My eyes blinked rapidly before slowly opening, the newfound light nearly blinding me. I could barely see and yet even with my blurred vision, I could make out the figure of a woman standing before me, along with a shrill voice exclaiming as soon as my eyelids parted.
"She's awake! Manny's awake!" The woman bounced on her heels, clapping her hands as a flood of people rushed into the room. Several different voices cried out in joy as they watched my grogginess slowly fade away.
"Oh, Manila."
A fairly gruff voice approached me and my head whirled at the sight of all the people around. A young man wrapped his arms around my neck, tears of joy flooding down his cheeks.
"I really thought I lost you."
I didn't say a word for a moment as the visitors each individually hugged me, whispering their prayers and sighing with relief. I recognized many of them; the first young man was my brother, Damien, and the others were close friends and family that I faintly remembered seeing once and a while. Their personalities were a blur to me, though. I smiled at them, my gratitude overflowing that so many people had come.
But, what exactly happened?
"Alright, alright." A doctor walked towards us, shoo-ing the visitors away and facing me, a warm smile creeping onto her features. "I know we're all very glad that Manila is okay, but she needs some rest."
Everyone shuffled out of the room begrudgingly, but I felt relieved to have the room to myself. I just... needed to wrap my head around what happened. The doctor walked over to a clipboard near the foot of my bed, scribbling something down as she bit her lip.
"Um, excuse me?" I asked, tentatively, nearly gasping at the sound of my own voice. It felt different and foreign, like it wasn't mine.
"Yes?"
"Do you mind telling me, err-- how I wound up here?"
The doctor looked up from her clipboard, her brow furrowing as she cocked her head sideways.
"How you wound up here?"
I swallowed thickly. "Yeah. Like, what happened to me?"
The doctor stared at me for a moment, her confused and worried gaze making me shift uncomfortably.
"You don't remember?"
I paused, chewing the inside of my cheek for a moment. "Was... I supposed to?"
The doctor turned back to her clipboard, her expression completely bewildered now, and my own confusion starting to take over my mind. She gestured for me to wait a moment and then scurried out of the room, leaving me in a state of pure perplexity.
Nobody came back for a good ten minutes, and I let the subject go, hoping that someone would shed some light on this later on. With that, I fell asleep, even though I had only been awake from whatever accident for only a couple hours. My mind was too tired.
Plus, I knew that as soon as I got out of this hospital, I'd have to think about reality again, whatever that even was.
I'd rather have my little escape, for now.