Amelia had everything- family, friends, a promising future- the sky was the limit. But just like that everything was taken from her. One moment she's planning her high school graduation party the next she's laying on a therapist's couch. It was as i...
"Well it's obvious which one of us is the ugly version of Amelia," I hissed. "What does that make me?"
"The stupid version."
My face twisted in anger. "Fuck you!"
"Oh, come on. You totally walked into that one," Mia cackled. "Alright, alright. I'll be serious. Like I said before, as far as anyone outside this room knows- you are Amelia. Not the real Amelia but the one that they seem to remember since the accident."
Accident.
That nasty tumble down the stairs. Hitting my head hard. Blacking out. It was all coming back to me in painful vivid colors.
"So?"
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"So that means you can continue pretending to be her while secretly picking up where I left off five years ago."
Whoa, whoa. Hold up. Five years ago. . . That time I first met Elijah in the night club. Or when I was dancing in that priceless looking ball gown with a man I didn't know- but she did.
None of it seemed to match up in my mind. Who were these people? What business did Mia have with them?
"Mia, what happened five years ago?" She shot me an unreadable look that I could only assume was because of my clueless question. "After the plane crash, after waking up in the hospital. What happened?"
She let out a long breath. "You might want to sit down then. It's not exactly a short story."
"If you want me to continue where you left off then I need to know exactly what it was you started," I interjected.
"Well to be fair, it wasn't something I had schemed on my own. When you first woke up out of that coma I was just as confused and terrified as you were. As soon as that doctor called you Amelia, I felt your emotions. How lost you felt." Lost.
If I had to put a word to the feeling that was it. I wanted to look up at the man who held a thin clipboard and wore a long white coat and tell him he had the wrong room. My name wasn't Amelia.
I didn't know who I was. But I was too afraid to contradict what was being said to me. Becoming Amelia seemed easier than struggling to make a new life for myself. With all the answers and facts right in front of me- all I had to do was memorize them.
As time passed little by little I began feeling close to the people around me again. Sadly, that's when the memories started to come back.
"You have no idea what it's like being trapped inside a body where you have no control over anything happening around you. Day after day I was stuck watching everyone tiptoe around us like we had a fatal disease while I was stuck with the memories of the past. All I wanted to do was scream."
After going through that horrific nightmare of being trapped inside my own mind, I knew exactly how she felt.
"That's when you realized you could control me physically."
"You're a very difficult person to put under, you know that?" Mia rolled her eyes.
Oh my god. That's what must have happened at the shore earlier. Since I would never willingly surrender my mind and body to her, she would drag a memory back from the past in order to distract me.
Mia tried taking over when I was in the lingerie store but failed. So instead she continuously brought back memories that she knew would cause me to become unstable. Thus giving her the chance to take over.
Jesus Christ. I was missing months of my life that I could never remember. All because of this second life she had been living behind my back. While I was asleep.
"Before you freak out on me, I've never been able to last more than a few hours in your shoes. Just when I think I've managed to take you down you always seem to resurface."
Bullshit. I was missing months of my life. And I knew damn well that while I wasn't conscious Mia was. It had to have been during those months where she was working with those people.
"Who the hell are those people?"
"The ones from the Gala?" I gave a short nod.
"His name is Zachary. The one we were dancing with. And everyone else around us are people who work for him."
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I was at a Gala? For what? And why the hell was Elijah there? Thinking back to when I first saw him at the bar made my head spin. Which was the real him? The one dressed in black leather sitting at the bar, or the one pulling me across a dance floor while wearing a tux.
Who was Zachary? I wanted to ask. My mind was still too wrapped around Elijah that I couldn't bring myself to think about anyone else.
