"Yayy! We're finally returning back! Wow! I'm so happy! I can't wait to see Addie's face when we arrive there! OhmyGod! I bet he'll probably faint from the shock!" The seventeen year old girl giggled from the backseat of the car where she was sitting with her younger sister.
The young one followed her suit and giggled as well, despite not knowing what her sister was rambling about. But seeing the older girl making funny faces at the painting of a boy with bright blue eyes, she had a good guess, and almost rolled her eyes at her elder sister. The younger girl was sometimes too smart for her age and liked to think she was smarter than her sister, who was behaving like a child at the moment.
The eight year old girl looked at the big painting that lay on her sister's lap. It was the painting of a boy. A boy with black hair and blue eyes. She had never met the boy, but had seen so many portraits of him made by her sister that she'd started to think that she'd known him all along.
Her sister was an amazing painter. She had made many beautiful paintings of her and her favorite Disney princesses that she proudly showed to her friends. She enjoyed seeing her friends looking at these gifts from her sister with awe and jealousy. She specially loved seeing the envious look on her friend Maddy when she saw them. Maddy was a meanie who had broken her new barbie's arm. But her sister had painted a picture of her with a beautiful Rapunzel that had turned Maddy green with jealousy. She smirked remembering that day. Her sister was truly wonderful. Little Eva always looked up to her sister and hoped that she'd be like her someday.
This painting in particular was different from the uncountable ones in her sister's room. It was bigger than all the other portraits and more detailed. She looked in awe at the painting that could easily pass off as a real live photo. Her sister had taken months to complete it- having started as soon as their father told them that they'd be returning for real. Now, looking at the pretty face of a boy who looked nothing like the Mickey Mouse like her sister referred to him as, the little girl suddenly wanted to meet him, and maybe, ask him to play with them. She wanted to play a flower girl but there was no boy to be a groom for her sister.
The older couple in the front seat chuckled at their daughter's enthusiasm. Nicholas White released a deep breath. Finally. Finally, everything was over. After years of hardships and plannings, he had finally managed to expose his brother's deceit and threats to the world. Their father had initially refused to believe that his youngest and favorite son was capable of such vile things as threatening his own brother's family for money. But when he saw evidences and his company's debts, he couldn't deny it anymore.
Still then, he had somehow prevented his son from being arrested because for him, his family's reputation was more important than his older son's family, whom, he had disowned the day his son married the woman he loved instead of his friend's daughter.
So when the same father asked, or rather, ordered him to come back home and take over the company, Nick refused without hesitation. Because unlike his father, his family was more important to him than anything else in the world. He would not go to a place where his wife would not be treated with the respect she deserved. He would rather live in the streets than subject his wife and his children to the ruthless world of his father.
Besides, he had his own company now. The company for which he had worked hard for years. It had slowly grown over the years and was now more successful than his father's company. He was proud of what he had accomplished. Despite his father's indifference, he would never forgive his brother because he had attacked on one thing he loved the most- his family. But since their father had prevented his arrest, he had let the matter go with a restraining order against him to keep his family safe.
It was hard moving away. He had found a brotherly figure in his friend Daniel Stone. Both of these families were like one and suddenly, they had to leave everything and everyone behind. He and his wife had adjusted to the new environment somehow, even their youngest daughter, who didn't know better and was content seeing the new toys and dolls. But their eldest daughter had taken it the worst.
She was heartbroken because of her separation from her bestfriend. Nick had to do everything in his power to not return back from halfway that day when he'd heard his daughter cry in the backseat, every sob piercing through his heart. She would cry and yell at them every waking hour, blaming them for taking her Mickey away from her. But the nights were the worst. She would wake up in the middle of the nights, crying out for her friend and have regular nightmares.
It had broken his heart little by little every time he heard his precious little girl's quiet sobs and at the same time amazed him seeing the depth of their friendship. Especially when he learned from his friend that the other boy was in no better condition.
His little daughter had grown up to be a lovely girl despite everything. She had grown as a strong, responsible girl and he was so, so proud of her. But even when she smiled, he'd seen sadness hidden far behind in her eyes. But today, it was nowwhere to be seen. And for the first time in all these years, he had seen a real smile in her eyes. His carefree daughter was finally returning back as well. He couldn't wait to get back home.
Lily White sighed as well from the passenger seat. They were finally returning. Returning to that one place that had truly felt like home in the sea of houses they lived in. She had seen her husband spend tireless nights in his office, working, searching and collecting evidences that could rid them of his brother's evil schemes. She had seen their daughter being miserable in the absence of her bestfriend.
Those were the times she'd feel guilty. Guilty for coming into Nick's life. If it hadn't been for her, he wouldn't have to go against his father and marry her. He could've married the woman his father had chosen for him. A rich, successful woman with whom he'd be running his family business. He wouldn't have had to move frequently if it hadn't been for her.
These thoughts would eat her away at nights while she waited for her husband to return from work. But when her husband finally came and held her close, as if knowing exactly what had been running through her mind, she'd feel a little easier to breathe. A little less guilty. And when one night, while they were in each other's arms, when her husband whispered against her ears, she'd realised what she'd always known. It was all worth it. Their two children wouldn't be there if she hadn't come to his life. She wouldn't have found her love and gotten her wonderful little pieces of her heart if she hadn't met him. And looking at her eldest daughter now, who couldn't contain her happiness, she truly believed. Everything was worth it.
"Dad! You didn't tell them we're coming, did you?"
The couple came out of their thoughts when they heard the girl. Nick looked at her from his rear view mirror to find her already looking at him through narrowed eyes. He put on his best shocked expression and briefly turned to her.
"Um... I wasn't supposed to tell him?"
He tried hard to suppress his chuckle when a loud shriek cam from the backseat. "Daddddd! How could you? It was supposed to be a surprise! I can't believe you told uncle Danny! You guys are worse than a group of gossiping women! I told you to keep it a secret, dad! Ughh! You've ruined all my plans! I wanted Mickey to faint at the sight of me but now, he's probably already readying his stupid pranks!"
He shook his head at his daughter with a smile and smirked at his wife, who gave her a look that said 'See?'. She was his daughter, alright. Only his daughter could be as arrogant as him to think that the boy would faint at the sight of her. Or perhaps, he would, he thought. Because last he remembered, the boy had come to them, demanding them to not take his Minnie away and he'd been making marriage plans with her.
Another shriek cut off his thoughts and he was about to assure her that he hadn't, in fact, told them about their return when he realised that this shriek was different from the previous one.
This time, her shriek was filled with terror.
He never got a chance to tell his daughter that he hadn't ruined her surprise.
They never reached their home to surprise anyone.
He barely had a time to register a pickup truck moving fast towards them from the wrong way when he realised that the brakes were no longer working. Without wasting any time, he quickly instructed his wife to move to the backseat with their daughters and turned back, shielding their bodies just in time to feel a strong force push them back.
In a matter of seconds, there were explosions everywhere. The glasses shattered and stabbed him in countless places and the car was again pushed with a huge force, causing him to slam his head against the window as he still tried to protect his family. He could hear the female voices crying but could no longer distinguish which of them belonged to his wife and which to his daughters. Suddenly, his pain became unbearable. Then came peace, at last. His pain finally subsided and the noises started fading away. Slowly, he began to fade away from the world, leaving his body behind in his car. ''Please let them be okay'' was his last thought before his heart pumped for the last time.
***
Beep.
Beep.
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
Beep.
"Oh, thank heavens! Dr. Smith! Dr. Miller! She's gaining consciousness!"
Rushed footsteps started coming closer until they stopped near me. Voices started calling out, voices which were too incomprehensible to me, but somehow felt like important voices. So with great difficulty, I tried to concentrate and finally heard what they were speaking.
They were calling for Evelyn White. For some reason, it felt like they were calling for me.
I tried telling them to shut up because they were disturbing my peaceful sleep along with that godawful beeping noise which still hadn't shut up. Or maybe, give them a solid whack upside their head for such a heinous crime. But while I tried to wake up and deliver those well deserved whacks, the only thing that actually obeyed my mental command was my little finger. The rest of my body stood there, or rather, laid there, immobile while my little finger tried to compensate by its insistent twitching.
More voices. But this time around, their voices were closer, right above me, clear and not like mere echos. This time around, there was no doubt they they were calling for me. "Miss White? Miss Evelyn? Can you hear me? Miss? Can you open your eyes?"
I gritted my teeth in annoyance. Of course I could hear them. Whoever the owner of this voice was, he sure needed a volume down button in his throat. Because his voice was too loud. So loud that my head started throbbing. And yet, he had the nerve to ask if I could hear him? I wanted to wake up and shout 'bloody hell I can! And so can the penguins sleeping in Antarctica!'
But alas, my mouth had followed the rest of my appendages and decided to act like the lazy legume it was. And so the only respond I could give them which was equivalent to the sentence I wanted to speak was by my little finger doing a frantjc jazz.
And apparently, they did not get the intended message. Instead, the voice rose a few octaves. "Miss Evelyn! Can you hear us? If yes, please move your left hand to the right."
Us? So there was more than one voice speaking? I wouldn't know because the voice of this human loudspeaker probably killed all the other voices halfway. I inwardly rolled my eyes, this one action, they obeyed with ease. Move my left hand to the right? Right at the moment, I didn't even know if my pinky was doing a jazz or a zumba and this person assumed that I'd know which is my left hand and then move it to the right?
In response, my little finger jumped up and down within my hands, confirming that it was doing a zumba and not a jazz. I heard another voice then. A softer voice, but still audible. "Miss Evelyn? You can hear me,right? Now can you open your eyes for me? Try it slowly."
I would've told the human loudspeaker to learn something from this person about the appropriate volume of human voice, if I wasn't concentrating on opening my eyes. And besides, my mouth still was in its silent protests. It was taking a lot of effort for my eyes to open themselves in the world. But slowly, they opened. And they closed just as fast.
"Turn off the lights above her bed! Miller, elevate her bed a little. Sorry about that, child. Now, can you try once again? Slowly, on count of three. One... two... three...yes, slowly."
I tried again and finally, I could open my eyes. But when I did, I wanted to close it once again and this time, it was not because of lights. I didn't know where I expected to wake up at, but the white room with white walls and white ceiling was definitely not it. Not to mention, bound by various wires to a white, beeping machine. There were two extremely uncomfortable little things in my nostrils, making a 'hiss' sound as they threw air inside my nose. I wondered if they were trying to play with my nose. So experimentally, I blew some air into those things, curious to see their reaction. In response, well, they did not respond at all. They continued making that sound and providing air to my nose.
The gentle voice of speaker number two interrupted my little experiment and for the first time, I looked at the people standing by my bed. All of them had white coats over their blue uniforms. I made a mental note to talk with the people here about color choices. It seemed like all of them were strangely addicted to white.
"Miss Evelyn, I'm Dr. Logan Smith. How are you feeling now?" I focused my attention to the middle aged man with blonde hair and kind smile who was waiting for me to say something. Beside him, a young man was standing, looking at me as if I was an exotic animal species brought to the zoo for the first time. He was a blonde like the Logan man, but was taller and leaner. That must be the human loudspeaker, I mused.
Feeling too lazy to open my mouth, I nodded at him, immediately regretting it as a sharp pain hit a side of my head and the beeping got louder. A female rushed forward and with a few clicks to the machine that I was attached to, finally stopped its beeping.
"Okay, I'll ask you some questions. Can you please answer them for me?" Doctor number one asked and when I nodded a little, he continued. "Alright. Can you tell me your name, please?"
I wanted to roll my eyes at his question. And I almost had, if not for the sudden realization that hit me. I couldn't remember my name. The name Evelyn sounded somehow familiar, and they had called me that, but I couldn't exactly remember my name.
Seeing my struggle, the two men exchanged a glance. Dr. Smith gave me a small nod and asked again, "It's okay if you don't remember now. It happens commonly in accidents as big as the one you had. So, do you remember what happened?"
Accident. There was an accident. I had been on an accident, based on what he just said. But when I tried remembering, I couldn't find anything in my brain except blank space. I couldn't remember what happened. I searched my brain for something, anything, I had no idea what I wanted to remember but I couldn't. There were just no memories of anything in my head. I tried to recall my life, where I lived, my parents, my home, but all I came up with was blank space. Lots of blank spaces. It felt as if someone had erased everything from my life and my brain.
Another sharp pain hit me in the head and I cried out, trying to clutch my head to alleviate it. The machine started beeping again, further aggravating the sharp throbbing in my head. I heard some frantic voices giving orders and some fuzzy movements around me but the only thing I felt was the pain in my head. Then there was a burning sensation deep in my veins of my left arm, which was the last thing I registered before my body relaxed and I was sent to a peaceful sleep.
*
"Evie?" I looked at the young girl on the hospital bed. She looked to be about eight years old and had auburn hair like my own. Right now, the girl was looking at me with tears in her eyes. She looked scared and uncertain because of my lack of reaction but I didn't know what to do.
It had been a few days since I'd woken up to the white world. After I woke up for the second time, the white coat wearing tormentors again asked me if I remembered anything. I had tried. I'd tried so hard to remember, but my mind was still blank. There was a large void area in my brain which, no matter the number of times I tried, hadn't filled up.
Another white coat wearing human had visited me then. A lady, this time. She'd introduced herself as Dr. Cat. Or was it, Kat? Anyhow, she looked more as a psychiatric patient than a psychiatrist, in my view. But she did some tests. In other words, she asked me to remember and did some weird stuffs by connecting some weird things on my head and intensely staring at the monitor for some minutes before gravely nodding to herself. Then she politely excused herself saying she had to talk with Dr. Smith.
And now, they had brought me to this room saying this person might help me remember things. I looked at the said person again. They said that she was my sister. But I couldn't remember. The little girl was looking at me expectantly, her eyes filled with hope.
"Evie? I... I can't move my legs, Evie. A-and daddy... mama... Evie, they... they are not here. Where are they? Do you know where they are? It hurts so much, Evie. Pwease make it okay. Pwease do your magic on my legs and make it stop hurting. I'm so scared, Evie."
I stood there as a frozen statue. Silently. I stood silently as the little girl cried for me, opening up her arms. I stood silently as she slowly lowered her arms when I made no move to reach out to her. I still stood silently, like a corpse as the lights in her eyes slowly dimmed and her hope turned into uncertainty. Never had I felt so useless as I had at that moment when I watched the little girl look at me with so much pain that it tugged my heart hard although I had no idea who she was.
And then I said something that made me wish I had died without opening my eyes at all. I looked at the girl and opened my mouth. I looked at the small hope that had reappeared in her eyes when she saw me trying to speak to her. But I opened my mouth and crushed any and every of her hopes, immediately extinguishing the little spark of fire in them when I asked,
"Who are you?"
I watched as horror crept into the eyes of the little girl and heard a few gasps around me. It was only then that I registered the other people present in the room. There was Dr. Smith, Dr. Cat-woman and two older people who looked like they would die any moment as they alternated their gazes between me, the little girl and finally among each other.
"E-Evie? Wh-why are you doing this, Evie? You were never meanie to me. Evie! Pwease don't tease me now. I pwomise that I will never mess up your paintings again. And I will never ask you to make me those Disney pwincesses again. Pwease, Evie! Stop this. M-my leg is hurting so much. It's not even moving. I'm really very scared, Evie."
When I still didn't make any move, the old woman came forward and held my shoulders. She was very short as compared to me, and she had to stretch a little to hold my shoulders. I noticed that her eyes were the same color as that of the little girl. The woman opened and closed her mouth a few times before taking a deep breath and speaking.
But I never heard what she said because another sharp pain shot through the side of my head, making me cry in agony. I felt myself slipping away from consciousness, and barely heard the voice of Dr. Catwoman.
"I think she has post-traumatic amnesia."
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Sooo... what do you think? Don't forget to comment and maybe a vote as well?