Whispers Beyond the Forest

Chapter 1

Voices... 

People near her were talking, but she couldn't understand what they were saying.

Her head pounded.

She tried to move, but her body would not listen.

"... apparently just drove off."

"Unbelievable. Who would do something like that?"

She tried again. Her fingers should not be this heavy. It was as if she was on the edge of sleep – her brain was awake, but her body had not noticed that yet. She tried to say something, but all that came out was a groan. The people around her fell silent.

"Did you guys hear that, or am I imagining things?"

That headache... What happened?

"Emily? Emily, are you awake, honey?"

Was that man talking to her?

She tried to move her hand to her head. Her body was finally realising that she had woken up.

A door opened and she heard footsteps. She tried to open her eyes, but it was hard – so much harder than it should've been. Like her eyelids were made of lead. 

"Is she waking up?" a girl asked.

"It seems like it," a woman's voice answered. "Give her a minute..."

She blinked her eyes and pushed her hand against her forehead in a desperate attempt to stop the pounding. Finally her body listened.

"Emily? How are you feeling?"

She opened her eyes and looked around. Three worried faces looked down on her: a man, a girl and a boy, all holding on to the rails on the side of her bed. Behind them stood a woman in a white uniform. She picked up a form from a little tray screwed to the back of the bed and smiled at her.

Turning her head, she glanced around the room. Where am I?

The walls were bright and bare except for a single, simple clock. Three plastic chairs were spread out across the room. Next to her bed stood a tall metal pole with several see-through bags hanging from it, wires and tubes on each of them. Those wires led down to the bed, underneath her sheets...

Her stomach flipped. This was a hospital bed. Why was she lying in a hospital bed?

"I'm glad to see you're back, dear," said the woman.

She swallowed the nausea down, while the woman in white clothes took a small flashlight from her pocket and shone it into her eyes. The light instantly sent another spike of pain through her skull. 

"Normal pupil reflexes. Can you sit up?"

She could. Arms wobbling, she pushed herself up from the bedsheets. She groaned from the effort it cost. Her head fell forward as if it was too heavy for her to carry. She shook it a few times and used her hands for support.

The woman wrote something down on her form. "I'm going to ask you a few questions, alright? All standard procedure after head trauma, nothing complicated."

Head trauma? That explained the pounding pain. She nodded.

"What's your name?" the woman asked, her eyes on the paper and pen at the ready.

She looked around, trying to fit the puzzle pieces together, to comprehend the situation she found herself in. The three people – the man, the girl and the boy – stared at her, all smiles, not a care in the world. Why were they looking at her like that? Why were they even here?