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Chapter 2 - Making Friends... I Think.

Now I know there's a sudden change in tense between chapters here, but from now on the story will be first person. I only wrote the first chapter in third person because I needed to explain who Aaron was and couldn't figure a way to easily slide that in. I just wrote third out of habit and now can't be bothered to change it since I'm a lazy Mo-Fo and it was like 1:30 when I began writing this chapter and I'd already finished it before I remembered the last was in third person. SOOORY about this foreword being so long but it needed to be said.

I woke up in what seemed to be a hospital bed. It was a sterile white room with curtain separators blocking off other beds from view, I wasn't really sure since the only time I'd seen a hospital was on Casualty. I lay there for a while, and all I could think of was when I last had a drink. It appeared I was just being clichéd however, as when I spoke out my voice was as loud and clear as ever before. I didn't really expect an answer, the place looked deserted, so I jumped out if my skin when I got one. Rattling the bed and making a considerable amount of noise.

'Oh' the voice said, dejectedly, but with a hint of spite. 'You're up are you? Or do you just talk and spasm in your sleep as well as drool and moan?' I am glad to say that I responded extremely well under the circumstances.

'I drool in my sleep?' I asked in a voice at least an octave higher than the previous one. So maybe I lied about the whole 'well'' business but at least I responded. The voice snickered, and I realised it was a girl.

'Only when you snore!' The snickering had become a strange sort of giggle, while still retaining the spite, it lost its power over me and she clearly decided to keep her pride when she next replied.

'Oh, by the way. Here's a mirror'. A hand emerged from the curtain beside me holding a small vanity mirror. 'Its always a good laugh to see what happens to the newbies'. Confused, I looked in the mirror and nearly jumped out of my skin for the second time that day.

'So what is it?' She asked 'Some people it's the end of a fingernail, others it's a lock of hair. The really lucky ones get a wart or something taken off, and there was a boy I knew who had an unplanned circumcision' And here she broke out into giggles again.

'So what is it?'.

'Whats happened to my face?' I asked incredulously.

'I know, something's missing yada yada yada it happens with every time someone forgets how to safely get through the rift, what is it?' She was growing impatient now.

'My- my right eyebrow'. Here she fell into a laughing fit that she didn't emerge from for a few minutes.

'Oh, oh you gotta let me see!' And she poked her head through the curtain to assess my mangled features, but I wasn't focusing on my eyebrow any more. She was beautiful, like Gods masterpiece, and the hair that fell in gentle mahogany spirals around her face was the perfect frame. She had a pointed nose set high above the lopsided grin currently open in a surprised gasp, and her eyes were the mellow brown of coffee. She looked like she belonged in some grand house up in Hollywood, not here. Although, I didn't know where this place was, I could actually be in Hollywood. Of course the image was broken once the laughing started again.

'Oh my god!' She wheezed 'You-You look even stupider than I imagined!' Calming down a bit, she managed to say 'You know, I lost an eyebrow too, you're the only other person I've met who lost one. And it looks so damn stupid on you! You can't even cover it with hair!' Now I was panicking.

'What am I going to do? It looks like I had a run in with a chainsaw! I look like an idiot!' Her features hardened instantly.

She pointed at her own eyebrow 'It grows back. Some things don't repair so quickly' she pulled out a hand that was wrapped in a thick gauze.