Big Sleep

Chapter 8: Wishing, Waiting

Nelson sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the phone in his hands as though it might suddenly ring, might suddenly give him a sign that she was out there—somewhere. Somewhere beyond the emptiness that had swallowed her up after the accident.

"Where are you now, Amanda?" he muttered, his voice hoarse with emotion. "Now that you’re out of the big sleep?"

His words lingered in the air, but the silence that followed seemed to mock him, reminding him of how long it had been since he had last heard her voice. It had been so long since she had really been her. The Amanda who had laughed, who had loved, who had shared everything with him. The woman he had built a life with, a family with.

But that woman was gone. And now, he was left with fragments of her, glimpses that felt like they belonged to someone else. The person she had become after the accident—the cold, distant woman who had looked at him as if he were a stranger—was nothing like the woman he had known.

And yet, in the quietest moments, when he closed his eyes, Nelson couldn’t shake the thought that she was still there somewhere, waiting to be found.

He had spent countless hours researching, reading about the possibility of soul swapping, of reincarnation. He had come across stories of people who had awakened in new bodies, people who had been reborn into someone else, someone who looked the same but was entirely different.

Could that have happened to Amanda? Could she have been reincarnated, or worse, swapped with someone else? Someone who had her face, her eyes, but not her soul?

The thought made his heart race, but it also filled him with hope—a hope that maybe, just maybe, she had been given a second chance. A new life. A new beginning. Maybe she was out there, somewhere, living a life that was hers again.

He reached for his jacket, his hands trembling as he put it on. The thought of her—of her—out there, in another life, had become an obsession. Maybe there was a woman who looked like her, someone who could help him feel whole again, someone who could remind him of what they once had.

But would it even be her?

Nelson closed his eyes, feeling the weight of his thoughts pressing down on him. The desire to believe was overwhelming, and yet, it was all so intangible, so uncertain. He couldn’t stop himself from hoping, though. Hoping that maybe one day, he would find a woman who could look at him the way Amanda had once looked at him. Who would speak to him like she used to. Who would love him as she had, before everything changed.

"Are you out there?" he whispered to the empty room. "Are you out there, living a life again? Or are you still... somewhere... waiting to be found?"

He didn’t know if it was the rain or the exhaustion, but his thoughts swirled into a dizzying mix of desperation and longing. He had tried everything—therapy, research, reaching out to people who might know something, anything. But nothing had brought him any closer to answers. Nothing had brought her back.

"I’m waiting," he murmured. "I’ll wait for as long as it takes. I’ll wait for you to come back. For you to wake up."

His chest tightened with a familiar ache, a dull pain that had been with him since the day Amanda had changed, since the day the woman he had known seemed to vanish before his eyes.

But Nelson refused to give up. As ridiculous as it might seem, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Amanda was out there somewhere, waiting for him to find her. And until that moment came—until the universe decided to bring them back together, whether through soul swapping, reincarnation, or some other mysterious force—he would keep searching. He would keep waiting.

For as long as it took.

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