Lament

Chapter Four

   I awoke to a blinding redness behind my closed eyes.

   Slowly, I opened my eyes. I was met with bright, white lights hung from above.

   “Mornin’, Sunshine.”

   I turned to find Levy at my side. Her voice was sad: not the usual peppiness that I was used to. I focused a bit more on Levy’s face, and, to my surprise, it was tear- stained with no makeup. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her depressed demeanor was presented with a pair of old sweats and a loose hoodie.

   Levy leaned forward and placed her hands in mine. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

   I looked around and realized I was in a hospital bed. Needles were plunged into my arms and the steady beat of my heart echoed on the monitor behind me.

   “What happened?” I frowned, confused. “Why am I here?”

   Levy’s face grew pale. “You mean you don’t remember?”

   I shook my head, but Levy didn’t explain.

   “Levy,” I said calmly. “What happened? Why am I here?” I looked around again. “Where are my parents?”

   Levy bit her bottom lip and tears immediately spilled.

   “Levy!” I shouted.

   She flinched and took a shaky breath. “They’re… gone, Eona.”

   My breath stopped, my eyes widened, and my chest grew tight. “What do you mean gone?”

   “You were in a devastating car accident, Eona,” Levy cried. “Your parents didn’t survive.”

   My breathing quickened and my heart beat faster in my chest, threatening to explode through my ribs. “No,” I whispered. I began to pull at all of my wires. “They’re not dead. They are not dead!” I ripped out all of the needles and jumped out from my bed.

   “Eona!” Levy yelled.

   I ignored her and throw open a door that I mistook for an exit. Instead, I walked into a restroom.

   I looked at my reflection in the mirror and froze.

   “Eona, you need to lie down.” Levy stated calmly.

   Once again, I ignored her. I stepped closer to the mirror. A long, wired scar ran down from the center of my temple, diagonally through the corner of my left eye, and ended at my jaw. I slowly lifted my hands to my face and traced the jagged line.

   Tears welled up in my eyes. “No!” I cried. “No, no, no, no, no!” I collapsed to the cold floor and sobbed. I sobbed for my parents and my once beautiful face. I screamed at the top of my lungs at the unfairness of it all. Multiple hands were upon me, dragging me upright, and trying to put me back into the hospital bed. I struggled, I resisted- I even bit one of the nurse’s hands.

   Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in my shoulder, and my movements instantaneously became sluggish. They placed me in the bed. All of those hands did, just like in the crash, when all of those hands pulled me out of the car and saved me from the wreckage. But these hands weren’t saving me. They had pulled me back into my nightmares to which I tried so hard to escape. They pulled me back to the deep abyss.

~~~

   When I awoke again, no one had been in the room. It was dark, and the eerie quietness hinted that it was nighttime. I dreamt about the crash. I remembered the arrangement my parents and I had been in before the car had hit us at that green light in the middle of the intersection. I remembered calling for them, and asking for the names of the people who pulled me out of the car. Then someone’s voice…