248 Days

Prologue

Physically, I had survived the fire of my childhood home. Other than the bump on my head, I wasn't harmed. To passer-buyers I was healed; they couldn't see the mess inside my head. They couldn't see the shattering mess resulting the loss of my memories, and the loss of myself. 14 years of my life swept away by one blow to the head.

     I had no past. I had nothing to form an understanding of myself. It was just my parents and me. Where were the people that had once influenced me? The people who shaped me into the person I couldn't remember to be. Alexa Collins was a stranger. I didn't know myself. How could I when everything I knew of myself came from someone else's lips.

     As I neared the end of high school, soon to face the adult world, how could I know what I wanted to do? Know who I wanted to be moving forward when my past was stolen? I had no memories of passions, or interests and dislikes. I was just Alexa Collins in the words of my parents: an obedient and polite child. But I knew there was more. I was not the Alexa Collins they described. The girl they used to know was no longer. Along with the ashes of my old home, were the ashes of me. Alexa Collins faded along with my lost memories. There was someone, the real me, deep within, waiting to be discovered. The innocent child ready to face the world, eager to try new things and meet new people; the child who sought to discover what made her shine, was waiting to escape.

     As much as the lost memories seemed hopeless. As much as I wished to move on from my past, I couldn't help but feel that something was missing. That the return of one simple memory, not even all of them, just one would solve all my problems. Because I knew from the colossal hole in my heart that something or someone was missing. And my life could never be whole without them.