What Used to Be

Chapter 3

~present time~
How was he doing?
Well, he wasn't entirely sure.
Matt glanced over at Opal who was chewing on her lip nervously, her hands playing with a strand of hair.
"I'm good, pretty good." His head was starting to hurt. It throbbed in time with his pulse, he took a few gulps of air to steady it. "How are you?"
Tyson let go of his hand, he was staring at Matt so intensely Matt felt frozen. Opal interrupted before Tyson could reply, or make things more awkward with his scrutinizing. Her voice was flat. "He doesn't remember."
And now they were back to that. The remembering.
Tyson straightened up, running a hand through his hair. "Anything? He doesn't remember anything?"
"Not as far as I can tell."
Great, now they were talking like he wasn't there anymore. It was like being in the hospital all over again, with his mom talking over him. Always arguing with this nurse, or that doctor, giving Matt so many concerned looks he wished he was still in a coma. Opal crossed her arms, glaring at nothing in particular while Tyson blew out a breath. They seemed nervous. Matt wiped his palms on his pants.
"Well, maybe over time-"
"We don't have time." Opal snapped, she turned abruptly to Matt. "I'm sorry, this was a huge mistake, I'll-"
"No, Opal stop, he doesn't deserve this."
"Deserve what?"
Tyson was giving her one of those looks that usually made all the freshman and sophomore girls turn red and fall at his feet in awe. But Opal did not fall at his feet, nor look at him with awe....or anything close to awe really. She looked disgusted.
Tyson grit his teeth. "He needs to know what's going on."
Going on? What was going on? What were they so nervous about? Something had happened to the oxygen. Matt felt like he was running out, he put a hand to his chest feeling it rise and fall much to fast. He needed to calm down, he looked around, maybe there was somewhere he could sit. He saw the bench.
"He doesn't need to know, he can go back to his life."
He sat down on the bench. It was cold, it felt nice.
"You know that's not possible."
He looked down, the grass was wet, it was soaking his shoes.
"It won't work Tyson, how could we possibly explain it. What if he doesn't take it well."
It felt like someone was pounding at the inside of his skull with nails. Forget about Xanax, he needed morphine.
"He'll be fine."
Fine.
Fine? Would he be fine? Was this fine? Had any of his life ever been fine?
"He won't be fine."
Fine suddenly seemed to be everyone's favorite word, or maybe it had always been everyone's favorite word. 'You'll be fine sweety, don't worry.' 'I understand this must be tough but it'll be fine.' 'You're life will get back to normal, everything will be fine in a few more days.'
The cold metal of the bench began to burn his fingers but he didn't pull them away. Technically they weren't lying, he reflected numbly, they said it would all be fine. Not good, not great....just fine.
His lip was hurting, he must have bitten it.
He could see dark shapes moving around the edges of his vision.
He needed to calm down.
"Matt, Matt." Opal was standing above him somewhere, but he didn't look up at her, couldn't look up at her. "Matt are you okay?"
Someone had grabbed his shoulder, he could barely feel it.
The shadows were crawling over him, pulling at his clothes, sitting on his legs, clawing at his mind. He curled his fingers around the bottom of the bench to keep from clamping them over his ears and pulling his knees to his chest. He couldn't let them see him like this. He tried to ignore the thud of his heart in his ears, the darkness. He just needed something to focus on, something-
"Shit."
The steady roar of a car engine flooded through the air, headlights flashed from between trunks. Tyson was the one who had cursed, he shook Matt's shoulder.
Matt forced himself to look up. Both Tyson's and Opal's faces were white, the red in their cheeks caused by the cold fading as they watched the car.
"We have to leave, now." Opal grabbed Matt's arm and pulled him up. As suddenly as they had appeared the shadows were gone. Tyson shoved them towards the opposite end of the park.
Matt gasped as he tripped on a root. "What-what the hell is going on?"
Tyson was behind them as Opal dragged him through the woods.
"I'll....explain...later." Tyson forced out between breaths. Matt had never run this fast in his life, the freezing air felt like daggers in his chest.
Leaves and twigs raked at their faces, their breaths became white mist that they left behind like a trail of fading clouds. Matt's eyes were streaming. He didn't know why they were running but one look at Opal's face and he didn't want to ask. He just sprinted alongside her.
And they ran, and ran, and ran.