Kat can't believe she's back where she started this journey; this simply cannot be true. Why can't she wake up like she's always done when things get this bad?
Wake up, Kat. You need to wake up! Things will be tough when you wake up, but-
"Kat, how do you know this is your childhood hospital?" Rory asks her anxiously, snapping Kat out of her thoughts.
"I've visited here for the first 20 years of my life; they kept me here because I was a more difficult case," she chuckles.
"What do you mean? What was wrong with you?" Debby asks with concern. Kat turns to the group and starts to explain her story.
"I was born at 26 weeks, and therefore ended up needing a tracheostomy tube in order to breathe because I couldn't breathe on my own. I had the tracheostomy for the first 14 years of my life, but had it taken out because I got a lot better. I also developed scar tissue in my stomach after having a feeding tube inserted because I couldn't eat properly as a baby. The scar tissue has caused some issues for my stomach, mainly something called a bowel obstruction, which is basically explained in the name; I'm not the best at being able to explain the stomach stuff, but anyway, this is the fifth time I've got one, and I ended up being sent to the island to have surgery, and, yeah, that's how I got here." She shrugs as if it's nothing, but she's shaking very badly as she speaks, fear wrapping her in a cloud of gloom.
"You're one brave woman, my dear," Rou says, smiling at her in admiration.
"Yeah, Rou's right; you're very inspiring," Debby says, before adding, "So, is that why you broke up with Josh? Because he used to panic about you?"
"Yeah, that's it. Now, how do we get out of here?"
"There's some double doors here," Chris says, going over to the see through double doors that lead to an entrance that leads to another set of see through double doors. The outside looks very grey and cold, and there's a strange mist that settles on the roofs of all the houses and the cars parked outside.
"Let's try the doors," Kat says, shivering a little. "They open automatically, so- oh God, no," she says as she sees a familiar figure walk through the door, the same strange mist surrounding the figure as if they were glowing.
It's 16 year old her, pale as a sheet, clinging onto her mother's arm for dear life, barely able to walk. Suddenly, the hospital becomes alive full of people walking in and out of the hospital, but nobody notices Kat and the others standing there in shock.
"What's happening?" Debby says, starting to look worried. Chris looks shocked at the 16 year old Kat, and Rob has tears in his eyes.
"Who is that poor girl?" He asks. Rou's looking at Kat, the real Kat, with concern.
"Kat, are you ok? What's wrong?" Rory asks Kat gently.
"That girl is me," Kat whispers before fainting in shock.
When she wakes up, she's in a different part of the hospital with her friends; she's on the ward, and a very familiar doctor is making 16 year old Kat sign some papers.
"That's my doctor," Kat explains to the group, "he says I need to have emergency surgery or else I'll get very sick. I should advise you guys to close your eyes for the next part; it's pretty depressing."
She makes sure everyone has shut their eyes before doing the same thing herself, but she can't block out her ears as she hears 16 year old Kat screaming and crying in terror; Kat knows why past her is crying. The consent form that she had had to sign detailed every worst fear of hers. She was-
"How do you this little trip down memory lane, Princess?" A voice asks her. Kat opens her eyes and sees Mitchell standing in front of the double doors that lead to the surgery room. A bed separates them, and Kat can see the younger version of herself asleep.
"Like a lamb to the slaughter," Mitchell murmurs, stoking the younger Kat's arm. She's asleep, and nobody in the anaesthetist room can see them. They wheel past Kat into the operating theatre, leaving Kat and Mitchell alone.
"That's the wrong way of saying that phrase, you know?" Kat says, walking closer to Mitchell. "A lamb to the slaughter doesn't know the danger they're putting themselves in, whilst I knew things could go wrong in that room." Her voice is shaking a little, but she projects it loud and clear.
"You still signed the papers," Mitchell argues back, walking closer to her.
"I could've gotten very sick if I didn't have the operation then."
"It didn't work for long, through, did it?"
"You're right."
"I'm always right, Princess." Mitchell grabs her by her top, and brings her closer to him.
"Where are my friends?"
"Watching your surgery; how romantic for your husband to watch you get cut open."
"That never happened in reality, did it?"
"It could've happened this time."
"It didn't; my husband didn't even come down to the anaesthetist room."
"Obviously he doesn't love you then," Mitchell says, shoving Kat to the floor.
"He does. I didn't allow him to see me in pain."
"Well, that-"
"Oh, why don't you just shut up for one bloody second? You always argue with me. You know what; I'm out." Turning her back on Mitchell, Kat walks out the anaesthetist room, and off to find her friends. However, when she storms past the receptionist desk of the operating theatre, someone grabs her; it's Katherine.
"DAMIAN! I've got her!" Katherine yells. Hearing someone running up to the desk, Kat kicks and screams, loosening Katherine's grip on her, and running for her life.
After running for a short while, Kat ends up in the cafeteria.
"Hello," she whispers, looking around for any sign of her friends. She starts to think that maybe Mitchell was right about her friends being too busy watching past Kat's journey that she's about to go back and restart her journey around the hospital when she hears a cat meowing. An extremely familiar white cat jumps up onto one of the tables, and Kat grins.
"Hello, Freya," she says, running over and scratching Freya behind the ears. Freya licks Kat's wrist and swishes her tail.
"Where's Rou?" Kat asks Freya, who suddenly hisses. Kat freezes as she hears footsteps approaching from behind her.
"Ha! Is THIS your greatest weapon, Princess? Some stupid old cat?"
It's Damian.
Kat turns around, and stares at Damian hard in the eyes. Mitchell, Kerry and Katherine appear on Daimian's left and right hand side.
"Looks like you're out of ideas," Kerry cackles with laughter.
"Not quite yet," Debby says, appearing from behind a table. Josh joins her, and Rou, Rory, Chris and Rob do the same.
"Oh, isn't this a nice little family gathering?" Mitchell says sarcastically.
"You know what Mitchell; bugger off," Kat says.
"Are you going to let her talk to you like that, my love?" Kerry asks Mitchell, disgust evident in her voice.
"Of course not," Mitchell replies smoothly, and the past Kat appears from behind him, staggering along like a zombie.
"Look at you, Princess. I don't see much difference between the two of you," Katherine says triumphantly, earning a laugh from the others. The only people not laughing are Kat's friends. Kat looks at her past self, then she looks at herself, and at her friends.
"You're right; we are the same person," Kat says confidently. "We have the same glasses and the same greasy hair." She chuckles at the joke she's made, although no one else is laughing; they're all watching in anticipation. "But you know what? I'm not ashamed that that girl is me; it shows how bad thing have got. However, my current self shows how good things can get. Every time it's my birthday, it's a new chapter in my life. Some chapters are good, some chapters are bad, and some are good and bad. But you something else? That's life! There's good things and bad things. You guys," she says, pointing to Damian, Mitchell, Katherine and Kerry, "will never bugger off for good, but I don't want you too. You should stick around because you help me make sense of the bad times. But for now, I'd find it extremely helpful if you could go; you're not needed for now."
"You're talking crap, my darling," Mitchell says. "You need us now more than-"
"I don't. I'm going home today. You guys are coming with me," she says, pointing to Mitchell and his gang, "but these guys are coming with me as well," she says, pointing to her friends.
Wake up, Kat.
This time when Kat wakes up, she's lying in a hospital bed, but she's excited. She's going home today. She'll be with her husband and her best friends; she'll be with her family.
When her mother, father, husband, and best friends squeeze into her hospital room, Kat can't help but explain about the world she's created.
"Every time I got given morphine, I'd hallucinate. It was strange; I was on this island, but, I didn't even know you, Rou. And Josh, you visited and when you confessed your love to me, you got jealous and went strange, and-"
"Ok, that's enough," Kat's mother says with a chuckle. "You've obviously made this up. This is one of your made up dreams."
"It's not, I promise," Kat says, although she can see how strange it sounds out loud.
"I believe her," her husband, Rou, says.
"Rou, you're not supposed to believe her."
"Don't worry, Rou," Kat says, just as Rou is about to say something, "I don't quite believe me either."
"Did you say Josh confessed his love for you?" Her father asks sternly, sending a death glare Josh's way.
"I'm not sure; I was on a lot of painkillers, so I might've been seeing and hearing things."
After the doctor has given Kat the all clear, and she's in the car on the way home, Rou smiles at her, and says:
"Tell me all about this island when we get back home."
"Sure," Kat whispers back, squeezing his hand, and moving the towel that's cushioning her healing stomach scar so that it doesn't get irritated by the seatbelt. As she looks out of the window, Kat starts to sing a song absentmindedly to herself.
"A field, desolate, and underfoot, a Tarmac river flows. I wait to depart an inconceivable art, when you're no wings and all elbows."
When she gets out of the car, she still singing it under her breath, focusing on the beauty of the words that her husband had created. A memory comes back of her listening to this exact song many times in the hospital when she couldn't sleep at night.
"You ok?" Her mother asks her, coming into the living room where Kat is sitting on the sofa.
"Hmmm, I'm ok. A little sleepy. I think I'll take a nap."
Kat goes into her room, puts in her earphones, and plays the song she was singing in the car as she drifts off into sleep, hoping to escape into the world she created one last time. She doesn't, but is woken up from a developing nightmare by the springs of the bed creaking as her husband sits on the edge of it. She shuts her eyes tightly, and feels him take her earbuds out of ears, and sing her favourite line of the song she was singing in the car:
"But even if there is no purpose to the things that you have gone through, an ordeal can reveal an airfield."
Maybe this, right here with my loved ones at home, is my airfield, Kat thinks to herself with a smile on her face as she falls into a peaceful sleep.
THE END