When critically ill Jacob Wilson is given a life-saving heart transplant, his parents are relieved that their loving son has been saved.
However, before long, his family are forced to accept that something has changed in Jacob. Their once loving son is slowly being replaced by a violent man whose mood swings leave them terrified – but is it their fault?
Jacob’s girlfriend, Rosie, is convinced the man she loves is suffering from stress. But when his moods turn on her, she begins to doubt herself – and she can only hide the bruises for so long.
When a terrible crime is committed, Jacob’s family are forced to confront their darkest fears. Has the boy they raised become a monster? Or is someone else to blame?
DARKNESS WITHIN
EXTRACTS
[Extract 14 from
Chapter 7 pp. 36-37]
After the transplant
and following usual practice, Jacob was taken directly to the
intensive care unit where he was kept sedated, connected to a
ventilator to help with his breathing, and given a drip passing
fluids and medication into his arm. As with the other transplant
patients, doctors and nurses monitored him around the clock until he
was stable enough to be removed from the ventilator and brought out
of the drug-induced coma.
As Jacob rose up
through the layers of consciousness, he began swearing and cursing at
the nurses, saying things he wouldn’t have done when fully awake.
He told one nurse to ‘fuck off’ and another that he’d like to
‘give her one’, before trying to grab her breast.
‘That’s not very
nice coming from a vicar’s son,’ she joked, aware it wasn’t the
patient talking but the cocktail of drugs – particularly potent
after a transplant.
As soon as he was fully
conscious Jacob returned to his normal self and, still slightly
confused, asked politely, ‘Where am I?’
‘You’re in
hospital, Jacob,’ the nurse said. ‘You’ve had your transplant
and everything is fine. We’re moving you to a different ward soon
and your family will be in to see you again later.’
Relieved, he thanked
the nurse and then fell into a more natural sleep. The next time he
woke, his parents and Eloise were at his bedside, his mother, holding
one hand and Eloise the other, while his father stood at the foot of
his bed, smiling. The glow from the ceiling light caught his hair,
circling his head like a halo, and just for a moment Jacob thought
he’d died and was in heaven. After a few seconds, reality hit him,
and he remembered what had happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment