Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 7

America

It felt weird when he came back. It didn't feel like him. He talked to me differently, like I might break if he said the wrong thing. I started to wonder what happened and why he left. Then he asked me something he had never asked me before.

"Why don't you just wake up?"

To tell you the truth, I never tried. That's how I answered him. I was scared to wake up. I mean, it can't be that easy. I can't just pinch myself and suddenly be back in my body again. That's not how it works, right? What if I tried to wake up and something really bad happened? What if I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was dead? So I sat down in my room and tried my best to enjoy him being there, but it was near impossible. 

It was so... 

awkward. 

It stessed me out. After he left, I walked around, but my leg started to kill, so I stopped. I tried to remember anything I could from the night of the wreck. We were coming back from the party, I was arguing with Peter. We went off the road, I hit something- 

And then there nothing. It like someone took a big eraser and took it from my head. The memory just ends. I get up and walk some more. I walk left, then right, this way and that way and I guess anywhere you can in a never-ending room. Then something weird happens. When my right leg hits the ground, it goes weak and I fall.

What the hell?

When I touch it, I'm in a hospital bed.

Everything is blurry and doctors are shining lights onto my body. I can't feel the bottom half of my leg and the top half is in excruciating pain. I try to scream, but can't. My shirt is soaked through and I start to shiver uncontrollably.

Then a doctor puts a mask over my face and I'm back in the room.

Sweat covers my forehead and my hands are shaking. What just happened? My breathing speeds up. Then my leg starts to cramp. Instinctively, I wrap my hands around it.

My back is on something hard and uneven. Water is rushing over my legs and under my back. My left arm is under my back and my right one is over the top of my head. I had never felt so much pain. My eyes are open, but I can't see anything. I try to move, but can't. All I can do is try my best to breath. Just remember to breathe. 

I sit there for what feels like hours.

Then I hear someone. "Over here!" It's a girl's voice. I can't remember who at the moment, but they sound worried. A couple loud plops like feet running through water. Then they stop. Someone gasps. Then the same girl starts crying.

"Jess! Did you call the police?" 

"I'm trying!"

"Dude hurry up! I found Mer!"

One set of footsteps come running towards me. Water rushes over my face. I continue to breathe. You're going to be okay, I think. I know who Jess is. He goes to my school. I'm pretty sure I ran into him at the party. The boy closest to me could be Michael. If it is, the girl is probably Grace.

Cold fingers touch my neck. "Dude! She's alive!"

"Oh my god," Grace mumbles.

"Let me see the flashlight, Grace." 

"Her face," she whispers.

Michael screams and something splashes in the water next to me. They both start running off. Someone starts to get sick. Jess talks into the phone. "Yes, I would like to reports a car wreck..."

Michael's voice is in the background. "Her leg. Holy shit, her leg."

Black surrounds me and I can move and see myself again. What did he mean by leg? What's wrong with it? I start crying. "Wake up!" I scream. "Just wake up!" I start slapping myself, pinching my skin until my nails went so deep that I started to bleed. I try to stand up, but can't. My leg won't allow it. I crawl up into a ball on the ground and pull the sleeves of my white shirt over my hands and curl up into a ball and try to forget what I just remembered.