Dead To Me

ONE

Wind chimes hanging overhead a door, that’s what it sounded like – but far from reality it was. Where chimes marked the arrival or departure of one, the sounds he heard now were seemingly marking his incarceration within four walls. Axl Avery’s eyes shot wide open and he awakened from within a nightmare, only to watch in horror as it became a reality.

The cuffs slapped around his wrists, confining him to a tight space of a prison cell, could not feel his pulse beating at the speed of a freight train, right beneath the cold metal chains. He swallowed, and then felt as his head did a 360 degree somersault, as if it were an Olympics’ gymnastic event.

Officer Danforth’s booming loud footsteps, and now he’s standing right next to the terribly shaken 17 year old. Axl finally realized what the wind chimes were; they were in fact the sound of freedom, for it was Danforth’s string of keys unlocking the door to his cold, damp cell. This was freedom to him, or at the very least: it was impending.

“How you holding up?” came the officer’s voice, ringing in Axl’s ears as the kid tried to maintain the steadiness of his own thoughts, attempting a sentence, but then failing miserably, like a three year old at his first day of class.

“Still hurts” Axl managed, after a good minute or so. Officer Danforth crouched down low so he could meet Axl at eye level. His ocean green eyes were grim but bore that of concern, an almost paternal sort, despite him being only 30 at best.

“Listen… I don’t think you realize how dangerous it was, not only for you, Axl, but for anybody who might have been in that accident with you. Had you a passenger in the car with you, tonight could have ended far worse than it already has” Tyler Danforth’s voice was grim; there was little doubt about that, but in his grimness, there was concern.

Axl allowed the words to sink in but they took almost no effect on him, as if he could not register the severity of the issue, even if he wanted to. It had been a while since he had been able to think with a conscious mind. Everything ever since two months back, had been a complete blur. Only one thing was certain to him, and that was that time had passed them by.

Axl felt a cold, firm grip on his shoulders, shaking him back to present existence, leaving his trail of thoughts behind. As he looked up, he saw the face of a blonde woman in her forties whom owned soft features but a face which bore no semblance of warmth, a face he did not recognize at all.

The woman walked up to Officer Danforth and he immediately ushered her aside so they could speak in private, no doubt at all who about. Their lips were moving but Axl couldn’t catch the words they said, for his ears were ringing loud enough to cancel out any other noise, leaving only that of loud within his head.

Axl inhaled sharply and tried his level best to remain his composure but his hands were shaking so badly that the metal chains tightly wrapped around his wrists shook, producing a sound he could not hear, but guessed that the other two could, for they rushed by his side and the officer swiftly removed the handcuffs which now left a faint red indent, marking where it once was.

Danforth held up his fingers and nodded as Axl counted from one to ten, albeit slower than average speed. Axl blinked and then opted to keep his eyes closed, away from the bright that he assumed was out to get him.

He felt his head clear up even as he kept his eyes closed, almost as if he were descending from a mountaintop where the misty fog is all but gone, and he finally was able to have his feet firmly transfixed on the cold, hard ground.

Slowly but surely, Axl’s dark brown eyes peeked open like drawn curtains, and they met that of the woman whom was quizzically staring back at him, with that of the same degree of concern she had before, which frankly wasn’t much at all.

Axl registered the face within the library which held his thousands of thoughts, searching through the aisles for the one single memory that could possibly remind him of who she was…