Read H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall for Free Online Page B

my head on my knees.  I didn't understand what I'd done to make the universe hate me so, but hate me it did.  I had no idea what to do with my life now.  I couldn't work jewelry, and every other craft requiring fine dexterity would also be unavailable.
    I obviously made people distraught just by my appearance, so anything requiring much human contact wouldn't work well - I'd simply scare or confuse my clientele.  I'd never done heavy manual labor - I was rather thin before my change, so I wasn't familiar with those possibilities - not that I relished the idea of those types of work.
    Office jobs would be out as well.  I wasn't very good with computers in the first place, but add my destructive fingers to the equation and I'd be better in demolitions than anything constructive.
    I sat in that state for an hour or more, bemoaning my bad fortune.
    I heard the garage door open and my husband's car pulled in.  After a moment the inside door opened and I heard his keys jingle.  I jerked me head up and smiled.  Finally!  I get to see my honey and everything can get better!
    I ran into the hallway just as he set his keys in the bowl next to the door.  He barely turned around at the thump of my feet before I grabbed him in a big hug and held him tight.
    An odd crunching and gurgling sound made me step back.  If not for me holding his upper arms I think he would have fallen down.  His face was screwed up in pain.  I realized then that I couldn't even hug people anymore.
    He coughed after a moment and blood came out of his mouth.  He tried to speak, but was only able to gurgle.
    "Honey?  It's me."
    The look of horror on his face as he looked at me shocked me.  He coughed and more blood came out.
    "I ... I changed into one of those supers.  I’m sorry honey!"
    He was having problems breathing, and coughed more blood up.
    "Oh no.  I may have broken something.  We need to get you to the hospital."
    I helped him sit down for a moment, slipped on a pair of tennis shoes (which promptly tore along the sides), grabbed my purse and helped Sam get into the passenger seat of the car.  When I sat down the car tilted to my side.  I drove us to the hospital as quickly as possible.
    He continued coughing on the trip, but even in severe pain he pulled away from me in the other seat.
    I held back from crying for the rest of the drive.  I can't believe you said that.  First that heroine, and now you don't think I look human....
    The rest of the drive went without incident, although the car handled strangely with so much weight on one side.  I pulled up by the emergency entrance, helped him out of the passenger side and called out to hospital personnel standing at the entrance.
    The man said something on a walkie talkie attached to his upper neck and shoulder area, and in a moment a pair of people came out with a stretcher and helped Sam lay down on it.
    The woman asked, "What happened to him?"
    "I think I crushed him.  I hugged him when he got home and heard cracking.  Then he started coughing up blood."
    She nodded, handed me a clipboard with paperwork attached to it and asked that I fill it out, and then she ran off with the other nurse or doctor.
    I looked at the seats for a moment, but then moved off to the side and filled it out while standing.  A lot of people gave me strange looks as they sat in the waiting area.
    After hours of waiting a doctor came out and found me.  He told me that a rib had punctured my husband's lung and that they had to perform surgery.
    He told me that Sam was stable and resting at the moment, although they needed to keep him at the hospital until they were certain he would remain stable and that no other organs were damaged.
    He gave me the room number my husband would soon be in and left.  It was clear that I couldn't do anything for Sam right now, and I doubted that I could even sit in the plastic chairs at the hospital.  I left the building and began walking in a fugue.
    After an hour of