Aspen Heights, Book 2: Forgotten

Elita

I stood in the blank, white room, wearing my blank, white gown. I huddled, quivering in the corner. "Get me out of here!" I whimpered, desperately. Tears ran down my cheeks. I slumped in the corner and slid down the wall until I hit the cold floor. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Sometimes, I was me, I was back at school, kind of. I didn't understand what was going on. Sometimes I was here in this room, but sometimes I could see things. It's like, I was seeing this little scene in my head. If I thought really, really hard, I could see what was happening to me, where I was, but sometimes, it was just too much, it got too hard. It drained my energy and maked me so tired. I had no control over myself and it was killing me. It made no sense. Every once in a while, I would think so hard that I could even move and talk for myself. But sometimes, I was just stuck here. Stuck in this terrible prison. I was going stir crazy and I could hardly take it anymore. I wanted to be me again, permanently, but I wasn't sure how. It was the strangest feeling, the hardest thing to describe. I couldn't even tell my friends what was going on. Even for those few rare, brief moments when I had control, I just couldn't do it. I could never get it out in time, explain that it wasn't really me most of the time. When I reopened my eyes, I noticed something lying on the floor. It hadn't been there before, nothing had. I stood up and walked over to it gingerly. It was a necklace. A necklace with a gold chain. At the end of it there was a slightly deformed heart shape. It was a greenish color and seemed to be made out of clay. Why was it here? I was about to pick it up but someone else beat me to it. I gulped and raised my head slowly, expecting some kind of monster. But it was only a girl. She looked about my age and actually resembled me quite a bit too. The same bright blue eyes, caramel curls and even a scar. Her's was different though, it was a triangle shape. She was wearing an old fashioned, frilly pink dress. "Who are you?" I asked, trembling in fear. "I'm Aspen. And I'm here to help you. I think it's time for you to go back, to get out of this place. Back to your friends," she replied. Everything she said seemed to echo around the room. "I don't know how to go back," I explained, still sniffling and hiccupping. "Here, take this," she offered, handing me the necklace. I looked into her eyes and I knew I could trust her. I put the necklace on. Nothing happened at first, but then everything went black.

I awoke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. "Carol! Where am I?" I asked, in a panic. "Am I at school?" I murmured. "Cassie! Anybody! Hello? Cassie!" I called out. I walked out of the room and found myself in a an empty hall. I was definitely in the school. I ran down the hall, desperately calling out the names of my friends. Where were they? What was happening? I briefly remembered being in that room, that horrible white room, but everything was foggy now. My memories were a blur. My mind races with too many thoughts and it was causing my head to pound. I ran outside and across the gravel path. I was barefoot and every step stung like crazy. A memory suddenly flashed into my mind. "What is your name? What is your name?" the words echoed through my head. "What is going on?!" I cried. My hands flew to my ears, but the voices didn't stop, they rattled on inside my brain. All the memories were pouring in. I remembered yelling at Cassie and Sophia in the library. But that wasn't me, it wasn't really me! "It's all in your head," I said to myself over and over again. I remembered being tortured. The electricity shooting through my body. My screams echoing through the room. The laughter of the one eyed lady. I fell to the ground and curled up into a ball, right there on the gravel. I remembered revealing my named to the Hiat woman. I just laid there for a few minutes, overwhelmed by the thoughts pouring into my head. And then I stood up, feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline. And then I screamed. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I couldn't take it anymore. If anyone had seen me, they most likely would have thought I was crazy...and they would have been right.