Can you Remember? #Wattys2016

Chapter 1: Who are You?

UPDATED:  12/10/18

Everything is dark. I can't see, hear, feel, or smell anything. I become nervous and worried because I don't know where I am or how long I'll be here, how long I've been out. Am I dead? What happened to me? I try to make myself move, but my body doesn't cooperate with what I want. It feels as if I'm weighted down with lead, but I'm able to move my head to the side. Moving causes pain though, and my neck is stiff. I must've been this way for a while.

Soon, I start to hear some voices and wonder if I am leaving this darkness. I can feel the cotton being removed from my eyes and see a light coming down on me. It beams down, and I reach a hand out to it, asking me to take me with it. I want to get out of this darkness no matter what this light means. The dark is a scary place that I don't like to be in. I've been in it for too long and for too many times.

"I think she's coming to!" I hear somebody call out with a hint of excitement. The voice is that of a boy's that is undergoing change and is becoming deeper. I've heard the voice before, but I can't quite put my finger on it. A chair squeaks as it's moved closer to me.

"What makes you think that?" a different voice asks. This voice is also male, but this one is significantly deeper. Like the other voice, this one if familiar, but I can't place my finger on it either.

"Well she is starting to fidget around on the bed," pointed out a third voice that was the only female voice I've heard so far. It sounds a bit high pitched and wobbly as if the owner has been crying. Even though the voice is distorted, it is also vaguely familiar, but once again, I can't identify its owner. But why would three people that I don't know be in a room with me? Are they the reason why I'm struggling to escape the darkness.

"Kade can you hear us?" asks the first voice again. I make an attempt to open my eyes, but they feel as if they have been weighed with cement.

"Remember what the doctor said? She might need more time to wake up. Kade did hit her head pretty hard, and it's been three days," the second voice told the first one. By the way he replied, to me, it seemed as if he was scolding him.

"We're here!" echoed two new voices, one male and one female. Both were weathered with age and sound exhausted and out of breath.

"Mr. and Mrs. Blake!" exclaimed the third voice. My parents . . . that explains why the voices sound familiar. I know that I can't be dead or anything if I'm hearing these conversations, but where am I? Why are my parents here? Who are the other voices? Why does my head hurt so much?

"Is she alright?" they ask in unison.

"The doctor said she is stable, but it might take a bit for her to wake up fully," the first voice said again. The more I hear it, the more familiar it sounds, but I just can't figure out who it belongs to.

"Oh my! Well are you three alright?" my mother asked genuinely concerned for these three unknown people.

"Aside from bumps and bruises and a broken arm in James' case, we are fine."

"Oh well that's a relief," my father responded. "Thank you again for staying by Kade's side until we were able to get a flight back. Apparently the airport staff doesn't understand the meaning of an emergency." Slowly, as this conversation drags on, I can feel the weight being lifted off my eyes. I use all the strength I have gathered in me to try and open my eyes.

"Guys, look! I think she's waking up!" the first voice cried out once again. I can hear the shuffling of many pairs of shoes as they all try to crowd around the spot I am currently in. Finally, after what seems like forever, I manage to open my eyes.

When I open them, I see my parents and the three other people whose voices I've been hearing. They are all looking at me with wide eyes and mixed expressions on their faces that I cannot figure out.

"Oh thank god you're awake!" my mother shouted in relief as she bent over to hug me. She gave me a bone crushing hug while she cried tears of joy against my chest. My father came around to the other side of me and hugged me also, but being the strong man he is, he did not cry like my mother did. After they let go of me, the other three people came to hug me as well.

"I'm so glad you're alright! I'm so sorry Kade! I don't know what I would have done if you wouldn't have woken up!" said the first voice that I've been hearing the most. The guy was holding onto me for with such a tight grip that it was hard to breath as he began crying his eyes out like there was no tomorrow. But I have no idea who he is! I don't know who the other two people are either! What happened to me anyway? Why are these people here? I don't like having my life out in the open in front of people I don't know.

Seeing my reaction of me stiffening up as the thoughts went through my head, the sobbing guy let go of me, and the other two came to surround me. All of them looked at me with wide eyes.

"Kade, are you alright?" they all asked me simultaneously. They all came inching closer anticipating my response. I looked around and said three simple words that made me realize that I didn't say what they were expecting and that I was missing something. Something important.

"Who are you?"

Everyone on the room froze and turned to look at me. My father dropped his business phone, my mother became extremely pale and looked like she was about to pass out, and the guy and girl turned to look at each other before looking at the sobbing guy. The guy who was sobbing on me looked at me dead in the eyes before backing away slowly and then turning running out the room with the other two people ran after him shouting name. I didn't realize I had done anything wrong because I just couldn't remember anything. My parents looked at me with wide eyes and open mouths in shock.

"What happened to you Kade?" they asked me with fearful looks on their faces. I try my best to form the words with my mouth, but I suddenly become very light headed and could slowly feel myself slipping back into the dark. Doors are being opened and people are rushing around shouting my name and coming over to the bed, but I can no longer hear them... I no longer want to hear them. I rather succumb to the awful darkness than deal with fake concern from people I don't know.