The Lighthouse | ARTHUR CURRY: I

NINETEEN

• • •

Finally, after a week in the hospital, I was being discharged. Leslie smiled at me and took my small bag. She had brought it from my home, with a change of clothes.

Once the papers were signed, and I was given a date for my follow up appointment, I followed her out the hospital. The ride to my house was quiet, and I could feel a headache blooming behind my left eye.

"You don't remember anything?" Leslie broke the calming silence, and I grimaced at how loud she spoke.

"No. Nothing."

"Do you have a headache? Nausea?"

I picked my forehead up from the cold glass and turned to her frowning, "Yeah...how did you know?"

"He said it'll take five days for it to be out of your system once we left the flowers behind. The side effects are nausea, sweating, cold chills, and headaches. It'll feel like you're body is going through withdrawals." She explained very matter of fact.

"Who said this? Where are you getting this information from?"

"I'm just supposed to help you get through the first twenty-four hours. They're the hardest. That's it. I can't tell you anything more."

"Leslie, who told you this?" I demanded. I was scared now. Was I drugged? Was that why I couldn't remember the attack? Why is Leslie telling me these things?

Out of sheer panic, I began to hyperventilate. Loudly gasping for breath, gripping the leather seat beneath me.

"Ingrid! Calm down. We're here. Just give me a minute."

I heard the tires squelch under gravel, felt the car come to a halt and hear the door wretch open as she fumbled with my seatbelt. She pressed her palms to either side of my face and commanded that I breathe.

"That's it just like that. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't want to shock your mind. If you're to remember anything before this starts is that this needed to be done. You needed to focus on surviving."

Hour 18

The pain intensified and I screamed louder and louder — my voice was choking in my throat as my body convulsed on the hard ground. Almost in time to my heartbeat, but growing slower and slower with each passing second my body began to still. My vision started to darken, and the pain was dulling.

I laid still for a moment until another convulsion, and it would repeat over and over again. It was like I was dying and my writhing body was my heartbeat. Peace wafted over me for a moment until a shock, sharp and hot with electricity, pulsed through me. Twice more and then it stopped. I was tired; my mind was a mess, random memories flashes before me quickly like somebody had pressed fast forward. I could barely make them out. The Pier. That mans smile. A dog. My dad. My mom. A woman with red hair. And then nothing. Nothing else followed and the air around me goes cold and the light in the room stales to a grey color and for a moment I'm content, happy, watching the last bit of light disappear before I'm swallowed up by nothing.