My Airport Mistake

Run XIII

"Oh my, would you look at those tears falling down her face! It must have been tragic!" A sweet voice spoke, almost delighted.

"I told you not to do that, mom! It hurts those who have already been through it once! Now she'll have to relive it again and remember her painful past again!" Another voice spoke. She sounded a lot younger than the sweet voice from before.

The mother only chuckled before saying seriously. "She needed this. She blocked this from her mind and thus, does not know who she is. Once she awakens, cheer her up."

"Ah, wait! Mother!" The daughter's voice faded away as she chased after her mother.

May opened her wet eyes. She could feel the back of her neck was drenched in the recent flood of tears from her. Her throat was dry, her nose was stuffed with snot, and the back of her head was throbbing from crying so much. Her body was heavy. She lifted her heavy body up and looked around. It was a warm room. Bright sunlight filled the room from the many open holes in the ceiling. The bed was soft. Very minimal items were in the room - two tables, three chairs, several shelves, and what appears to be a cabinet in the corner.

'Ari... I'm so sorry Ari...' May didn't know what to think. Several tears continued to fall. She was lost in her thoughts. 'I seem to have a shield. If I knew it back then, I could've given you the shield. But why do I have a shield? Why don't I know about it? And now that I think about it, I don't remember much of what happened afterwards. Police, firefighters, ambulances, and many other people came. Those who were still alive and could walk were taken out first. Anyone hurt was carried out. All the dead stayed behind until everything was cleared. I went to the hospital... Everything happened so fast but I went to the hospital but it was different. Yeah, I remember being taken a different route and... was it a hospital? It looked like one but why does it feel different?'

She held her head, trying to remember what happened but her thoughts were interrupted when the young girl huffed as she returned to the room. "Damn Mother! Always leaving me for the clean ups!" She looked up and noticed that May had awoken. "Oh! Hello! How are you? I'm Riang." She said in a cheerful voice.

May stared at her with no reaction.

"Okay. You must have a lot of questions. One at a time. Ahem. This is the MerWorld. We are mermaids and you came here from a hole at the East Stream. Queen Mother here cast a 'truth' spell on you while you were on your way to the village. It is also used as a protection to knock you out so you can't tell others where to find us, but it was too great of a burden as you didn't even last ten minutes since the spell was put in place. Meaning you've been hiding something. Something great. Usually it takes longer before the effects take place, and normally one doesn't pass out, just hallucinates. You've been asleep all night and most of the day. Dusk is on the horizon despite this beautiful sunshine. We usually have longer sunlight during the hot weather. Cold weather we have less sun. But, everything aside, any questions?"

Silence. May stared at her blankly before looking elsewhere.

"Okay. Do you want to eat something?"

The question didn't pass through May's mind. She couldn't think of anything. Everything that was said went through one ear to the next. She kept quiet and looked at the flap that leads to the outside. Riang followed her gaze.

"Would you like to go outside?" She pointed to the entrance.

May continued to look at it without answering.

"I'll take that as a yes. Come. Let me help you up." Riang supported May as she got off the bed and staggered to the door. "You have to be careful. Your body is still healing from the fall even though I've already healed all external wounds. Mother told me you had vision loss. I can help you with that if you'd like." Riang glanced over at quiet May. "Just let me know when."