You Broke Me First | A Tale of Amnesia

Chapter Two

Kayla

"Do you know your name?" The doctor said as he stared at me with intense focus.

"Yes. I'm Kayla. Why am I here?"

"Can you tell me your age or date of birth?"

I sat there thinking. The more I tried to focus on the specifics the more the pain in my head intensified.

"May 16th."

"Perfect. Now can you tell me what day it is?" He said.

"I-. Uhm."

"Take your time," He said softly.

I wanted to just focus on the earliest memory that I knew of and worked from there. Thoughts of my childhood brought me joy, while thoughts of highschool just stressed me out. Thinking shouldn't be this difficult, but I feel like that one episode of SpongeBob where there are mini copies of himself in his head racking through files of information before they start burning. After a few minutes, everything became clear I just couldn't remember anything from the week.

"Uh. It's October. I don't know the exact date but I know we're halfway through the month. Last week we had Halloween Food Drive and I hung out with someone for a movie. The rest of the week is kind of a blur. So I'd say somewhere around October 20th"

My anxiety arose as the doctor's hands dragged the pen across the pages on the clipboard. The silence was interrupted when a woman and a man rushed into the room. Coming up to the side of the hospital bed the woman cupped my face and her eyes instantly lit up with joy.

"My baby. You're okay. You're finally awake. Oh, how I've missed you." The man kissed my forehead and ran his fingers through my hair slowly.

It took a few seconds for my brain to register that these were my parents, but they looked different from how I remembered them. My mother's long brunette locks were cut into a short blonde bob with golden highlights. She looked slightly older and tired but still maintained a put-together appearance. More gray hairs were visible in my father's black hair, and it looks as if he made no effort to hide it. His beard was cut down to some stubble and a goatee that didn't look bad at all.

"Excuse me, Mr. and Mrs. Warren, I have some news that will be troubling."

"What news? Kayla looks perfectly fine, Doctor Hughes." My mother said as her thumb stroked against my cheek.

"We would have to run some CT scans to verify my suspicions of course, but I am fairly certain that Kayla has become a victim to amnesia."

"Amnesia?" My mother and father said in unison.

"Yes. After asking a few questions, it has become fairly evident that Kayla has lost a very large chunk of her memories. She claims that it is October and last week was Halloween Food Drive. It's currently March 6th and although this would seem usual since she has been in a coma for two months, the accident occurred in early January. Which means that her memories of the three months from before the accident are gone."

It's March? I was in a coma? What? What accident is he talking about?

"Doctor Hughes that's impossible, you said that the accident only caused minor injuries besides the surgery needed on her lower torso." My mother said, visually shaking from fear and confusion.

"It is normal for patients to retain head trauma upon such an impact. Considering that she is only unaware of mid-October to late-December, I can assume that this is some weird form of Retrograde Amnesia. In simple words, it's a type of amnesia in which a patient loses pre-existing memories. Typically the only memories affected are those that have been recently formed, and in some cases, childhood memories become affected but at a much slower rate."

"This is crazy. Will she get her memories back?" My father said.

"She most certainly can, it will just take some time. You have to slowly work with her by showing her some significant items or taking her to important places from the last two months. At the moment she cannot recall her name, age, or birth date, but this is just due to the brain reorganize its information now that Kayla is finally awake. I'm sure that tomorrow morning those small details will return."

Everything Doctor Hughes was saying made panic raise from within me. There's a whole two months of my life that I don't remember. Surely I didn't doa anything crazy enough that I needed to remember. But it does mean that I remember absolutely nothing from the holidays, which is a downer because it's my favorite time of year.

"I'm positive that her future memories will not be affected at all, she just needs 24 to 48 hours for her brain to resume its normal functions, then you can attempt to help her remember the last two months. We can discharge her tonight, but we have to run a few scans first." My parents shook their heads as Dr. Hughes' pager went off. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to prep the scans. Nurse Talia will let you know when and how to get to the room."

With those words, Dr. Hughes left the room and I was left with my parents.

"Oh, baby. Three months is much better than what I had originally thought. Emily can help you with that."

Emily. My best friend since fourth grade. I could just picture her long brown curls and short stature. It's crazy to think that I've been in a 'coma' this whole time, but I was with Emily just the other day. This doesn't make any sense to me. My eyes shifted to my mother and father who were having a quiet conversation off to the side.

"Mom?"

"Yes, darling?" She said, trying to look as joyful as she could in the process.

"What accident was Dr. Hughes talking about? How did I end up in a coma?"

"Well." She said with hesitation. "It was all you."

"Me?" The sound of confusion and disbelief was evident in my voice. How the hell did I get myself here?"

"It's best not to talk about all the details yet. You need to rest and just relax."

"I'm positive that I've rested for enough time." I could tell that she didn't want to move the conversation any further, so I decided not to push for an answer. She'd have to tell me sooner or later, or maybe I'd remember on my own.

A few hours passed and before I knew it, my scans were done and I was walking out of the front doors. Everything had felt so weird like I was discovering the world again. The sky looked new. The trees too. Hell, even the oxygen was different. I hopped into the backseat of the car and leaned my head against the window, examining the world in front of me as the car went down various streets.

Hitting a speed bump, the car jolted and a flash made me close my eyes instantly. My head started hurting but I could see these weird but faint images in my head. It was dark and near some form of water. A huge tree that was at least 30ft tall was in front of my eyes. Within seconds my eyes opened again and I looked over at my mom.

"Did you guys see that?"

"See what honey?"

What the hell was that? "Oh, nothing. Nevermind." I could see her shy smile in the rearview mirror.

Assuming it was just a side-effect of my injury, I sat back into my seat and just hummed the rest of the way home.