• It was pouring rain. The night sky seemed as though is would never end, as almost if it were about to flood the world. The air was still with coldness, only passably breathable if sucking air from an oxygen mask while climbing a mountain was any better. The wind however, the wind passed through as if a hand were sweeping crumbs of the kitchen table of the entire nation. Time seemed to slow down as the virtues of life came to action. It was the earth’s cry. Neither pain nor sadness. Just Mother Nature’s soft tears caressing the earth with life.
    Light. Pain from falling miles out of the sky, and yet starved from being powerless. A small, round, golden ring turning to mist in the spring rain and then nothing but a cloud of memories. Large, leathery and feathered wings spread upon the creatures back as he heaved in pain and stayed low to the ground. His wings were slowly shrinking until they became the size of a great man’s hands. Scars shaped themselves underneath the tiny wings along his vertebrae. A moan escaped from his lips, a moan that secreted pain and weakness from beyond his vocal cords. Pushing himself up from the ground, the new weight of his body burdened him. With legs feeling like gelatin, he walked on. His body twitched slightly but he did not seem to take notice to his condition. Walking with much of a limp, he staggered until his balances became normal. Long, precious locks of curly black hair slapped the back of his neck and his face. Armbands of gold from his muscle bond arms, leaving words embedded in his tan colored skin. T-H-A-D-D-E-U-S. The words spelled out clearly. The heavy colored ink of the tattoo soon became nothing but a mere scar of ink that was blurred and kissed by rain droplets. His name, Thaddeus. An angel fallen. An angel fallen from the sky. Weak. Powerless. Most likely becoming mortal all at once. Though why?
    Music boomed like the thunder clasps of the world. Jade B. Daniels rode with ease in her red, Chevrolet truck. Her hands were sweaty, clammy as though she were nervous about something. Her heart raced to the beat of the new age rock music, only the beating of the wild drum solo could match up to her pounding heart. Jade’s dark brown hair slapped her neck as she sped down the city limit road that led into her hometown, Meht City. She paid no attention to the road. Her mind was in control but she physically knew what to do about managing her steering wheel. Turning her music up louder, she drove on swerving a little on the road every time her eyes closed up. However, in her mind she paced on and on about fear. Her heart sunk low in her chest when she realized loud music was not killing her thoughts. She was. Ignoring her own body language, she continued. Speeding over the limit recommended for the roads in the thick rain and swerving on the road, even though it was abandoned.
    He finally opened his eyes. Thaddeus opened his blank green eyes after the last of his godly strength and senses withered away. His body shook even more tensely as he staggered onto the road. He couldn’t see clearly, couldn’t actually make out the bright light coming toward him but he didn’t fret. His mind felt like it was being drowned out by the sound of raindrops hitting the wet asphalt. Thaddeus didn’t believe what he was seeing. He was in too much stress to even realize what he thought was apart of his imagination. It was coming toward him but it didn’t phase him one bit. Thaddeus soon slumped down to his knees. It wasn’t I, he thought quietly to himself. The rain showered him like a blanket. Comfort settled in his limbs. As they did, it was interrupted by the loud sounds of a truck horn.
    Jade thought a small fawn was sitting in the middle of the road. She blew the horn even thought it didn’t seem to move an inch. As she grew closer to it, everything seemed to slow down.
    Thaddeus’s heart slowed down when he realized that he wasn’t thinking in his right mind.
    Jade braked
    Thaddeus flinched.
    Blood appeared.
    It was too late when Jade brake.
    It was too late for Thaddeus to move. The impact however had sent him many feet away from the truck.
    Jade got out of her truck, panic settles in her nerved when the thick rain drops and cold air struck her skin. Without even the slightest hesitation to grab her raincoat, she slammed her truck door shut as prayers began to spill out of her throat. Jade examined the front of her vehicle before anything else. Blood smeared the grill of her truck but the rain was attempting to wash it all away. With the headlights as her guide, she turned around and searched for the fawn she had thought she had hit. Her blue eyes surveyed her surroundings until she saw the figure lying many feet away from her track. Jade walked closer to get a better view of the creature that she had hit. When her eyes caught the sight if blood on a muddy t-shirt and stretched out arms, every molecule, in her body caught fire and made her slide to her knees. Why god, she cried in her thoughts as she reached for her, why me lord. All she knew now was that her victim needed help. From all the blood that his damp shirt was soaking up, he needed all the help he could get.
    Thaddeus was loosing consciousness, waves of excruciating pain drowned out every remaining sense in his body, even his vision. Everything went blurry, visions of white, grey and then nothing but extreme darkness. The slow but soft beating of his panicking heart comforted him. His breathing slowed to a minimum until he felt as though he were drowning. Thaddeus could feel his entire body screaming. There was no was this would happen but it was.
    Ambulances, police squad cars, and fire trucks arrived thirty minuets on the spot. At that time, Thaddeus had developed severe breathing complications. Jade stood by being questioned about the accident but her answers really made no sense at all. She was only concerned about the man she had hit. The paramedics were doing their best to ease Thaddeus’s breathing. His blood loss was critical. There was no way he was going to make it. After a moment, Jade saw the paramedics checking the man’s neck for a pulse. What have I done, she thought. Hot tears burned the sound of her face when she witnessed the team about to shock his heart.
    “I’ve got a pulse!” Someone called it. Thaddeus was unconscious. Barely anything but alive. He was still on the verge of death but after treatment, he’d live.
    “Lady, we need to file a report!” The policeman behind Jade shouted.
    She shook her head. “Not now…” She whispered with her eyes watching the paramedics move into the ambulance. After that, they took him away. Jade scrambled to her roaring vehicle and drove without answering any of the cop’s request. She was headed home. Jade yearned to pray right now and go to bed. She wanted to pretend that none of this had never happened. Though she knew he heart wouldn’t let her. None of the cops knew her name, no one knew who had hit the man. However, they only knew that some reckless driver did it.
    Thaddeus was almost announced dead in the emergency room before his heart began beating again. An hour had passed since the ambulances had delivered him into the care of the doctors at Mercy Memorial. What most of the ER doctors had witnessed when they examined Thaddeus cause them to form doubt about him surviving the surgery. Even though he was already weak and tired before the impact, the impact had done damage beyond damage to his body. Thaddeus was clinging to life in the surgeons talented hands. They were careful not to make his condition even more delicate than it already was. The precautions they took just to make sure nothing happened were highly thought of and carefully followed. It would be all over soon but soon seemed too long. Soon seemed like forever, but forever was soon to be now.
    Jade could barely sleep after she said almost eight prayers and took two cold showers. She tossed and turned, nearly rolling off her bed twice and awakening within short moments of a cold sweat. Guilt pulsed through her nerves when her eyes snapped open. Her bedroom was lit by the moonlight and the pictures of blood on the grill of her truck. Jade sat up and turned on the lamp beside her bed. Her fingers felt around for the small pill bottle that sat on her nightstand. Her eyes remained slightly closed. She wanted to sleep, just to drift away into her dreams. When her hands were finally able to locate the pill bottle, Jade felt her stomach churn completely and squeeze itself all in once. She got out of bed and threw herself into the bathroom and over the toilet. Why is this happening, she thought as she wiped her mouth clean of spew and slid onto the cool, tile floor. She needed to see him. Her conscience would kill her if she didn’t receive her innocents. Jade got up from her bathroom floor, flushed the toilet, and went back into her room. She retrieved her bottle of pills off of the floor and took two of them. Her mind seemed drunk when she turned off her lamp and scurried under her sheets. A few minuets floated by and she was soon fast asleep.
    The morning was quiet at Mercy Memorial as nurses buzzed in and out of Thaddeus’s room. He was in a deep sleep. The surgery had left him fragile and unable to breathe normally. The medications that were flowing through his veins were in perfect affect. The surgeons however, were relieved that their patient was able to survive the operation. Though, his blood pressure remained at stake.
    On the other hand, the morning wasn’t quite a dream for Jade as she drove. She was still a bit tired a bit tired, allowing, her music to calm her down and wake her up. She was headed to Mercy Memorial. Her conscience was still screaming at her and she knew that the whole incident would probably be mentioned somewhere in the newspaper. Jade knew she wouldn’t be going to work today. It was too much. Even if she hadn’t given her name to the policemen last night, they were bond to make up some story for the press. She wasn’t in the mood to defend herself against anything her colleagues would throw at her. Though, she wasn’t innocent yet. Jade didn’t know if the man she had hit last night had lived or died from loosing too much blood and maybe worse. Tears began streaming down her face as snow began to fall out of the sky. What have I done, she begged herself to answer when she came to a stoplight and slammed on brakes.
    When Jade made it to Mercy Memorial, her cell phone went off before she could even step foot out of her vehicle. It was her boss calling when she looked at the caller ID on the phone. He was the last person whom she wanted to talk to. Throwing her phone in the back seat, she slipped on her coat and got out of the truck. The snow fell like diamonds from the sky as Jade walked toward the entrance of the of the hospital. There was no one else in the parking lot of mercy memorial. It seemed as though whoever went in never came back out. Jade neared the entrance. Her hearts skipped a few beats before the doors slid open. Her feet carried her inside. She couldn’t overcome anything right now because her fear and guilt ruled her thoroughly. Jade strolled up to the front desk where a red head woman sat busily on the computer. She wiped the left over tears from her cheek, thanking go she didn’t put on mascara when she got dressed, and approached the woman.
    “Yes, may I help you?” The woman looked at jade with a snobby look in her eyes.
    Someone is having a bad morning, Jade thought when she opened her mouth to speak. “I’m looking for a trauma patient who was admitted-”
    “Oh, you mean our John Doe, Room 315 ICU.”
    “Thank you.”
    Oh god! Jade walked into the nearest elevator and made sure she was alone when she got on. She screamed at the top of her lungs and banged her head on the on the elevator door. What have I done, she panicked, I put an innocent man in intensive care. Her hands swept across her face so that she wouldn’t start crying again. She could feel her cheeks going red hot as the elevator began to move. When the doors of the elevator finally slid open, Jade rushed out and began looking for room three-fifteen. Nurses and doctors roamed the busy ICU with patients and visitors. Sickness rolled over Jade when she came to room three-fifteen at the end of the hall. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek when her hands touched the door handle. Carefully, she turned it and opened the door, every ounce of her body wanted to spill to the floor. Jade pushed the door open and went inside.
    Thaddeus was asleep in bed with his curly black hair sitting on his shoulders damp with sweat. His chiseled face was plastered with bandages and patches. A thick layer of bandages covered most of his body and a cask surrounded his left hand. Thaddeus breathed heavily from an oxygen mask but only the paleness of his skin concluded how severe his blood loss was, which was critical thanks to the emergency surgery.
    Looking right at him, Jade strolled over to him, feeling relieved that she had not managed to kill him, but place him in critical condition. She took hold of his bandaged left hand and carefully felt his cold, clammy fingers. There was no doubt that his hand was broken because his fingers didn’t respond to her gentle touch. Jade traced the outline of his cask before she realized that what she had done was worth than death itself. Instead of being dead, the man was alive and suffering which of all things was way worse than being deceased.
    He opened his emerald, green eyes. Where am I, Thaddeus pondered as his eyes became fully adjusted to the bright light of his hospital room. He looked around until his eyes met Jade’s which nearly made him freak out. Though, he remained calm. He knew that if he were any danger, it would be best no to toy with it in his situation.
    Jade took noticed of his opened eyes. The green emerald stone in his eyes looked directly at her but his stare was calm as if the sedatives were in complete control of his body. “I’m so sorry-I should’ve been more careful.” Jade said to him softly. Her voice was filled with pain for him and herself for she was still feeling sick. Thaddeus didn’t understand what she was talking about but her was comforted when Jade swept one of the damp curls out of his face. “Can you tell me your name?” Jade looked into his eyes, feeling as though she were about to loose it. Someone then entered the room. She turned her attention away from Thaddeus and toward the person who was coming inside the room. A tall, blonde doctor came into the room holding a small stack of folders. He looked at Jade as soon as he came into view.
    “Morning, I’m Dr. Silas!” He beamed softly.
    “I’m Jade Daniels,” she tried to smile at him but she knew the expression on her face was weak. “How is he doing?” she asked softly.
    “Well, Thaddeus not too long ago came out of surgery. He’s weak, his breathing is very shallow, and he has the worse internal injuries I’ve ever seen in all my days of being a doctor.”
    “His name is Thaddeus?”
    “Yes, I found his ID when we got him out of his bloody clothing. His thigh was injured though, so when the team and I were finally able to remove his jeans, I was able to make out the name on the ID in his wallet. His name is Thaddeus Angelo. I know it’s Italian so I’m guessing that he has a little Italian blood.”
    “His name does sound Italian.”
    “Exactly. Alright Thaddeus, I understand that you are very weak right now but I need to check out your breathing.” Dr. Silas smiled at Thaddeus as he slipped a huge hand behind his back.
    Thaddeus flinched. My wings, he screamed in his head. He knew that Dr. Silas couldn’t see his wings at all but someone needed to. Thaddeus looked down and took hold of Jade’s fingers, stroking them weakly until he figured that she would soon notice.
    “Thaddeus…” She whispered when she saw her emerald eyes close. She looked at Dr. Silas who had pulled him up and into a sitting position. Jade peered behind his back when Dr. Silas pressed the chest piece of his stethoscope against his bandaged back. She gasped.
    “Jade?” Dr. Silas didn’t look away from his patient when he spoke. “Is there something wrong?”
    “I’m…um…um...” Jade couldn’t respond. Her heart felt like mush as she kept starring at Thaddeus’s back. His small, battered, white wings twitched horribly as if that were the only part of his body having a seizure. She couldn’t stop starring at them. Her eyes had never witnessed something so beautiful, but they were so frail.
    “He’s still having trouble breathing, and his pressure just dropped.”
    Jade snapped back into reality and gazed at Dr. Silas who laid Thaddeus back against the barrier of pillows behind him.
    “Is that a good thing?” She asked with a feeling of stupidity clouding her words.
    “No, not really. I have to start him on another blood transfusion. His heart rate is still under the marking point and he’s asleep.” He sighed and pulled the sheets down slightly off to his torso. There was a large streak of freshly stained blood on his bandages”
    “Oh my god what have I done!” Jade jumped when she saw the blood.
    Dr. Silas looked at her, his eyes showed so much confusion but his face held a laughing expression. “It’s okay-”
    Jade cut in. “No it’s not, it’s all my fault!”
    “It is not your fault, his wounds are trying to heal completely. I just need to change his-”
    She shook her head knowing that the doctor did not understand what she was going on about. This was going to be hard for her to explain to him at all cost. “ I’m the one who did this to him! It was an accident!”
    Dr. Silas looked at Jade. His facial expression was neutral. Even though he was in shock, he understood that Jade was battling guilt with only a sharpened pencil and a fork. “I don’t know what to say…” He walked away from Thaddeus’s side and went over to one of the cabinets near the door.
    “I didn’t mean to, I didn’t even see him!”
    “Just calm down.” He walked back over to her holding a roll of fresh bandages, a large pack of gauze, and a pair of surgical steel scissors. He handed the roll of bandages to Jade and began to cut through the blood soaked bandages on Thaddeus’s chest. “Now, just tell me what happened.”
    Taking a deep breath, she didn’t open her mouth. There was too much guilt in the air and just smelling it was made her want to jump out of the window. She looked at Dr. Silas and shook her head. He nodded slowly and worked on Thaddeus. Jade’s eyes widened when she saw a small droplet of blood rolling off of his bare chest from a wound that spread from his right arm to his left side. After seeing the blood, she told him everything.
    Almost thirty minuets passed before Jade had finally finished telling her story. She was in tears, her cheeks were flushed with redness and her thick brown hair was freeing itself from the rubber band in her hair. Dr. Silas handed her some Kleenex when he finished fastening the freshly changed bandages around Thaddeus from behind.
    “Well,” He stated calmly when he turned his attention away from his sleeping patient and gazed at Jade. “Did you at least manage to tell someone else this besides me?”
    Shedding more tears, she shook her head. “It’s the first…I didn’t talk to anyone after it happened. I was so scared that all I could do was go home and crawl into bed.”
    “After something like that, did you at least get any sleep?”
    Jade murmured. “Nothing like puking your brains out and swallowing sleeping pills gets the job done any better. What am I going to do?”
    Dr. Silas reached out toward Jade and patted her tense shoulder. He really didn’t know what to say, how to answer her question so directly but he knew that the first thing that came to mind would probably work. “Listen, just keep it to yourself. This is something you’ve got to think about for yourself and it something you may not forget. I have to attend to some other patients so, if you’ll excuse me I’ll be right back.”
    She watched as he left the room in a hurry. Turning her attention on Thaddeus who opened his eyes, she shed a couple more tears before she could finally stop them from falling. From her observation, she could tell that from the rise and fall of his chest, he was very weak. He was breathing the best way he could, slowly but surely. Jade strolled over to him and peered directly into his emerald eyes. She had to apologize. Her guilt was tearing her apart, molecule by molecule.
    “Thaddeus,” she sounded off, hearing a continuous drum roll in her thoughts. “I’m so sorry. I wish I wasn’t so foolish. I’m usually a careful driver but…it’s just that all the stress and…and…I’m sorry!” Jade burst into tears when she leaned over the bed railing.
    Thaddeus had tears streaming down his face. He moved his limp and broken hand toward Jade’s head and stroked her hair gently which somehow had managed to escape from the rubber band holding it.
    Jade wiped her tears and looked up.
    “Don’t…cry…” He whispered.
    She heard his voice. It sounded like a weak thunder clasp in the heavens above that echoed throughout the earth after the rain stopped. She looked at Thaddeus who gave her a weak smile.
    “I’m just so sorry for doing this to you!”
    “Stop…you apologize too much…”
    “You just don’t understand how bad I feel for what I did. I’ve never meant to harm anyone. It’s just that this has never happened before. Just seeing you in the condition that you’re in makes me want to kill myself for my selfish behavior. Thaddeus, I wish I would go back in time and change everything. If only there was a way.”
    Thaddeus didn’t say anymore. His breathing was too shallow and his body wouldn’t allow him the strength to talk. He didn’t close his eyes, but he could feel beads of sweat rolling down his face. I was innocent, Thaddeus thought calmly to himself, I’m dying for nothing.
    The afternoon air was more cold and bitter that the morning air that swept the City. Jade left the hospital a quarter before one with Thaddeus’s voice rumbling in and out of her thoughts. She could still feel her fingers tracing around his bandaged torso. I hit a man but he’s alive, Jade chanted throughout her mind but there was no happiness at all, only assurance that the man she had put in the hospital was alive and trying to recover. Jade pondered about how she would sleep tonight. Without the puking and the sleeping pills, she’d sleep alright tonight. However, she wasn’t so sure about going to work tomorrow.
    There was panic in the air. Thaddeus awoke in the worst of his pain that night with a slight cold sweat pouring down his face. A heavy fever hung over his body as Thaddeus watched Dr. Silas study the monitor above his head. His heart was racing, the beating made his entire chest throb with pain.
    “Alright Thaddeus, your blood pressure just dropped completely and I have to begin another transfusion. Can you hang in there for just a moment.?”
    Thaddeus nodded his head. A slight moan escaped from his throat when he took another deep and agonizing breath. . His broken rib cage felt as though the bones were rubbing against his lungs and heart. Another cry of intense pain escaped his lips with a soft roar of insecure thoughts of immediate suicide.
    One of the nurses standing by took heed to Thaddeus and stepped to his side. She looked into his eyes seeing the beautiful emerald had become a dark forest green that was wild and untamed.
    “Dr. Silas?” she looked at him who looked back at her.
    “Yes Hilda?”
    “You need to administer the anesthesia.”
    “It’s not surgery.”
    “He needs surgery!”
    Dr. Silas took hold of the clasps on Thaddeus’s bandages and unraveled them. He slipped his fingers across his bruised torso and felt the outline of broken ribs. Dr. Silas looked back at the nurse and nodded his head.
    “He needs an emergency reconstruction on his rib cage. Alert the attending surgeons, get a chest x-ray, and call an anesthesiologist.”
    “And his pain?”
    “We can’t do anything about that right now.”
    Thaddeus passed out and fell deeply into his unconscious dreams. He was shaking and tensing up. He wouldn’t be able to take it much longer, but after the surgery he’d be okay.
    An hour passed before Thaddeus regained consciousness. Dr. McCullough, the anesthesiologist stood next to him in the operating room ready to administer the anesthesia. Dr. Silas stood by prepping himself and the other attending surgeons. When he was done, he entered the operating room, and walked over to his sleeping patient.
    “Alfred, can you go ahead and administer the anesthesia?” Dr. Silas asked as he slipped the oxygen mask off of Thaddeus’s face. He began to wheeze until Dr. McCullough placed another mask over his face.
    So heavenly, Thaddeus thought when he inhaled the thick but relaxing oxygen.
    “Thaddeus, inhale as much as you possibly can. I want you to start counting backwards from any number and relax.”
    Dr. McCullough received a slight nod from Thaddeus as the pale, emerald eyes of Dr. Silas’s patient faded into the midst of unconsciousness.
    “The team is ready,” Dr. Silas announced when Dr. McCullough removed the mask from Thaddeus’s dry lips. “Can we begin?”
    He shook his head as he intubated Thaddeus, being very careful of the delicate and tender flesh on his neck. “Wait until I give the signal that he’s completely under. He may not respond as…” He stopped short of his words as the monitors indicated the change of his slow and steady pulse. He was fully under the affect of the anesthesia.
    “Now, we may begin.” Dr. Silas murmured.
    Then the surgeons stepped in and got to work. It was going to be a long night.
    Jade couldn’t sleep. It was a miracle she hadn’t puked but she favored to swallow all of her sleeping pills and fall into a never ending sleep. She remained starring up at the ceiling of her room, thinking about Thaddeus. There was no more guilt haunting her conscience but now her body refused the nourishment of sleep. Jade knew she was going to be late for work tomorrow morning if she couldn’t get out of her bed. Rolling over, she popped three sleeping pills, threw the bottle on the floor and drifted off to sleep. Maybe her body wasn’t going to let her sleep but her unconscious mind would.
    It was four in the morning when the surgery was finally over. Dr. Silas and one of the attending surgeons were moving Thaddeus to his room in the ICU. His entire rib cage had screws and plates keeping his bone structure in place while the bones healed completely. The anesthesia was still in affect and wouldn’t were off for another five hours. Until noon came, he’d be asleep under heavy immune suppressants and pain medication. Dr. Silas remained in relief that Thaddeus did not crash on the operating table. He knew that just from the second surgery, he would require blood transfusions throughout the week. Though something wasn’t right. Thaddeus was running a fever. A fever that would take a while to break away from.
    Jade was late for work, or so she thought after remembering that she called her boss earlier to explain her tardiness. She was going to see Thaddeus, knowing that she had to miss breakfast just to be on time for early visiting hours. Her heart seemed to pace back and forth in her chest as she drove, everything felt as though time were against her. Jade didn’t want any speeding tickets before work like last month. Her boss, Mr. Montello had penalized her for being entirely late because of being pulled over by some motorcycle cop. Not today, Jade boasted in her thoughts when she made a turn down 36 Willabee’ Ave. A sudden rush of hunger chilled over her and at the moment, she slammed on her breaks when her eyes caught sight of the red light. Gees, she though when she reached for her coffee. Her mind fluttered onto a picture of Thaddeus’s small, battered, and bruised wings. They had looked as if they were about to fall off.
    Someone behind her blew the horn.
    Jade dragged herself back into reality and stepped on the gas pedal when she saw the green light. At the rate of which her morning was going, she needed to rush to go to work and see Thaddeus in the noon after her shift. She wasn’t about to risk another expulsion from work because of her tardiness. After missing work yesterday, her boss wasn’t going to let everything pass, not even if someone’s life was at stake. Instead of turning near the hospital parking lot, she turned on exit thirty-one and went off to work, regretting he action immediately. Murder was something Jade theorized in her head while she turned up her music to full blast. Though causing pain and suffering would in fact be anything beyond the ideal of murder.
    Fear. Dr. Silas noticed the tensed contraction of Thaddeus’s well toned biceps when his emerald eyes opened with a dazed expression and fear. His body shook from the tender touch of Dr. Silas when he laid a hand upon his neck feeling for a pulse. He looked at the assisting nurse who prepared a syringe full of antibiotics and a steroid composition.
    “Champ, how are you holding out?” Dr. Silas asked with his hand scribbling down notes on his clipboard.
    Thaddeus couldn’t say anything because of the breathing rube protruding from his throat. His body was also restraining him from talking. All he could do was moan slightly and hope that his attending doctor understood. I’m so miserable, he thought even though his words didn’t sound right at all.
    “I understand your fear has gotten worse, but it’s only being induced by the immune suppressants I have you on.”
    And this heat, Thaddeus nodded his head slightly when he saw the nurse hand Dr. Silas the syringe full of the pinkish fluid.
    “This should make you feel stronger. Maybe strong enough for you to even get your appetite back so you can eat something.” the nurse assured.
    He nodded but his body became tense when his heart came to a tempo of beating that he couldn’t quite adjust to.
    “Your heartbeat just tripled. That’s a load off my mind. Do you feel any bones or something brushing against your lungs?”
    Thaddeus shook his head. He hadn’t really noticed that the intense pain that was making him suicidal wasn’t bothering him anymore. His chest didn’t feel as though it were on fire. All he could remember was the oxygen that had made him go into that deep and heavenly sleep that would comfort him forever.
    “You need not forget, Dr. Silas,” the nurse spoke up. She began to dry the dense beads of sweat on Thaddeus’s brow with a cold, damp cloth. “The anesthesia hasn’t worn off completely. We won’t know for sure until it’s neutralized completely in his system.”
    Dr. Silas looked at the nurse and nodded. “You’re right.” he spoke gently with a smile on his face.
    “You also need to removed the breathing tube doctor.”
    There was silence when Dr. Silas remembered the removal of all breathing tubes after the patient woke up from surgery. “I don’t think he’s ready, the anesthesia is still heavy on him. His lungs might collapsed if he’s not getting enough air!”
    “Calm down.”
    Thaddeus saw how his doctor was handling the situation but he knew how he felt. He had many of these experiences when his power was the most of him.
    “Calm down doctor, it isn’t like his body has enough sedatives to bring down a rhino. He has a few more hours to go before the effect wore off. Remove the breathing tube from this patient now and provide him with an oxygen mask to breathe.
    “What about his adrenaline?”
    “You’re a doctor for god’s sake, I’ll be right here the entire time!”
    “Right.”
    Dr. Silas turned, facing Thaddeus who wasn’t even paying attention anymore. He slipped his hands into blue latex gloves and took hold of the breathing tube protruding from Thaddeus’s mouth.
    Thaddeus looked up.
    “This may hurt slightly champ, I’m going to need you to cough as soon as the tube is absent from your throat.”
    He nodded his hear as Dr. Silas pulled gently at the breathing tube. It came loose and slid from his throat. He didn’t cough, but gasped slightly as he tried to breathe. The nurse slipped her hand under Thaddeus’s neck and propped and oxygen mask on his face.
    “Breathe easy champ.” she said softly. Dr. Silas’s pager went off. The nurse looked at him and he looked at the nurse. They both then departed from Thaddeus’s side.
    Thaddeus on the other hand didn’t take notice of their actions but instead, he focused on the slight tingling in his lower neck. He shifted his weight slightly and closed his eyes.
    I wouldn’t do that if I were you.
    His eyes snapped open as the voice in his head sent his entire conscious mind into a raving ball of fear. His heart raced slightly. Pain ran up and down his side. What’s happening, he thought even his own voice within his head was frightened but someone soon appeared before him.
    A white mist of extreme sunlight shined brightly in the room, brighter than anything he had seen before. After a moment, an angel appeared. A female angel who was dressed in all white clothing appeared before him. Her golden locks of curly blonde hair sat on her shoulders blowing gently in the wind that carried her. Her wings were of golden feathers and silver strands of ageing ribbons. The blazing gold in her eyes shimmered as she caught sight of the stone emerald that looked back at her. She smiled but then frowned deeply, remorsefully.