memory fx

Chapter Two

The air was riveting a chill that punctured hot hair balloon ribcages, a deflation, unexplainable. Peeling my eyes back, like the skin on the edge of the thumb, painfully, I met the gaze of a milk white, luminescent light. She was pretty, but when I smiled my lips were cracked, cold. 
"Good, you're awake," Asserted a monotone voice matched with a woman as she poured a clear vile into a needle that was inserted in my forearm. "Just try to relax for me." She gave me a sideways glace, the fluids sending me into a wave of pain. 
With eyes wide shut I winced through my teeth, though it quickly subsided like a flu shot. "What the hell?" I breathed, "What's going on? Who are you?" I hadn't noticed how tightly I was gripping the bed sheets till I looked down, my wrists were strapped shut. 
The woman, ignoring me, tossed the vile into the trash can, pretending to busy herself to deflect my question. 
"Answer me." I demanded. I struggled against the straps, but it seemed like I already tried prior due to the red rashes around my hand. I ceased to cause myself less pain than I was already in.
"Olivia, you've been in a coma for eight months. But here's the thing. That was yesterday. And you are awake today," She bit down on her lower lip, "You have a rare condition that is undetermined at the moment, but listen, we need you to be patient with us." She assured, her hands folded neatly in front of her. 
I was speechless.
"How am I supposed to be patient when I missed eight months of my life." I snapped, sitting up as best as I could manage. Tears started to form and before I could compose myself and tell myself not to cry, my body started to violently shake under the earthquake of my insanity. They chained me up like an animal and ran tests on me to keep me alive. And all I knew was that this stranger, this woman has been taking care of me like a plant. 
She pulled a chair up beside my bed and crossed one leg over the other in a business-like fashion. I wasn't sure if she was sympathetic or not, but part of me was slightly glad she didn't take both of my hands and wipe my tears away and tell me that everything was going to be alright. 
Because it wasn't.
"Olivia," She started, resting her hand close to where my thigh was. "I need you to trust me." 
I sniffed, my body still shaking, teeth chattering like I was cold. I nodded, forced a smile, and gave into her. 
"Okay. Good. I'm going to get you something to eat and you will tell me as much as you remember."

I was eating chicken as dry as the desert with collared greens and buttery mashed potatoes as I racked every file in my brain for the last memory I had. 
"It was more like flash bulb memories," I nodded, looking up at the ceiling. The nurse lady, Miss Armstrong, surprisingly didn't have a clipboard and pen, analyzing my thoughts, she just sat there and listened, eating the same thing I was eating for moral support. I looked at her closely, studying the patterns of her wrinkles and tired grey eyes, maybe around her mid forties. She didn't wear a ring, but I assumed she had two boys and maybe a girl that balanced out her day to day lifestyle, and then here, to take care of patients all day. One of them being myself. 
And suddenly I felt a little bad considering I was hostile earlier, but I had every right to be. Who wouldn't wake up in a hospital room and just been told that they has missed not days, not weeks, but months of their life? 

"I remember my boyfriend having a gun. Then the gun was resting on my head. And I heard a gunshot," I spoke more slowly as the moment replayed in my head of the girl I met... I couldn't remember her name, but I wanted to know if she was alive. I wanted to know if she ever got away from him. "And then I woke up on a dirty ground like dirt. And I felt like I was drowning." I looked at Armstrong like she could tell me I was correct or I was wrong. 
"We got a call from a young lady saying that you were in trouble. Your boyfriend was... Beating you. Inserting drugs in your system." She murmured. I wanted her to tell me more, but it might have been too much. I felt like I was going to vomit. 
"And that was it. It feels like I took a nap. But..." I stopped myself. I was telling her too much. 
"But what?" The lady asked, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. 
"Nothing, I don't want to talk anymore." I admitted, reaching for the Styrofoam cup that reminded me of visiting my grandmother's nursing home. 
"Alright. That should be enough for today anyhow. You should get some rest." She concluded, standing up and taking my tray. Just like that and she expected me to go back to sleep. Again.
I rubbed my wrists lightly finally drawing in a slow deep breath. 
"Rest? But I had just been asleep for apparently eight months. Can I at least have an hour to myself?" I requested. Cool it with the attitude or she'll tie you up again. 
"Fine. You can roam the halls for a little while. There's a game room downstairs, and a lounge on the second floor. But pull any escape stunts and we have your tag. You got me?" She sounded serious, but she strapped a rubber band like bracelet around my wrist and gestured towards the door. As I was about to thank her for letting me at least leave my room, she gave me a run down of rules. 
"Everything closes as 11 pm. Bed time checks around midnight. No fighting, obviously. And no having people in your room, vise versa." She didn't look at me once, but I guess she was trusting me. 
"Thank you." I nodded, and left the room in blue socks and a hospital night gown. 

What kind of hospital or insane asylum has a game room?  But the real question was... Why wasn't I scared? Where were my parents? My siblings? My friends? 
Alex.
For some reason I didn't seemed phased by it because all I wanted was a chocolate chip muffin at the café corner in the lounge. There were middle aged twenty year olds, maybe teenagers, and a couple of older looking individuals. They all looked the same. Everyone wore a bracelet, blue socks with rubber soles to avoid slipping, and a gown that reached their knees. 
"What can I get you Miss?" 
"Chocolate chip muffin please." 
"Bracelet?" 
I hesitantly showed them my bracelet and it was scanned under a clear light. When the transaction went through successfully, it shone green. How did I pay for it? The gentleman gave me my muffin in a brown paper bag. 
"You have to eat it in here. Only allotted one napkin." He smiled. "Have a nice day." 
I rolled my eyes and turned around before finding a quiet corner to eat my muffin in peace. I didn't have a cell phone, no computer, nothing to reach out to anybody. I felt alone... Lost and weirded out by this place. 
And it made me a little sick that I couldn't talk to Alex. 
In fact it made me panic with how free I was. 
I just ordered by myself. Maybe without my own money, but I just did /that./
My heart started to race and I fled the café so fast I slammed right into someone. 
I jogged to the nearest bathroom, pushing open a stall, and emptied the contents of my dinner and the chocolate chip muffin into the toilet. The sound of the automatic toilet scared me to no end, and suddenly I found myself crying on the bathroom floor with vomit all over me and feeling completely and utterly alone. 
"Hello? Are you okay?" 
There was someone in here. 
"Yeah I-I'm fine. Just sick." I lied. 
"The food here is awful isn't it?" 
I couldn't help but to form a weak smile.
"I guess." I sniffed, my back leaning against the door. It only took me a fraction of a moment to realize that she was leaning against the other side because there was no one in the stalls except me. 
"What are you doing in here?" I finally asked. The room was quiet for a moment and I was convinced she left. 
"Well I was going to the bathroom," She chuckled. "Then I heard you... Empty yourself. And I didn't want to leave you because I know how that feels. When someone leaves." She explained. "Thanks, but I really don't need friends right now. I just want to go home." I told her. 
"I know. Trust me I know. But I promise this isn't forever. It's just until they find a cure."
"A cure for what?" I asked.
"I don't know," She said truthfully. "When our dreams become reality." 

[ Chapter Two is complete! Please leave comments and suggestions! ]