Dark & Light

~Chapter Eighteen~

(The track above, "Viverti" by Mattia Cupelli really compliments the tone of this chapter well in my opinion, so feel free to play it as you read.)

Chris's POV 

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Blurriness. My eyes flutter open, to see people around me in strange suits, looking evasively my way without making direct eye contact. Then I see a girl. Her eyes are open with expectancy, Right beside me, staring at me with bloodshot eyes.

"Where am I?" I ask. My voice sounds strange. Squeaky.

"You're....in the hospital," the girl responds tentatively. "Chris, do you...remember anything?"

Who is she? Where am I at?  "What...how did I get here?" I ask. Again the weird-sounding voice comes from me.

"Do you...remember anything?" she looked as if she was on the verge of tears.

"I don't understand..."

Just then a man burst in the room. "Paige...you need to leave. We need to run more tests and..." the rest of what he says is indecipherable.

Paige. That was the girl's name. It sounded familiar.

"Will he get his memory back?" I could hear her say.

"I don't know," the man replied hestitantly.

"No! Chris!" I could hear the girl shriek in panic.

"Miss Paige!"

I felt vaguely numb for the girl who seemed so stricken with pain at the sight of me.

Who is she?  The question seems too much for me to ponder on, and a throbbing in my head makes my eyes blurry once again and the world fades.  I fall back into the pit of unconsciousness I had awoken from.

~~~

I awaken again, groggy. I can tell I've been moved. This is a different room.

When I try to lift my head, its weighed down by something completely wrapped around it.

A cold hand holds mine. I see Paige, her head laying on the edge of my head, asleep.

The girl who had broken down right before I had slipped back into unconsciousness...who knows how long ago. It feels as if I've been asleep for a month.

She looks vaguely familiar. And like a mess. Her eyes look hollow, even while closed, with dark circles creeping out from under her eyelids. Her hair is frizzy and tangled up, like she had created a messy bun that had all but fallen out eons ago. Her skin is pale and livid.

"Who..what..." I trail off. Why can't I think straight?  I ask myself, frusturated.

 She awakes immediately, startled. "Chris? What is it?" she almost seems to plead.

"I'm so confused. What am I doing here? I should be back at..."

"Where? Chris, what do you remember?" she grips my hand tightly, as if encouraging me to push myself to remember.

I closed my eyes, trying to trace where my mind had been heading before stopping.

"I was...I was supposed to perform somewhere. I play guitar. I sing," I say suddenly.

"Chris, yes! That's true!" I can hear her voice fill with hope.

"Anything else?"

"I know a girl. She's muddled in my memory, but I know she was important to me...before...before..." I could feel a wave of confusion come over me again as I try to form words that have no meaning in my head.

"Before you were hurt," Paige finishes for me.

"Y-yes. Was she hurt when I was?"

The girl doesn't answer right away. Her head is bowed so I cannot see her facial expression as she speaks. "Well...yes, she was. But she will be okay. Hopefully soon."

"Who are you?" I ask, perturbed. "I only know your name and that you are vaguely familiar... nothing else."

Her face melts into stone, completely expressionless. "You don't even..." the rest of her sentence fades into a murmur, and I can hear soft sobbing sounds only she could be making. 

"Hey," I say softly.

Paige looks up, her eyes puffy red.

"Why are you with me? You seem vaguely familiar, but I don't understand. No one has ever cared about me in years. Why would you?"

"I...care about your welfare. You may not remember me, but...I'll always be here for you. I know...it may seem strange for a random person to be with you all times of the day, whenever you wake up, but its because I care. I just...hope you'll recover. I'll be right here to stay beside you, to stay with you," she rests her head next to me, and I can see silent tears fall down her cheeks.

"Thank you," I whisper. I don't understand why this girl stays, but it calms me a little. I don't understand why my heart throbs with pain just as badly as my head, why I am in this strange room, and why I feel so confused, as if my own memory was broken up into pieces that refuse to fit together again properly. But I feel a wave of peace at knowing someone is here, staying beside me, in this maze of drugged sleep, jumbled memories and formidable reality.

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Hello my lovely readers!

Thank you so much for reading this chapter!  I realize there are definitely some unanswered questions going on with you all after reading this, but hopefully some of them will be answered in the next update. ;( Make sure to comment below with your thoughts on this chapter, and give this update a vote as well. <3

XoXo,

Veronica