He stirred, vibrant rays of light piercing through his thin cream linen curtains, his stinging eyes looked around his familiar room. That's when it set in; the god awful headache that had awoken him in the first place. He clawed at his head, writhing in unbearable pain - he tried to scream in agony, but he couldn't muster a word. He felt himself go hot as his body began convulsing. His random, chaotic movements ended with him rolling off his bed and crashing onto the cold stone floor below.
"Master Leland! I'm coming inside with your breakfast.", Gwendolyn, the youngest maid servant of the Leland household, opened the heavy wooden door to Vance's bedroom. There was a slight pause of stunned silence. CLANG. The noise echoed round the room. Gwendolyn dropped the spotless silver tray and cup of tea she was carrying and hurriedly rushed over to Vance's unconscious body. A puddle of dark crimson blood had pooled around his head. She frantically shook him, calling out his name.
"Gwendolyn?..", a faint murmur, escaped his lips.
"Master Leland! Are you okay?" She spoke through a flowing stream of tears and sobs.
Vance opened his eyes, the strikingly beautiful emerald green that would have usually sent shivers down Gwendolyn's spine were clouded by the viscous blood that seemingly poured out of his tear ducts.
Gwendolyn stood up, her legs shaking and her breathing heavy, she tried to compose herself. "Wait here, Master Leland.", She mustered up the strength to once again pull open the heavy wood door. Vance tried to see where she was going, but his vision was obstructed by tears of scarlet blood. He laid his head back on the icy stone floor, on a normal day he would have complained, but the freezing temperature of the floor was a comfortable contrast to the warmth emitting from his blood.
For the second time today, he stirred, less vibrant rays of light than before pierced through the window facing opposite him. He watched the rays refract across a thin but long crack that trailed down from the top right corner to the bottom of the heavy wooden windowsill. Vance slowly raised his hand to his head to readjust the uncomfortably damp bandaged. He was in the Aticula city Hospital -a private room, of course. He had only been here once before; to visit his late father -Adinicus Leland, the stern but warm man had passed away due to an undiagnosed illness when Vance was around 11. Even after the many years, he still remembered all the tiny details of the room from long ago, that was beside the point however not only did he not know how he ended up here -although he could gather it was probably as a result of Gwendolyn stumbling upon him in his previous state- but he also had no recollection of what had caused the excruciating pain in his head. Vance attempted to search his mind for any idea of what had happened, no matter had hard he was unable. He must be concussed, he surmised, although Vance had always assumed that when concussed you had faint memory of what happened -he had no formal education on the topic however, so he disregarded these thoughts. For now, he will just return to sleeping on the uncomfortably thin hospital mattress.