Indigo

XXXIII

    I was laying on a cold tile floor. Sitting up, I saw that I was completely fine, not a scratch on me. My ratted clothes had been replaced with a flowing, white dress that went down to right above my knees. I looked down at my feet to see that they were completely bare. I stood up cautiously, scared of what I would find on the operating table right beside me. The surgeons were speaking in hurried voices, but they weren't paying any attention to me.

    "Um, hello?" I interrupted, or rather, tried to, but none of them stopped their work at all. My face reflected off a mirror hanging on the opposite wall. My face was pale, and my dark hair fell in curls around my shoulders. What was going on? I wouldn't ever willingly wear a dress but I had to admit that it did look nice. I admired it for a second before pulling myself out of my thoughts and focusing on whatever was happening. I tiptoed over to the table and waved my hand in front of one of the surgeon's faces.

"Hello?" I said, still unsuccessfully trying to get their attention. They didn't show any signs of response.

    "Oh, please, no," I stepped around them, "No, no, no, this can't be happening." My heart sped up in my chest as I moved to the patient's face, already knowing who I would see. The blood obscuring her features was dark, but you always recognize yourself.

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I spent the next five minutes in denial and questions. was I really out of my body? That couldn't actually happen, could it? I sat on the floor with my head in my hands, feeing queasy. I figured, though, that if I could throw up in this form than I would have already. Finally, after I'd come to terms with the situation, I got up. The tiles clung to my feet the way they had the day that this all began. I walked out through the ER doors into a completely white hallway where people bustled around me, sometimes through me, with worried looks on their faces. I picked a random direction and began to follow it as quickly as I could until I found the waiting room. I paused in the doorway, scouring the crowd for the people I loved. My eyes finally froze on the back corner where Portia was sobbing while Josiah and Alan were trying to get her medical help for the cuts that I'd given her. Although I could tell she needed it, she was refusing all the doctors until she knew that I was okay. The three of them were huddled closely together, Lucas was behind them, laying down on the chairs. I noticed the casts on his legs and gasped. What had I missed when I was delirious? I looked around to find Robin, whom the others were avoiding like the plague. She and Sophie were sitting in the corner opposite the rest of them.

    I sighed, wishing that they wouldn't do that. It wasn't her fault that she'd tried to kill me. I wasn't me, at least not at the beginning, and she didn't know that I'd changed when I did. I'd tortured her. She had every right to want to kill me, and she probably would have if Sophie and Portia hadn't stopped her.

    I stepped closer to the group, allowing myself to just hear their hushed voices.

    "I just wish there was some way to know that she was okay," Portia whispered.

    "I know, me too. But right now, we just have to imagine that she's standing right next to us. Right here," Alan gestured exactly where I was standing. I sucked in a short breath. Lucas stirred and sat up.

"Indigo?" He asked softly, barely louder than a shy first grader.

"Yes!" I jumped over to him.

"No, they haven't told us anything yet, sorry, man," Alan turned around and Lucas closed his eyes again. My heart sank as I realized he hadn't seen me.

"No. No!" I shouted before sinking to my knees, tears gathering in my eyes. "I'm here. Please see me."

Alan shook his head and turned back to the group. They fell into silence and I gave up. I just stood there, scared, not knowing if they would ever talk to me again.

Indigo. A voice echoed through the room and a strange feeling, like a pulling, appeared in the pit of my stomach.

Come find me. The feeling pulled me out of the waiting room and down the hall. I didn't know how I knew where to go, but I kept walking anyway. I looked through each window on each door until the feeling grew the strongest. Looking up at a plaque on the wall, I realized where I'd come: the psychiatric ward. I opened the door and kept following the pull down the hallway.

I'm waiting. The voice spoke again, and I began to get annoyed at its vagueness.

Room sixty-three on the left. It nagged me. I checked all the room numbers until I found sixty-three. Cautiously turning the doorknob, my feet took me forward into the room. As soon as I was clear of the door, it slammed shut behind me. I whirled around, ready for a fight when I saw her.

We were polar opposites, and I was pretty sure that was the point. She was wearing black jeans, a dark leather jacket, and combat boots that went up to her knees. Unlike mine, her face was made up in dark lipstick and eyeliner so thick that it kind of scared me. Her hair, however, fell in curls around her shoulders, matching mine perfectly.

"Hello," she strutted towards me. "I knew you'd come." She stood face to face with me. "I could feel it, just like you could feel that it was me calling you." I wanted to tell her that wasn't true, that I hadn't known it was her, but was just to terrified to see her that I couldn't say a word. I tried to pull myself together, and I thought it must have worked at least alright.

"How'd you get here?" I stood perfectly still in the middle of the room. She circled me like a lion stalking its prey.

"Same way you did, stupid. I just woke up sooner than you because I'm better. I had a lot of extra time 'cuz you wouldn't wake up, so I played a little game with her," she cocked her head behind her to the girl staring out the window. I saw her matted hair and sleepless eyes, and I could see the torment in her forced expression.

"Riley?" She stalked towards her, but the girl stayed tense. Indigo turned back to me with an annoyed look on her face. "See, she's pretending like she can't see us, but she can. She's the only one too, I checked. The doctors told her I wasn't real, tried to wreck my fun," she knelt down next to the girl's bed. "But you can still see me, isn't that right, Riley?"

I took a few steps closer to them. "What do you mean, played a game with her?"

Indigo spun back around and stopped me, smiling in that cruel way I'd seen in the mirror only a few days before. "She can't stop seeing me, and I can scare her pretty easily. Oh, oh,oh," Indigo's eyes lit up, " I almost forgot the best part! When she screams at night and tells the nurses about the girl in her room, no one will ever believe her." I took a step back. I couldn't believe that I was looking at myself. I'd already forgotten how cruel she was. My curiosity still took control over my head.

"What do you mean, scare her?" I couldn't help asking. Her lips tugged up at the corners of her mouth. She'd wanted me to ask, which meant I was probably a dead man walking.

"Do you want to see?" She leaned forward to antagonize me and I realized that I didn't have a choice.
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Hey!
Hope everyone had a great holiday! Thanks for reading!

-AJ