with a thump.

  Beep….......Beep…Beep….......Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep.

  "You got her back doc." Mason said.

  I could hear more shuffling around, more metal instruments being used on my body, but the most important noise I heard, was the sigh of relief from Dr. Adam Chamberlain. I swear I could feel the tension leaving his shoulders as I heard him pull the gloves from his hands. I heard a faint sound of metal squeaking and assumed he was throwing his used gloves in a hazardous material waste container.

  "Did you find all the bleeders, Mason?" the doctor asked.

  "Sure did, doc." I could hear the smile in his voice from where I was laid out on the table.

  "Get her sewed up nice and pretty for me. Put her on I.V. antibiotics. Give her the blood and fluids, and have a nurse, not an aid, a nurse, sit in the room with her. If they have to piss, they better have a relief. She's not to be left alone for even a minute. Do you understand?"

  I didn't hear any answer from Mason, so I guess he nodded in agreement with the doctor, because I didn't hear any yelling either.

  "Keep her on the ventilator until I say otherwise. I'll check on her in a bit." I heard the door softly open then close. Adam was gone, and for some reason I felt lonely.

  I was happy I guess, but something still didn't feel right with my newly righted body. I still couldn't feel anything, or smell, or open my eyes. I'm sure they had given me some powerful shit to anesthetize me so I wouldn't wake up, but I was awake, sort of.

  The speed of the beeping began to rapidly increase, and I could hear something that sounded like flapping, or loud thumping.

  "Shit, she's seizing. Get Dr. Chamberlain back in here. STAT!" I heard the door open then a woman shouted down the hall. I couldn't see or feel what Mason was doing to me, but I knew he was close to my face. I could hear his frantic breathing and whispered curses.

  What was so ironic was that I hadn't prayed yet. I guessed I needed to, but I wasn't worried for some reason. I didn't know if I was in shock or if I was actually this calm. Maybe it was because I was somehow sure that Dr. Adam Chamberlain would be my savior. Or would he be? I was almost positive the words seizure and stabilized wouldn't be written side-by-side on my chart. Something was definitely wrong again.

  I heard the door quickly open and then fresh gloves being snapped into place on wrists. "What have we got?" the doctor said, and he was a lot closer than I thought he would be. His voice was so close that I knew I would be able to smell his aftershave or cologne if my sense of smell hadn't flown the coop. I had the strongest urge to inhale the scent of him, but after trying, I realized it wasn't possible.

  One thing was for sure, I didn't feel alone with him so near.

  "I don't get it…" Mason said, with a little confusion in his voice. "Five seconds after you walked out, her vitals went crazy, and she started seizing. Then you come back in and speak, and everything goes back to normal, as if nothing ever happened. Hell, her vitals are better than mine right now. You're a god, man."

  "You're joking, right? Mason, I have nine hours left of my shift, and I haven't slept in over twenty-two hours. I really don't think God would put himself in my shoes. Besides, he's only a figment of everyone's imagination, something someone made up to explain why we are all here. No one really knows why we're here. And no, I don't think she started seizing because I walked out, then stopped when I came back in and spoke aloud to you." I was a little disappointed to learn this tidbit of information about my doctor, but I wouldn't be the one to judge him come judgment day, so he wasn't my problem. I only needed him to patch me up.

  "I swear, Adam," he lowered his voice a little. "She was seizing when you walked through the door, and she stopped the second you spoke."

  Adam sighed. "Does she have a history of epilepsy or seizers?"

  "Nope," I could hear the grin in Mason's voice. He was really enjoying the hell out of this. "She gets annual check-ups, and she is hardly ever sick, sick enough to see a doctor, anyway. She may not have gone to a doctor for the stomach bug or snotty nose, but there's nothing in her medical record about epilepsy or any other conditions."

  I was nodding to myself, and to no one else evidently, about everything Mason was saying about my medical history. I was actually getting a little bored with their small talk about me. I'm not epileptic; move on to the next thing. There was no way my body reacted that way just because he had walked out of the room. Mason was crazy to even think that. I am a very independent woman with a strong career and extreme hobbies. I have a friend with benefits but never really let myself get too attached to men. I don't have time for a person in my life with issues, and all men seem to have issues.

  "Fine," Adam sighed. "Has anyone been able to locate a friend or relative of hers? I can go down and let them know that she is stable for now and that we will have someone with her the whole time she is in S.I.C.U." It sounded as if he blew air out through puffed out cheeks. "I can't believe she fell to the bottom of Dead Man's Cliff, and is alive with no fractures. I know she was wearing the little helmet that almost no one uses while repelling, but I never dreamed they would be so effective from such a serious height."

  So, that's what I'd been doing. The events of the day slammed into my frontal lobe, but I was still lacking the memory of the accident.

  "A few guys and another girl were asking about her earlier. They had blood all over them, and looked to be dressed like our famous daredevil here. It hasn't been that long ago, they may still be here."

  The door opened again, then something that sounded like a gurney, or a bed on wheels, was placed beside the table I was on. A short moment later I heard Mason, "On three. One…Two…Three."

  "You got it this time, Mase?" Adam said with laughter in his voice. He had such a nice laugh. I hated that he was leaving me here with the nurses, but if I really had the episode a few minutes earlier because I missed him, then I had to try extra hard to keep my emotions in check.

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  Chapter Two

  I could hear the wheels squeaking beneath me as I was being transported from the O.R. to the recovery room. I could even hear the blood and fluid bags that were swinging above my head and to the left a little. It is amazing how well your hearing increases when you lose all of your other senses.

  The noises stopped, and I had come to the conclusion that I was in recovery. My assumption was confirmed when a whistling nurse walked near to me. The whistling abruptly stopped. "She lived?"

  Mason chuckled. "Dr. Chamberlain operated on her, of course she lived. He hasn't lost a patient yet. He wanted her to stay here in recovery until she wakes up, then we'll move her to S.I.C.U. He said that she has to have someone with her every second. You want the job?"

  "Hell no. I don't want to sit and stare at a half dead girl my whole shift."

  He laughed again. "You couldn't do it anyway. He said it couldn't be an aide."

  The girl laughed a little. "If it could be an aide, you know that he would force me to do it. You know he doesn't like me."

  He chuckled. "Adam doesn't like anybody. You know that."

  "Well, he doesn't seem to have a problem with you. But then again, it is kind of difficult to dislike someone that looks as good as you do in scrubs. See you around, Mase."

  It sounded to me like there was a little flirting in her tone, but who was I to judge? Maybe she liked Mason, and just maybe he liked her back.

  "You won't if I can help it." Mason muttered, and evidently the girl was gone, but maybe still in hearing range, because it was almost a whisper. Maybe he didn't like her.

  "I'm going to be right here beside you until you wake up, Kendra. And I'm gonna need for you to wake up pretty soon, because I have a date in two hours." I heard buttons snapping beside my left ear, and figured whoever had dressed me in a hospital gown hadn't taken the time to finish dressing me. "There you go." I heard him
yawn, and then heard buttons being pushed on a machine, probably my blood, fluid and antibiotics, then the low hum of a blood pressure machine. I couldn't feel it on my arm, but I was sure my blood pressure was being taken.

  "Your vitals are good. There is nothing wrong with you but the obvious, so you need to wake up now." I heard Mason sit in a chair to the left side of my bed. He yawned again.

  I really would wake up if I could. I had been trying to get control of my body for the last hour. I wondered if I was in a coma, and if this was how coma patients felt, like they're trapped in an empty shell with nothing but their hearing. It was maddening.

  After a short time, I could hear soft snoring coming from Mason, and I wondered how pissed my doctor would be if he walked around the corner and caught him napping when he was supposed to be watching me. The doctor seemed pretty insistent that I be watched carefully.

  Well, alone with only my thoughts again.

  "You aren't alone, Kendra."

  I jumped. Well, my body didn't; I couldn't move, remember? There was a voice in my head that wasn't mine. It was a man's voice.

  "Who's there?" I said back to the voice. Great, now I was talking back to the voices in my head. Who's crazy now? It was worth a shot; I needed some answers.

  The man laughed.

  Another man's voice in my head said, "Don't freak her out, Coen. She's probably scared to death as it is." Yeah, freaked out was one of the things I was beginning to be. I'd always wondered what went on in the mind of a schizophrenic, but I didn't actually want to become one to find out. Great, I was crazy.

  "There is no way to not freak her out about this, Rhyan." Voice one spoke again. I had names for the personalities in my head, and they were both men, so they were going to have issues. This was just fan-freaking-tastic.

  "Maybe if you just introduced us instead of making her think she has gone crazy…"

  "Guys, guys, I'm right here, and crazy isn't the worst thing that has happened to me today." I guess if I was going to talk to the voices in my head, they could keep me company until Dr. Adam caught Mason sleeping. Even I was looking forward to hearing him get chewed out. But it was mainly because I wanted to hear the doctor's nice voice again.