The Silent witness

Current Day

The first thing I hear is the steady beep of machines, followed by the antiseptic smell of hospitals. I turn to my left letting out a groan. My fingertips brush something cold and I look down, finding a remote connected to a beige wire with a blue call button. I press the button and a nurse walks in, she sees me and immediately calls out to another nurse to page the doctor, while stepping up to my bed and pulling out my chart. I try to speak but all that comes out is a low rasp. " Don't try to talk honey, let me get you some water," she reaches over to a table by my bed and grabs a pitcher of tepid water, pouring it into a glass. "Your mom was here this morning, she had to leave for work, poor thing spends all her time here." 

Just then a doctor walks into the room, he looks about mid twenties and has thick brown hair. He takes my chart from the nurses outstretched hand, muttering "okay, let's see," he scans the chart and looks up at her. " okay I'm going to ask you a few questions and I need you to nod your head yes or no, can you do that?" I nod yes. "okay, do you know your name?" I nod yes. "Great," he gestures to the nurse and she sets a notepad and paper down in my lap, " I need you to try to write down your answers." I nod again. " what year is it?" I pick up the pencil and shakily write 2007, before turning it around and showing him. He makes  a humming sound in his throat, "Okay now your name." I write Thea and turn it around again. "Okay Thea you're doing great, I'm going to run a few tests and I'll be back to talk to you when your mother gets here, okay?" I nod and he leaves the room, the nurse following behind him. 

My eyes sweep around the room, taking in all the machines I'm attached to as I try to think of  the last thing I remember happening. I remember it the day I was taking the train from my apartment in D.C. to Philadelphia, my boss at the legal firm had scheduled a meeting for the next day at our branch in Philadelphia so I was going to stay in a hotel that night and travel back the next day after the meeting. 

I remember sitting down in one of three empty seats and putting my air pods in to listen to music. I had just closed my eyes when I felt a tap at my shoulder, I looked up and a man was standing in front of me dressed in a suit, a long black coat, and a pinstripe hat, holding a box. I saw his lips start to move and pulled out an air pod. " sorry, what?" He shifted and said, " I asked if this seat was taken" in a deep slightly accented voice. I moved my bag from it and gestured for him to take a seat with one hand while putting my air pod back in with the other. 

The man doesn't move for the first hour or so of the train ride, he just sits there, staring out the window, I never got a good look at his face but I distinctly remember his smell, he smelled like smoke and almonds. When the conductor announces that we're 15 minutes from our stop, the man stands and walks into the next train car, shutting the door behind him. That's when I notice the package, its small, a parcel wrapped in paper, tied up in a neat bow. I remember trying to ignore it, distracting myself with my phone before curiosity won and I scanned the room to make sure no one was watching before I untied the ribbon and pulled the small box out of the paper, and lifting the lid. I remember waking up again and seeing the wreckage, and the bodies. Then I remember him, unharmed, disappearing around a corner, out of sight when the paramedics and police arrived. I remember vomiting blood, and passing out. I don't remember anything after that, getting to the hospital, not being treated, or hooked up to these machines. 

All I can think about is that man, who was he? Why did he leave? What was in that box? what happened between me opening that box and me waking up to the train in ruins? These questions play on a loop in my head until my thoughts are interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps and a sharp gasp followed by a sob. I turn to see my mother, with tears streaming down her face, her hands covering her mouth, followed by the doctor from earlier and a nurse I don't recognize. Just then my eyes roll into the back of my head and my body starts to convulse.