The Devil's Symphony

Chapter 2

I only wish Death would leave my corpse smiling, that way, the world will see that I am dead" ~Anonymous

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I woke to a bright light. It pierced my head making it almost impossible to open my eyes all the way. The room was white. I shifted my weight making to get up but then realized I had something attached to my arm. An IV.

My head began to pulse as I struggled to remember how I had gotten here.

"Brielle?"

Startled I quickly looked to see who had spoken. I relaxed when I saw it was only my mom.

"Mom? What's going on? Why am I here?"

My mother shifted closer and I realized with alarm that her eyes were red rimmed. I didn't say anything more, expecting her to say something. After a moment and with slight hesitation she moved to my side, slowly, almost cautiously, taking her hand in mine.

"Mom?" I asked again, my voice barely above a whisper.

Finally she spoke. "Please tell me you remember what happened."

I stared at her confused, hoping she'd give me a hint to at least the slightest idea of what she was talking about.

My pulse quickened. "What do you mean?"

Her jaw clenched. "Brielle, you have to remember what happened in order for me to help you."

"Mom, I have no idea what you're talking abo-"

"Brielle, I need to know exactly what happened!" I blinked in shock. Her voice was shrill and I could tell she was on the brink of breaking down. It was the first time my mother had ever raised her voice with me. At the most she had scolded me, but in gentle tones. She was calm and patient. Nothing ever like this. I had never seen her so close to falling apart.

"But mom I-" I started. But seeing her face and how close she was to hysterics I paused to give it a quick thought. I didn't know what she wanted to know. I didn't even know how I had made it to the hospital. The last thing I could remember..."I was, I was on a walk with Kel, but how did I end up here?"

She had her hands over her mouth, eyes closed. She then spoke, monotoned, keeping her voice in control, "In other words, you don't remember." It was a statement, not a question.

"Well I-" It was then I recalled the cave, the strange humming sound, and the cave-in. I brought my hand to my head, sure enough I had a bandage on my head, the exact place I hit it. "There was a cave and then the ceiling caved in and I was trap-"

She put her hand up, interrupting me mid-sentence. She stood, tears beginning to spill over. "So now you're going to lie," her voice shook, anger underlining her words.

My chest tightened, "What-what are you talking about? Mom, I'm telling you the tru-"

"I don't want to hear it! We found you on the beach Brielle! If Kel hadn't run back we wouldn't of found you until later. There wasn't a cave!"

"But there was! There was a lot of fog, you probably couldn't see it!"

"Now there's fog?" She shook her head. "There was no fog and there was no cave. It was sunny all day yesterday."

"What?" I clearly remembered the storm in the distance, then the fog setting in, and even Kel's strange behavior. I wasn't making any of it up.

"It was sunny," she repeated. She looked at me, for the first time looking at me as though I were a stranger.

"Mom, I'm being serious. I'm genuinely confused as to what is going on." My voice squeaked and my body shook. "You're scaring me. I don't know what you're going on about and I swear there was a cave and I just need you to tell me what-"