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Endings and Beginnings

       I was nowhere.

       A chilling emptiness consumed me. There was nothing but the chill that ate at my bones. I couldn't scream for help or run from the frost-biting air. My lips would not move, and my feet would not bend to my will and walk.

       As I was floating further away from my life, my home, images flashed through my head. Images that did not belong to me. Images I was not familiar with. Quickly, so quickly that it turned into a moving picture. I could see the illustrations moving from one to the next, but it was fast enough for the images to blend into one another and dance.

The images showed a woman crumpled over a hospital bed, moving so slowly... her mouth muttered silent words.

The child in the bed... she shook and shook and flailed so helplessly like her body and mind had disconnected, and it overwhelmed her fragile limbs.

And then she had just stopped, the pictures dispersed in my vision and all showed the child still and lifeless almost. And they stayed that way. The child ceased moving absolutely.

       What was this? Why had the woman looked so familiar? Felt so familiar.

       There was another image that had quickly replaced the last, one of the grandma sitting by the bed, a book in her hands and tears coating her cheeks. She sat by the empty child, a child whose breath was cold. Was she a child; I could no longer tell. The images began to turn fuzzy.

       I could hear the grandmother's voice, though, singing ever so softly. It rang in my head. "Once upon a time," she had whimpered.

       Once upon a time.

       The image of the grandmother slowly flaked away, leaving the girl alone. Alone for an exceptionally long time. No one visited after grandma... she was all alone.

       I couldn't stand it. It felt so familiar, and I hated it. It hurt so much... so much that my heart ached for the girl. Where was her family?!

       Where was mine? Why can't I remember them? Who...who even am I?

       Maybe I was only but a ghost... a fragile, little ghost.

       My body went numb... or whatever body I had. I could feel my consciousness split open, insanity tearing away at the edges of my mind.

       What am I doing? Where....?

       Another tear, a rip that busted open my reality; I was empty, being torn apart from the inside—no pain... nothing anymore... nothing.

       I felt utterly alone, betrayed. Solitude being my only companion. This was the worst pain to me; the pain of nothing and emptiness. This thought fluttered through my head, among millions of others. The idea had become my existence; it clung to me like a wet cloth. It never let go...

       Slowly, that became all of me.

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       I open my eyes, eyes that I didn't know were closed. The feeling in my body is weird; it feels stiff and heavy. Have I been sleeping? My body's numb, and I can't seem to move. I can't even feel the clothes clinging to my body or the sheet that's slung over me. The room...the room is warm though, almost comforting.

A numbing warmth.

       I seem to be staring up at a white ceiling for some reason. It's smooth and clean, like in a hospital. That's when my ears perk up, and I hear a soft but piercing beeping. It's a steady, constant sound, like that of my heartbeat.