Alyssa couldn't afford much, but she loved her little shit-hole apartment. She kept it clean, got along great with her roommate, and was close to everything. As she sat half-naked on her living room floor painting her toenails, she didn't notice the furnace dumping toxic levels of carbon monoxide into her apartment. She had intermittent problems with the furnace since she moved in, but the maintenance guy had always got it running again. Little did she know, the maintenance guy knew that the furnace was on it's last legs, and should've been replaced months ago.
When she finally woke up, she was laying flat on her living room floor, and the boxer shorts that had been on before were now gone, and replaced by a pair of red underwear she had never seen before. Things were foggy, and her head was pounding, and it was hard to get the energy to move. She knew something was wrong but couldn't put her finger on it. She sat down on the couch and put her head in her hands, try to get her bearings back and get on top of the headache.
She felt herself getting weaker and weaker, and the blackness overtook her once again. When she woke up, the headache was gone but was laying flat on the floor again with boxers back on. Things were still quite foggy and couldn't remember for sure if the red underwear thing was a dream or not, and found herself wondering what was going on. She did what she did before, and got up to get on the couch, with that dejavu feeling coming over her. Once again, when she put her head in her hands again, she felt herself starting to black out. She tried to pull herself out of it, to no avail.
She woke up once again to find herself in a dark hospital room. She had a hospital gown on, an oxygen tube in her nose, and an IV in her right hand. She was only awake long enough to realize that something bad had happened in that apartment, and sleep overtook her.
Some time later, she woke once again when the nurse opened the curtains in her room. She tried to sit up and was to weak. She tried to speak, but her mouth was too dry. The nurse saw her struggling and told her that she was going to send the doctor in to tell her what was going on. She quietly closed the door behind and left Alyssa all alone again.
A minute later, a female doctor came in and explained that she had a pretty severe case of carbon monoxide poisoning. She also explained that had my roommate not come home when she did, even a few minutes later, she likely would have been dead. The doctor said they could release her when her oxygen levels stabilized, but it likely wouldn't be until the next day. She left the room telling her that an administrator would be in a little later to get some information. Alyssa was alone again.
She wasn't tired, but sleep overtook her once again, but when she woke up the next time, she was laying in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar body next to her. She was paralyzed with fear and too scared to move a muscle. As she lay there, taking shallow, quiet breaths, the person next to her rolled over and in a gentle, sweet, female voice said "Good morning babes".