My eyes popped open as I sat up in my bed, pain hitting me almost instantly. Groaning, I flipped back on my bed. My head felt like someone had driven a knife through both of my eyes and into my brain, while my chest and back felt like someone had beaten the absolute shit out of me. My thoughts were foggy, and my limbs felt like they were filled with lead. My breaths were short, while sweat poured from me.
"What…the…fuck!!" I managed to get out through labored breaths, my teeth seemingly wanting to clench my mouth shut. Magna must have heard me through my door because a second later, I heard a knock on my door before it opened to reveal my twin brother looking into my room.
"Bjørn?" Magna said, looking at me still in bed, my right arm hanging over the side. "Bjørn!" Magna said again, this time sounding more concerned as he entered my room to check on me. Getting closer, Magna looked down at me with concern in his eyes, clearly seeing the sweat that covered me and my pained expression. Leaning down, he put his palm on my forehead, then my cheeks. Straightening quickly, Magna quickly left my room, his heavy footsteps sounding like a herd of cows as he quickly made his way downstairs, his urgent voice reaching me in my room.
"Mom! Something's wrong with Bjørn!" Magna said before the sound of wood could be heard, then more footsteps. After a couple more agonizing seconds, Mom appeared at my door, quickly making her way over to me, Magna stopping at the door, turning on my room's lights. Mom did the same thing Magna did, running her hand over my forehead and cheek, concern on her face as well.
"He is certainly running a fever!" Mom said, alarmed. "We need to get him to the hospital!" Mom said, standing and looking at Magna and Laurits, who had come out of his room at all the sound. "Both of you need to grab him and bring him down to the car," she said, quickly gesturing at my two brothers.
"Mom," Laurits started to complain but was quickly halted by my mom's harsh tongue. "Now, Laurits!" she said, stepping aside to let Magna pass her to help get me into a sitting position. Magna just got me upright in bed before a wave of nausea hit, causing me to lean forward slightly and vomit stomach bile all over myself. To his credit, Magna never let go of me, which would have caused me to fall backward in bed and probably choke on my vomit.
"Fuck it!" Mom said, moving towards the door. "I'm calling an ambulance!" she said, nearly trampling Laurits who was still standing at the door. I must have lost consciousness about then because the next thing I remember is people I had never seen before in uniforms lifting me from bed, concerned looks on their faces.
"We will have to carry him downstairs to the stretcher. Your home's stairs are too narrow to get it up to this floor," a female voice said, urgently but calmly. I could feel their hands on my arms, and even spotted Magna getting my legs as we made our way down the stairs. I lost consciousness again, waking momentarily in the ambulance, where I heard the woman's voice again, talking to someone, "Patient has a fever of 42.8 degrees Celsius, with a heart rate of 120 B.P.M."
'That doesn't sound good,' I thought to myself, quickly falling back into darkness. I don't know how long I was out, but when I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a small hospital room. Looking around myself, I spotted a large window to my right that had a great view of the mountains, while to my left on top of a small side table were a few flower pots with flowers and "Get well soon" cards underneath. Farther to my left, a machine beeped in rhythm with my heartbeat, numerous cords coming from it that stretched over to me where I felt them spread across my chest, the sticky ends cold on my skin. Then I spotted the I.V. filled with water.
Smacking my lips a couple of times, I realized how dry my mouth felt. It reminded me of a time when I was a kid and confused a bag of salt for a bag of sugar. What can I say? I was a curious kid. Spotting a red button connected to a white cord beside my left hand, I pressed it, wanting a drink of water that wasn't injected through a vein. I only had to wait a few seconds before a nurse in blue scrubs quickly ran into my room, wide-eyed.
"You're awake!" she said, blurting out the words loudly and probably before she could stop herself. "Can I get some water, please?" I asked, smacking my lips subconsciously. She stared at me for a couple of moments before she broke her stare, quickly leaving the room. A minute later, a young-looking doctor entered my room, his white lab coat pristine and clean. The only issue is he didn't have my damned water.
"Mr. Seier!" the doctor said, approaching me with sharp eyes, which seemed to be studying my face for anything out of the ordinary. "Yes?" I asked questioningly, wondering why he was staring at me like a wolf might a piece of steak.
"How are you feeling? Any pain? Lightheaded?" the doctor asked, looking at the heart monitor next to my bed. "No, just thirsty," I said, looking past the doctor as the nurse from earlier came into the room with a small cup of water, which became my sole focus. Lifting my right hand feebly, I took the cup from her hand, downing it in one swig. "More…please," I said, reminding myself to add the please at the end. She took the cup from my hand, leaving again, hopefully to return with a bigger cup.
Turning back to the doctor, I saw that he was taking notes while looking at my heart monitor. "How long was I out?" I asked, the words coming out easier now that I had some water to wet my tongue. He glanced away from his notes and at me, a long breath escaping his lips, "It's been…two weeks," the doctor said, as if he had just dropped the saddest news of my life on my head. Maybe if he would have said two years, I would have had more of a reaction to the news, but I didn't really react to two weeks.
"What happened?" I asked, wanting to know what caused all of this. The doctor shrugged, "To be honest with you…we don't exactly know. Yes, you came in with a very high fever, which only lasted a couple of days, but as to why you were unconscious for two weeks…we have no idea. We sent your file to some specialists outside of Edda, but they too had no idea."
That's when the memories of my dream and the flashes of memory from the ambulance ride over hit me. 'So the dream was nothing more than a delirious dream brought on by a fever,' I thought, remembering it all as clear as day in my head.