You Only Live Twice

I

Olivia woke up hazy and confused, the last thing she remembered was a burning sensation in her lungs.

'Water. I fell in the lake.'

She was pretty sure she drowned so that only confused her more. Where was she? Why was she here? Who brought her here? Did someone see her fall and call an ambulance? She had a million questions running through her head when she heard a door close, she turned her head towards the sound but something was strange. Everything is larger then her?

Or is she just small? Why? What in the world was going on? Was she going mental?

———

After much thought and persuasion, she had concluded that she is indeed, crazy. Like out of her mind. Alice in Wonderland kind of insane. She must have brain damage or something right? Yeah, that was it, they say you staying underwater for 4 to 6 minutes causes brain damage right? Yeah, that must be it! She was probably underwater for too long and oxygen couldn't get to some of her brain cells and they died off, yes, yes this is all just an illusion!

Just her brain making things up!

But...that lady who came into her room to feed her milk and change her clothes (which she will never admit to, the embarrassment she went through is immeasurable) felt awfully real. And she was calling her by her name but she kept putting honorifics in front as would the other women who came to take care of her.

This made no sense, even if her brain was playing tricks on her she would at least have faith in her brain to be more logical, she'd always been a smart — not genius — but a smart girl, and she'd taken pride in that.
So even if she was losing her mind or has permanent brain damage (which is somehow less scary than whatever is going on right now) she doesn't think in a million years her brain would make her believe she's some princess in a-a—

Fairy tale!

Even as a child Olivia always knew the fine line between fantasy and reality. Sure she played with dolls and dreamed of being a princess, but that was it they were just dreams. Movies you see on TV or books you find in the fantasy aisle, and she grew out of that phase pretty quickly. After she started school she became more interested in numbers and textbooks, she always looked for the practical point of everything that was why she hated that book-that-shall-not-be-named because nothing made sense.

(And it was just horribly written, if Olivia was given the chance she could rewrite that book 1000 times better— Ok, she was getting off track.)

Just like this situation, it doesn't make sense why her brain made-up women and men dressed up in servant costumes you'd see in a movie set in the medieval times, or why they'd call her Lady Olivia or Princess, or why her brain made her hospital room into a nursery and her body into a baby.

This is too much... 'I need a nap,' she thought, 'Then I'll rethink this and find the reasonable solution to it.'  There has to be a solution, everything makes sense it's common knowledge.

She yawned and stretched her short arms before drifting off to sleep.

－－－

It's been about (what's felt like) a year since she woke up in this comatose dream, but the thing is she's not so convinced it's a dream anymore. First off—obviously—it's been a year, second, everything is just too real and too similar to that book as much as she hates to admit it because never in two lifetimes would she believe in reincarnation. She's heard about it before, some religious belief she thinks, but she's not religious, she believes in science, solid evidence, and as far as she knows being reborn after you die has not been scientifically proven.