Fall In Love With Me Again

1. Middle of Nowhere

~Chapter 1~

It's so cold with nobody to hold me

You're so wrong when you told me

You would never leave me by myself

Out in the middle of nowhere

Now I'm lost

Trying to make it on my own

I thought I could never do this,

So numb but now I'm walking by myself

Out in the middle of nowhere

-Middle of Nowhere by Selena Gomez

Everything around me seemed to be moving in slow-motion when I heard those 4 little words: “Finn had an accident." I couldn’t believe it. I blinked dully at my phone in my hand, trying to process it into my brain. My ears were ringing loudly and my mind felt completely blank. It couldn’t be. Not him, God please, don’t take him away from me. Not Finn, with the flashing green eyes, and the one who’s been by my side for months now. Not Finn with his crooked smile and twisted sort of humor. Please, not Finn. Anybody else but Finn.

“Mercy? Mercy?!” yelled the voice from the phone. “Listen to me, Mercy!” I slowly placed the phone next to my ear again. “George?” I could barely hear my own whisper as I silently hoped that he had made some sort of mistake. “Mercy,” Finn’s brother said with urgency, “Finn had a car accident over on Highway 76. He wasn’t badly hurt but he had hit his head pretty hard. He’s in hospital now.”

I drew in a sharp intake of breathe, closing my eyes, I immediately asked: “Where?” I didn’t think I could say more than one comprehensible word right now. George rattled off the address of the Clearwater Hospital, the one next to the Miller River. I grabbed my scruffy shoes, my purple jacket, and the keys of my mum’s car. It was an old, a replacement till our own proper car was fixed. I jumped right in and jammed the keys into the hole, hoping that it was one of the good days when it didn’t break down. I turned the key in the ignite once. Nothing. I tried again, but in vain.

“Shit!” I cried out loud, tears of frustration welling up. I hit the car’s headboard hard, and tried again. While I was just making my car work, Finn could be dying in the hospital. When it still wouldn’t start, I jumped out of the car, and started running in the direction of the hospital. Thankfully it was only a fifteen minute walk, but with my urgency and speed, I had managed to reach there in ten minutes, panting and huffing. For once in my life, I was glad to have long legs, other than a reason to look sexy.

I ran into the huge white building, my legs sailing over the steps up to the entrance.

“Finn. Isaac’s. Room.” I said between pants to the receptionist at the front desk. She looked quite alarmed, probably because I looked like a wild woman right now, with my hair all over the place and breathing as if I had never heard of oxygen before. She gaped at me, her eyes wide open. “Miss, maybe you should slow d-“

“Mercy!” I heard someone shout. I turned and spotted George, waving at me frantically. I jogged over to him, but not before shooting a glare at the receptionist. When I finally reached him, I hugged him quickly and asked about Finn. George shook his head sadly, as I looked up to his face, it was clear that he had been crying from the red puffy look of his eyes. He pointed to a room at the end of the corridor. “Is… is it bad?” My voice cracked as I gripped on his arm as tightly as I could to keep myself from falling.

Again, George remained silent. I walked shakily over to the room where he had indicated where Finn was. The door was green, and covered with what might have possibly been a faded sticker of some kind of motto. I grasped the cool metal handle, and pushed it open cautiously, the smell of medicines and antiseptics hitting me right in the face. Inside lay a simple white-washed room, with two uncomfortable-looking chairs for visitors next to a bed. The bed was surrounded by machines, some that I had no clue about. And on that bed lay…

“Finn!” I cried out with anguish.

Finn’s normally tanned skin was pale, and his forehead sweaty making his brown hair curl a bit around his ears. Instead of his usual look in jeans and a leather jacket that I saw him wear just this morning had been replaced by a horrible white spotted hospital gown, hiding his muscular body under loose material. He was so still, I was afraid that he was dead if not for the unsteady, shallow breaths he took. I stepped closer to the bed, and wiped a piece of hair that had fallen into his eye away. “Oh Finn…” I tried to stop the tears from emerging, knowing that I shouldn't be crying. Finn hated pity above everything else.

Being closer allowed me to see thin scratches on his arms, but thankfully no deep wounds. One of his fingers were bandaged, with a spot of red already staining the white cloth. His legs were covered by the sheets, but with a quick glance at George, he assured me that nothing was broken and said “He has two bruised ribs, had a gigantic glass splinter taken out of his finger, lots of bruises but… Mercy, that’s not the worst part…” George trailed off, not being able to end his sentence.

A large bandage covered the back of his head, something that I didn’t notice before. Finn must have been here for an hour at the most, but already the bandage was red with blood. I stared at George, waiting for him to continue but he avoided my gaze so, I turned back to Finn whose closed eyes were flickering open.

“Hey, Finn” I gave him a small shaky smile as I entwined my fingers with his weak ones. “No need to worry. I’m here for you now.”

Finn’s emerald green eyes blinked at me with confusion “Who…” by his strangled voice, I could tell that the pain on his head was killing him.

“Who…are you?” he asked as he pulled his fingers away from mine.

Several dreadful seconds passed as I stared at him in a mixture of hurt and shock.

"Finn... It's me.. Mercy? Don't you remember me…?” I asked in a strained voice. Finn looked at me as if I was a complete stranger instead of his girlfriend of 9 months. I forced out an unconvincing chuckle. "Stop playing around, Finn. It's not funny." I rolled my eyes, acting like I didn't care even though my head and heart was spinning around.

Suddenly the door opened, making me start. A doctor in a white coat walked in, followed by a nurse with a clipboard. "I take it that you're Miss Mercy? Finn's girlfriend? I'm Doctor Henderson" the doctor greeted me while holding out a slender hand. I shook it, and mumbled out a greeting.

"I don't know that girl!" came a sudden cry. I turned and looked at Finn slowly, my chest feeling tight as if an elephant had been stomping on me. Finn's face looked panicked and pale, eyes wide open in an unspoken terror. "I don't know her! She's not my girlfriend! I don't know her!" he clutched his head, shaking it from side to side. George sent me a sympathetic and worried look, and tried to comfort Finn who had his hands pressed tightly to his ears. George tried to hug his brother, but Finn just pushed him away, and curled up in a ball on the bed.

Doctor Henderson shook his head sadly and gestured for me to step outside with him. I complied, my heart still aching. As soon as we stepped outside, I demanded: "What's wrong with him? Why can't he remember me?" Doctor Henderson looked at me with pity. "It seemed that Finn hit his head hard and lost his memory. The thing is, he remembers everything except..." he trailed off. I waited, but I already knew my answer. "Your entire person, Miss Mercy... You've been totally erased from his mind."