Cara shuddered in the dark. The icy chill was finally upon her. Fearfully, she lifted her hands from their folded position on her stomach. She stretched her harms down by her sides, palms up. She shivered harshly once again. Cara could feel her lips turning blue as her fingers turned to ice. Still, the coldness continued to envelop her in a frosty cocoon.
Unable to move under the grasp of this intense chill, Cara shifted her eyes around the room, trying to view everything she could, but all she saw was the darkness of night closing in on her pupils. Horrified, Cara tried to squirm, but her movement was now limited to her eyeballs. Her eyes remained wide open with sheer terror as her heartbeat began to quicken.
Soon, it was much to fast for Cara to handle. The sound of her heart pumping boomed like thunder in her ears, throbbed in her toes and arms, and pounded in her stomach. Cara tried to scream for a nurse, even the old woman in the bed next door, anybody. No sound came from her mouth, for it was frozen shut. Now Cara did nothing but shiver. To an onlooker she would have appeared to be seizing. Cara's eyes rolled back in her head.
As suddenly of midnight came, Cara's shivers subsided. The night proceeded as any normal night would. In the morning, the day nurses switched out with those who served in the dark hours. Cara's nurse, Lucy, was rather anxious to check on the girl, for the nurse knew her open-heart surgery took place today.
The poor girl, Lucy thought, thinking it sad that a fifteen-year-old girl needed surgery on one of the most vital organs in the body. However, Lucy had done her best to make Cara's weeks in the hospital as comfortable as possible. Lucy turned the corner and walked into Cara's room, noting that the old woman who shared the small space was still asleep.
"Today's the big day, Cara," Lucy said as she walked to the girl's bed. She spoke softly so as not to wake the old woman, but her attempt was in vain as the next thing to leap from her mouth was a terrible blood-curdling scream.
Two other nurses and a doctor ran to where the shrill cry had taken place.
"Nurse Carson, what's the matter?" the doctor asked Lucy. The poor nurse quickly turned to hide her tear-stained face in the doctor's coat as she sobbed. The doctor stepped forward curiously to take a look at the patient that had given Lucy such a reaction.
Beyond the curtain, Cara's body lay. Ice cold and eyes wide open.