Through the Wringer

duodeviginti

I opened my eyes to a dark room, my head feeling fuzzy, then sat up and looked around, unsure of my surroundings. I was in a bed, and next to that bed was a wheelchair. Across the room was boxes, full of stuff I recognized as my things, my handwriting scrawled across them. Panic set in, "Where am I?" I thought. I got up, but then fell to the floor, pain shooting up my leg. Looking down, I noticed a brace there, as well as one on my arm. I didn't remember any of this. I kept thinking over and over, "Where am I? Where am I? Where am I?!".
Crawling carefully over to the crutches leaning on the closest wall, I used those to get up and make my way out of the room. On the outside of the door, it was a dark hallway. Peeking out, I looked around. At the right end, there was a door, whilst the left end had stairs. I went right, hoping it led me outside. Upon opening the door, my skin met with cool, crisp night air, which sent shivers chasing up my spine. Wearing shorts and a short-sleeved tee shirt, I headed out into the night. My pace was slow, but I kept going, my thoughts propelling me forward.
Where was my family? My mind was as blank as paper, and I found myself searching for words, searching for answers, trying to scrawl out the story of what happened onto my blank page of a brain. A story buried deep in the recesses of my memory.
But suddenly, an invisible hand took over my pen, writing out the story. It started out okay, but you could feel the dread from the start. Something bad was going to happen.
My memories flooded back to me in a rush. My eyes began to burn, and everything happened all at once. My tears, like raging flames, tore out of my tear ducts like bats out of hell. They burned my cheeks, a stark contrast to the chilly night air. I fell to the ground. The stars stared down at me, and when I finally looked up, I could almost feel their pity.
But the stars were dead, weren't they? Just like my family. There was an old wives tale that said that when people passed away, they turned into stars. Maybe my family was still watching over me, living and breathing among the stars in space.
I guess I'll never know, because after a few minutes of sobbing, I'd hyperventilated and passed out in the front yard of the Lanes' home.