Elements of Prophecy

Awoken From Reality

    Choking on his own sorrow he shook under the clear water. Sinking while his lungs filled with frigid water, his muscles tensed. His salty tears dispersed like echoes in the fresh water lake. He almost regretted it. Almost. But the thought of them mourning over him made him smile. His chapped lips burned from how thin they were stretched. He laughed silently as he tried to breathe the cold water. He clutched his stomach and sunk lifelessly. He let out one final inaudible cry then stopped shivering. He spoke but only in thoughts, "Let this cryptopath carry my message. Tell them youngblood. And try without prevail to warn them of what comes."
*
"Wow. Theodore, I said to write down how you feel. Why another story?"
His middle-aged teacher towered over him.

"It's not a story. It's what he felt."
Theodore looked down embarrassed thinking he did something wrong.

"Who is 'he'? Theodore, don't be scared. You can tell me."
His teacher's shoulder-length hair blew slightly in the warm summer breeze and the glistening auburn blinded him.

Theodore squinted and looked down again.
"I don't know. That's just what he whispered to me."

"Who whispered to you?"

Theodore almost replied. But he knew better. School after school he got sent away for sharing his secrets. He put on a fake smile, like he'd done so many times before, and got ready to lie.

"I was just joking Ms. Brown. I was just reading this story and I guess I got it mixed up."

His teacher looked down in disbelief but because she felt too burdened to talk to Theodore's parents she just shook off her thoughts and dismissed him back to the playground.

Theodore ran back to his tree where the voices were always quiet and started to climb the slender branches like he had done everyday since he started this new school. There was always a place. Somewhere the voices couldn't get to him. He thought that place was here. But he was wrong. 
Whispers buzzed in his ear. He tried to swat them away as they grew increasingly louder. He forgot he was holding the branches and his small six year-old arms flittered helplessly in the air as he crashed to the ground. All too fast the ground seemed to swallow him up. He cried out and then went black as he sunk into unconsciousness.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Oh my god. Nurse! Nurse come in here! He's waking up. Oh my god, Theodore! I've missed you so much."
The woman choked on her words and called out. He felt someone embrace him tightly.

    People rushed in the room. Their voices were unbearably loud and he tried to cover his ears. But when he lifted his arms they were in casts.

"Please. Everybody give him room."
The voices pulsated in his skull. He could hear the woman who'd hugged him before sobbing loudly. Phones were going off at random and people were on hysterically crying out on their phones. The noise was getting too much for him to bear. He croaked out a plea.

"T-too loud. P-please. Quiet. Please."
The skull-shattering noise died down to the beeping of the monitor. Theodore lifted his head and squinted through his blurry vision. He could make out three nurses dressed in the normal mint green scrubs, two doctors in lab coats, and a total of five strangers. The oldest looking of the five, was a tall man with chocolate brown hair speckled with grey. His warm amber eyes smiled with tears in them as he looked affectionately at Theodore.  The second oldest looking was a women about five foot seven with fiery hair and sparkling green eyes. She must have been the women who had been sobbing earlier because there were used tissues strewn about by the chair she was standing over. The last members of what Theodore assumed was a family, were three almost identical children all around age, five? Maybe? Theodore wasn't good with age. The triplets shared a mix of their parents hair and eyes. Theodore hadn't been able to tell before, but one of the triplets was a girl. "What a nice family. I wonder what they are doing here. And why am I in a hospital bed?" Theodore thought. He tried to open his eyes wider but the light hurt.
    There was a long silence before the doctor finally spoke. The female doctor looked fresh out of med-school and carried a clipboard. With a pen tucked neatly in her blonde hair she spoke loudly but with a calm that all doctors seemed to have,

"Theodore? Can you hear us?"
Theodore laughed slightly at the question. He could definetly hear them, although if he was Theodore he wasn't aware of this fact. Theodore stared absently at the wall. He could feel the people's anxiousness. His head throbbed.

"Who's Theodore?" He called out quizzically intending to end the question in his mind.
The family in the corner seemed to melt with dread. The doctors all looked disappointed.

The young female doctor spoke sincerely but not to him,

"We did say he could experience amnesia. He's been comatose far too long."

The women's weeping got louder, the whole room filled with her sorrowful cries. Theodore could tell these people had been mourning for a very long time and their last hope had just died. The woman let out a shaky breath,

"Will he- will he remember me?"

"It's hard to say what he will remember. Just give it some time." 

"I've given it 7 years!"

The woman in the corner was speaking through her tears.
"Can't you do anything?" She cried.
The doctor replied uniformly,
"I'm afraid not. I'm so sorry."
*
With that the doctors left and the strangers slumped back into their seats.
Theodore heard the man he assumed to be the husband whispering comfort to the woman and the children.

"I- I'm sorry if I have caused you grief."

The family looked up with affection and smiled. The red haired woman replied and wiped her freckled nose,

"Don't worry sweetie, you haven't caused anything."

Theodore wasn't so sure but he decided against prying at an open-wound he was pretty sure he had caused.

"We're right here if- you need anything or want to talk." She encouraged.

"Um, okay thank you ma'am."

She laughed with her teary eyes,

"How 'bout you call me mom?"