#Chapter 204: Waking

Audrey “Darling…” My mother held her arms out to me as I burst into her hospital room. Her skin was so pale it was almost translucent, her cheeks gaunt and her eyes hollow, but… She was alive. And sitting upright in the hospital bed. A sob escaped my throat as I rushed forward, practically throwing myself into her arms. I buried my face in her chest, inhaling her familiar scent beneath the sterile hospital smell. Her arms, though weak, wrapped around me as tightly as she could manage. “Mom,” I choked out, my tears soaking straight through her thin hospital gown. “I thought I had lost you again.” Her hand stroked my hair gently. “Shh, it’s okay,” she murmured, her voice hoarse from nearly two months of disuse and from having a tube down her throat. “I’m here, Audrey. I’m here.” We stayed like that for a long moment, both of us crying softly. When I finally pulled back, wiping my red-rimmed eyes, my mother cupped my face in her thin hands.