The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 262

Tick, tock.

The clock on the wall steadily counted away the seconds.

After what felt like an eternity, the man in the hospital bed slowly opened his eyes.

A white ceiling greeted him, the harsh fluorescent tubes casting an even, clinical glow. The air reeked of antiseptic and the lingering metallic tang of coagulants. It was a scent Garrison knew intimately. An operating room.

He tested his fingers, then his neck. Slowly turning his head, he spotted a window.

The endless darkness outside was gone, replaced by a bleak, cloudless gray sky. In the distance, the faint silhouette of a snow-capped mountain range stretched across the horizon.

The Polar Night was over.

He vaguely remembered a flash of golden light and the shattered stars on the ice. Then, an invisible hand violently crushed his memory.

Sloane.

He bolted upright. The sudden movement sent a tearing agony through his abdomen, but he only let out a muffled groan. A layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead, yet he refused to lie back down.

“You're awake.”

A voice drifted from the side of the bed. It was calm and unhurried, possessing the grounded steadiness of someone who had weathered countless storms. Garrison turned his head and saw a woman.

She sat in a chair, cradling a steaming mug of tea. She was in her fifties, her temples dusted with white. It wasn't just a few strands, but a solid patch of gray, like the first frost of a winter morning clinging to dark soil.

Garrison felt a vague sense of familiarity, but he couldn't quite place her.

“Don't you remember? I'm the head of Endurance Station, Vivienne Hayes.”

Vivienne Hayes?

The memory clicked into place. When they had first arrived at the station, Vivienne had been the one to welcome them. Back then, he had been entirely focused on saving Sloane and hadn't paid the station manager much attention.

“Manager Hayes,” Garrison greeted politely.

Vivienne nodded. “It's good to see you awake, Dr. Foster. How are you feeling? Does the wound still hurt?”

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