Aspen Heights, Book 2: Forgotten

Elita

I sat, curled up in the big lounge chair in the den, under a fuzzy blanket. I kept the lights off and the curtains closed. I had the TV on but I wasn't really paying attention. My hair was a knotted mess, I hadn't brushed it in days. Carol entered the room, her hands on her hips as usual. "Oh Elita, you're in here again? It's so dark! What are you doing?" she sighed. She sat a plate of croissants and a cup of milk on the foot stool in front of me. "I brought you some breakfast," she said. "And I am opening these blinds!" "Please Carol, don't open them!" I moaned. "Sorry Elita, but you need some sun light!" she replied. She opened the blinds and the sun poured in, covering the room in light. "See! Now isn't that better? Don't you feel better?" she asked. She looked so concerned for me, and I couldn't blame her. Apparently time was going by, but I wasn't realizing it. Carol told me I hadn't been acting like myself. She would bring up conversations that we supposedly had days ago, but that I had no memory of. Carol was totally stressing out, desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with me. She tried to take me to the doctor but I refused. She says that I even went so far as to slap her when she tried to drag me out of the house! I didn't do that though. I didn't understand what was going on and it was driving me insane. I knew that when I wasn't here I was somewehre else. But whenever I snapped back into reality I couldn't seem to figure out where exactly I had been. I glared at Carol as she blinked at me, waiting for a reply to her question. "I wish opening the blinds would help me, but it doesn't," I said, rolling over and pulling my blanket up to my chin. "Elita, it's been almost a month! Everyone else has gone back to school. Everyone except you. They're worried about you Elita! They called me yesterday, and they said you need to come back. You're missing too much!" Her eyebrows were so furrowed she seemed to have a unibrow. She was obviously concerned about me, and to be honest, I was concerned about me too. "Why do I even have to go to that school? Can't I just go back to my public school?" "Elita, don't pretend that you didn't hate that school, because I know that you did. But you loved Aspen Heights, and don't even try to deny it, because I read the letters from your friends and there was a lot of love coming from those words!" I threw the blanket off and sat up. "Carol, you don't understand! I can't go back there!" I shouted angrily. "I know a lot of stuff happened and I'm sorry, but you're going back...tomorrow." She didn't even know, she had no idea what I'd been through, what happened to me, what was still happening to me now! "Carol! I don't even remember the stuff that happened! All I remember is waking up in the middle of the woods, and I had to walk back to campus. They told me I had been missing for three days." "Maybe being back there will...jog your memory," she suggested. "But what if I shouldn't remember?" I asked, my head pounding from all the yelling. "There's only one way to find out sweetie. Come on, let's go pack your stuff." But didn't she see? I didn't want to find out. I just wanted to forget everything. To start fresh. I never wanted to see that place again.