Arturo

were one and the same. One blended into the other, each equally painful. Except for the drugs. They had me on some good drugs. And the noises. They were bad. Incessant beeping marking out the next painful second I lived through. Every second. Every beat of my fucking heart. Beep. Beep.

Sometimes, when people came into the room, they would talk. Hushed voices like I couldn't hear. A coma, they would say. Three weeks, they would say. Hopeless, they would say. I didn't like any of those words. Or the way they mixed together inside my head and wouldn't sit straight. I hadn't decided if this was just my own, personal version of hell. If I was dead, this is where I would be.

Couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't even breathe on my own.

Then one day somebody else came into the room. Someone who wasn't supposed to be there. I felt it in the air, an atmosphere change. When suddenly the beeps seemed more oppressive.

"Arturo," a voice said, and I knew it. Red spilled into my mind like paint. The beeps got faster. "This isn't over, Arturo."

They were stood to the left of my useless body. I wanted to look, but I couldn't. I wanted to speak, but according to my own damn brain I had no mouth. I wanted to cause pain a million times worse than the pain that throbbed through me. It was all I felt.

"They said you might be a vegetable." A noise. The person sat. "Brain dead, or damaged, anyway."

I can hear you, I wanted to say. I can fucking hear you. The beeps spoke for me instead. Beep. Beep.

"I don't believe that." A pause. A heavy sigh. "Of course, I could just kill you now–"

please

"–I could just pull these wires out of here and poof, like you never existed. But I'm not going to do that, Arturo."

Beep.Beep.Beep

"No, do you know why?"

Beep.Beep.Beep

"Because this isn't over. I will have my empire, and you will help me get it. When you get out of here - if you get out of here, and you're still all there, you are going to do something for me. You are going to bring somebody to me."

The door opened. I heard its dull swoosh and slow swinging. A female voice, calming. A nurse. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Beep.Beep.Beep

"Do you know who you're going to bring me, Arturo?"

BeepBeepBeep

"Sir, please, I need you to-"

"You're going to bring me Florence. And do you know why you're going to do that? Because she betrayed you, Arturo. She betrayed you and then she left you to die."

beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep

"I need a crash team in this room right now, quickly–"

"We'll be in contact soon."