Glitches

Chapter 20 - Car ride

Darkness. That was all I felt at first. Pure darkness. But also, emptiness. My head felt. Empty. As if someone had somehow decided to reboot my brain and leave it completely cleaned and empty. No thoughts. No memories. No emotions. Just a void filled with darkness. I was an empty shell.

Suddenly it came. The emotions. They rushed over me like a flood, making me dizzy. I had floated around in the darkness so long, I wasn't even sure if I had even felt emotions before. The light came. Like a knife it cut through the darkness, blinding me. The emotions seemed to build up inside of me. Drowning me. I could feel my heart speed up in pace, beating for the first time, and the dizziness became more intense. Colours became to stand out, like big dots. But I couldn't see anything. They were just a blur. Then the sounds came. I couldn't make out what they said. I heard something which sounded like metal grinding against metal. And voices. But they were muffled.

The sounds grew bigger, and so did the light and the emotions. They filled every part of my body, rushing through my veins. The sounds were now so loud they made my head hurt. And new ones had joined. Screaming. Crying. Yelling. I felt my breath hitch as everything became too much.

But suddenly the sounds stopped and got replaced with a soft voice. And for the first time, I could make out what it said.

"Stephanie? Are you awake?"

As if someone had turned on a switch, everything suddenly became clear. Scrunching my face up, I looked around, taking in my surroundings. I was lying in a room with white walls surrounding me. It wasn't big, but big enough to space a bed and a table. Looking down at myself I saw that I was only wearing a large t-shirt reaching my pale mid-thighs.

"I'm glad to see than you are awake Stephanie," the same voice said, startling me.

On my right sat a woman in a chair. Her brown hair was in a messy bun on top of her head, and her eyes were as blue as ice. She was giving me a warm smile.

Do I know her? Is she my mother? And what is that name that she keeps saying? Is it my name?

That was when it hit me. I couldn't remember anything. Not a single thing. I tried my best to dig through my mind, trying to picture my dad, my mom, my best friend. Anything. But empty faces starred back. Fear quickly took over my body, making my body shake slightly. I didn't knew where I was, or why I was here. I couldn't remember my hobbies. What I liked to do. I didn't even knew what I looked like.

The woman seemed to have seen my sudden tenseness, because she gently laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Shh... It's okay Stephanie. Everything is going to be okay," she soothed, rubbing her hand up and down my arm.

I looked directly into her icy-blue eyes, desperately trying to find some kind of familiarity in them. Nothing. She was a completely stranger to me. Opening my mouth slightly I managed to let out a hoarse whisper.

"Who are you?"

. . .

My eyes fluttered open, the humming sound of an engine filling my ears. It took me a few moments to realize that I wasn't in a hospital bed, but in a car. The memory had made a big impact on me. I could clearly remember that day I woke up. Just a scared girl who didn't remember anything. Thinking about it made a knot tighten in my chest. Everything I had been told that day was false.

It had begun to darken while I'd slept. Small lights on the roof of the car's inside had been turned on, illuminating the inside of the car with a warm, yellow glow.

I felt a movement under my head, making me shift it to look up. My gaze fell on Sam. He leaned his head on the cold glass of the window, seeming to be deep in thoughts. It had begun to rain while I was asleep. Droplets of water kept hitting the glass of the window, before gliding down the smooth surface. And now and then, you could hear the squeaking sound of the windscreen wiper wiping water away from the glass of the windscreen, while the rain kept pouring down on it. Then I realised what was moving under me.