Fantasy Vs Reality | The Withering

2: Something's Not Right

Things exploding, large circular objects, splitting, lights flashing... You were trapped, stuck, unable to move. Stuck between two different places. People were moving around you, but they were nothing but blurred movement. 

Something was happening... you could hear them, but it was muffled. Things kept skipping, trying to break apart... time seemed to be ripping at the seams...

"We'll get you back soon. I promise."

~~

The next few days went by a little slowly, but Hava's recovery and awareness improved with every moment. Soon she was in her room, studying and re-memorizing everything. She was home again. She scratched her head slightly as she glanced around. It seemed as if nothing had ever happened. It was if she had come home from another day of school and she was back in her usual little world.

She heard bees buzzing from outside her window and it reminded her of her phone... and a name... Jesse...

Jesse!

Hava raced around her room like a bird without a head, trying to remember where she last left her phone. She leaped up into the air and landed on her bed. She didn't remember being able to jump that high... As she landed on her bed, the stuff on it shot into the air from the force. She launched to her pillow and reached under it. Aha! 

She pulled it out and there were at least fifty plus messages on there. All from Jesse. Hava took the time to read through them all, mostly pictures of her cat, and wholesome memes. Hava smiled, and then there was a gap of messages. Most of them read something along the lines of "Hey are you okay? I haven't heard from you in a little while..."

Hava's mom suddenly came into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. As if she knew what Hava was up to she spoke in a pained voice, "We had told Jesse what happened... she was hysterical." she paused for a moment, "You should call her."

Hava nodded and immediately began dialing Jesse's number. Her mom left to give her some privacy and closed the door, almost reluctantly. The phone rang for a little longer than necessary before a shaky voice answered, "Hello?"

"Before you freak out... I've woken up from my long nap and I'm-" before Hava could even finish Jesse's extremely loud and slightly hysterical voice screamed through the phone.

"YOU SCARED THE BEEJEEBEEZ OUT OF ME DUDE!! I CAME TO VISIT YOU IN THE FLIPPITY FLOPPITY HOSPITAL AND IT WAS AWFUL!! YOU WERE LIKE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE CURSES OF THE MODERN WORLD!!!! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE AMOUNT OF TERRIBLE THOUGHTS THAT RAN THROUGH MY HEAD AND-"

"JESSE CALM DOWN!!" Hava screamed back into the phone, "Please, just stay calm okay? I'll come over to your house tomorrow and show you I'm not a ghost... Alright?"

A pause.

Then, "FINE, BUT I WILL FEED YOU PLENTY OF CHOCOLATE AND WE ARE GOING TO BINGE WATCH ALL THE THINGS!!! ALSO BE PREPARED FOR MY FAMILY'S PASSIONATE AND AGGRESSIVE HUGS!"

Hava couldn't help but laugh, "ALRIGHT YOU NERD SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!"

They said their goodbyes rather loudly and hung up. Hava leaped off her bed and jumped to her computer.

She turned it on and a picture popped up. It was a spaceship. The file was still in it's layer form in her drawing app from before she... fell into the coma. A chill ran down her spine as she stared at it, she couldn't help but glance behind her as she stood up out of her chair.

She checked her closet without really knowing why, and then went to save the file. She furrowed her brow and decided to check her social media. Wow... five thousand notifications... that's not gonna be fun to sort through.

She decided to procrastinate and opened up the door to her room.

She opened her mouth to say something when her vision flashed. But it was so fast, she couldn't tell what exactly she saw, just that it was dark and everything was definitely different. She stood there for a moment confused. Did she used to see things like that? She was teetering on trying to remember when her mom walked up, snapping her out of her little daze.

"Hava, do you want to help me make dinner?" she asked cheerfully, "You've lost a significant amount of weight since falling into your coma, and the doctor told me you need to take it easy for a while since your muscles have weakened. So I thought why not a little bit of cooking to ease you back into reality?"

"Reality's... an interesting word choice." Hava commented, but nodded nonetheless. She was starving and felt like she hadn't eaten in years. 

*     *     *

The rest of the evening passed by rather slowly. Even though she had been out of it for so long, she still felt tired and extremely bored. As if her normal life didn't feel... the same. She definitely knew something was off, but she couldn't place her finger on what it was. 

Finally, she was lying in bed with the lights off, staring at the ceiling. The moonlight from her window shone through, glazing the room with a bright blue color. 

There was something oddly calming about the blue, it seemed so soft and... spacey.

She sat bolt upright. She remembered something! But she couldn't place it being in her life... which astounded her. She was looking out of a window, an unfamiliar yet so familiar hand pressed up against the window. She was gazing out into... into...

Space?

But that was absurd. Being in space was just a fantasy all those sci-fi geeks out there talked about and how they wished to be out there among the stars. Like those old sci-fi shows Hava used to watch when she was younger.

She sighed, rubbing her hands down her face. She stared at her knees under the blankets for a long time before looking to the window again. She slowly got out of bed and moved silently to it and looked up at the cloudless night. The moon was half full, but beautifully bright. It comforted her and she felt closer to home with the moonlight on her skin. But again, everything felt so... weird.

She hugged herself and cracked her window, locking it in place. She felt the cool, late summer breeze on her face and she sighed. She moved back to her bed and sat down. She didn't feel like sleeping at all. In fact, she felt like going for a run...

She was definitely not the same person she was before everything... happened.

She forced herself to lie back down on her bed. After what felt like an hour of trying to sleep, she reached for her phone. She checked to see the messages and wasn't surprised to find her friend Jesse had sent her a text.

Jesse was anticipating Hava coming to visit tomorrow, and how she had to warn Hava she would probably get tackled by tiny children. Hava couldn't help but laugh quietly. She texted Jesse back and said she couldn't wait to see her best friend, even if it meant getting mauled by children.