Getting to the hospital was the easy part. I pretty much blinked and I was there. Cool, right? Getting in the hospital was another story. I didn't have a body so I couldn't open a door manually, and I was weightless so automatic doors were out. The emergency room was our best bet at finding someone going in or out. Of course in my luck, I was the only emergency that night. Someone finally opened the door about an hour later when a teenage girl around my age came in on a stretcher. She looked about as bad as my body did. Axel and I wandered around the hospital looking for some indication of where my body was. It was almost impossible and I just about gave up until my best friend walked in.
Jazz marched right up to the counter and demanded to know where her "sister" was. It's true what they say about family only. We followed them to a waiting room outside of a cubical marked "ICU". My mom and younger brother were waiting there. Jazz spoke to them and discovered the damage. I was in bad shape. A doctor came out of the little room and I used this opportunity to slip inside. I found my body on a bed behind a curtain hooked up to various machines. The slow beep, beep, beep, of the heart monitor was the only indicator that I was still alive. I looked at Axel who looked at my body with sorrow on his face.
"Hey. I need you to do something for me, okay?" I said.
"Sure, anything."
"I'm not gonna be around anymore. But I want you to stay here until I'm out of the hospital. I don't want you to be stuck here like this." I said. He was confused but he nodded anyway. I gave him one last smile and walked over to the bed where my body was laying. I took a deep breath and touched my arm. My hand kept reaching. I tried again and touched my face, my leg, my stomach. Nothing worked. I couldn't get back in. But I'm not dead! I thought. If I'd had tear ducts, my cheeks would have been stained with tears. "Why is this happening?" I said out loud. I heard Axel swallow. I turned to face him. "Something's wrong." I said.
"Maybe I can help." I heard someone say.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"My name is Wendy, and I'm a wanderer like you, Willow. I work here at this hospital trying to get as many souls as I can back into their bodies before it's too late."
"You work here? Why can't I get back in to my body? Why am I stuck here?" I said.
"I've only seen it happen once before..but it seems as though you can't get back in because...because your body is already being occupied." She said.
"Occupied? As in there's another soul in my body?" She nodded. "Well make it get out! This is my body!" I yelled.
"I'm sorry. As your body is unconscious, so is the soul right now. I cannot communicate with he or she until they decide to wander again, or until your body wakes up. That is, if your body wakes up." She parted from us after I didn't say anything. It was a lot to take in at one moment. Why would anyone be occupying my body? I wasn't even wandering freely this time. It was accidental.
"Willow? Are you okay?" Axel asked.
"No." I shook my head, willing tears to fall. They didn't. He walked over to me and I collapsed into his arms. He smoothed my hair (which was weird, apparently wanderers can touch each other, but not other things) and just held me there for a long time. I watched as my mom came in and held my hand and whispered things to me. They say when a person is unconscious they can still hear what you are saying. They aren't kidding."It'll be okay, Willow. We'll figure it out. And you know...if things don't work out...I'm not so bad. You could stay with me...." Axel said. I smiled up at him.
"Of course I will." He smiled at this.
Axel fell asleep sometime during the night (another thing weird thing about wanderers, they sleep. who knew?) and I got up to do some exploring. One thing I found out is that if you don't have a body, going through walls isn't a big deal at all. That made my life a hell of a lot easier! Some how I ended up in the girl on the stretcher's room. Her body was very similar to mine. A guy was asleep on a chair next to her bed. I stared at his perfectly chiseled jaw and muscular arms. Hey, souls can drool too. I wondered what happened to the girl, if it was anything like what happened to me.... I sat down next her. "Hi." I said, though she couldn't hear me. "My name's Willow. I'm in a room a couple down from you. I was in an accident and I'm in pretty bad shape. You look about as bad as I do. But you're pretty. I think you are anyway. That's not weird though. I mean I'm just sayin. Okay this is getting awkward...especially because you can't even hear me right now. Maybe you can. How should I know? I just hope you aren't wandering somewhere. Hopefully you stayed...attached. So this guy.. Is he your boyfriend? Well he's cute I'll tell you that. You did good. I never really had a boyfriend...I was always the weird one..well maybe I made myself the weird one.." I went on about my life and how I thinks she should live hers. Talking to someone, even though they couldn't respond or even hear me for that matter, felt great. It was like letting out a life's worth of secrets and finally being able to breathe again. I placed my ghostly hand over the girl's and quickly fell asleep.
It'd felt like I'd slept for days. I woke up feeling weird and really not myself. But hey what can you expect the first night you don't sleep in your body? It took a long time for my eyes to finally open and when they did all kinds of machines started to go off. Weird I thought.
"She's awake. Oh my God. She's awake!" Someone was yelling.
"W-who is awake?" I said and gasped at the voice that was not my own. "W-where am I?! What's going on?! Someone tell me what's going on!" The machines beeped louder as my blood pressure sky-rocketed. I was alive again, but not in my own body. I was inside someone else's body, and let me tell you it feels way weirder than it sounds.
"Soph, you have to calm down. It's okay. Everything's okay." The cute guy was whispering to me or the body I was in whichever. I wanted to shout at him how the hell is everything okay?! I'm not who you think I am, buddy! And who the hell is "Soph"?! What is she? A couch?! Everything was most definitely not okay! Nurses quickly came in and tried to calm me down. I think I even got stuck with a few needles. Slowly my body started to relax and I could think straight again. All kinds of thoughts raced through my brain and many of them were not my own!
"Hey, Sophie. How ya' feelin'?" A man walked in and asked. I stared at him. Maybe if I fake amnesia it'll buy me some time to figure out who the hell these people are and how I can get out of here!
"Wh-who are you?" I said.
"You don't remember?" He said and I saw his smile slowly fade. I didn't answer him, obviously I didn't remember if I was asking who he was. Gahd People were slow these days. "Sophie...It's Daddy. I'm your dad, remember?" I stared at him. A woman came in and stood next to him. "And this is your mom." I continued to stare. "Do you at least remember Sebastian?"
"Sebastian? Who's Sebastian?" I said.
"Sebastian. Your twin brother." The man brought the cute boy over to me. He looked like he was on the verge of tears.
"Hey Sophie. You sure are a trooper. The doctors said you'd never wake up but I told them they were wrong. And look. Here you are!" Sebastian said and smiled down at me. I gave him a small smile back.
"Sophie, I know you don't remember us, but we're so glad you're awake." The mom said. She was crying. "You'll remember soon, honey. I promise. And then everything will make sense and we can go home and go back to normal, okay? Okay." She said to me. What have I done I thought. These people think their daughter is back but she's not. Who the hell knows where she is. I thought about falling asleep right then and there, but how could I do that to this family. They just got their daughter back, who was I to take her away? Who was I to bring her back though? They were all just so happy to have her alive even if she didn't know who she was. I couldn't just leave now. I couldn't. I cleared my throat.
"I'm so glad you all are here. I want to remember so badly, but I can't. I'm trying, I really am." I said trying to get used to my new voice. The doctor came in then before the family could answer.
"Hiya Sophie." He said. "It looks like you've got some temporary amnesia. You see when you fell, you hit your head on a rock, blocking," he pointed to a picture of a brain next to my bed, "this part of your brain. Your central memory bank. At least that's what I like to call it." He chuckled to himself. "Not a huge deal, though. We'll have you back to normal sooner than ever!" He assured me.
"Doc, can't you just give her a pill or something to make her remember?" The mom said.
"Wouldn't that be nice? I'm sorry but no we can't. We aren't that advanced yet. Sophie will remember on her own in time. Until then though, I think she should get some rest. One person in the room at a time please." The doctor replied. The mom kissed my forehead and promised she'd be back first thing in the morning. The dad told me to keep on trying and that he knew I wasn't a quitter. They left the room and Sebastian sat down on the chair next to my bed.
"That was some scare you gave us, Soph." He said. "Promise me you'll never do that again." He said with such intensity in his voice that I said, "I promise." He smiled at me and I melted a little on the inside. He was so beautiful, and yet he was playing the role of my brother. Joy. Why don't we just play how much more effed up can Willow's life get? It doesn't get much worse than this. Knock on wood.
"Can I ask you something?" I said after awhile.
"Anything." He replied shocked that I'd asked.
"Why am I here. I mean, like, what happened?" I said.
"We went out riding, you know, on our horses and well I dared you to jump a log....Your horse got scared Soph and threw you off. And the thing is you didn't just hit the ground, you hit the edge of the mountain and practically fell off. That's why you're in such bad shape." He pointed to my wrapped up ribs."It's my fault you're in here Soph. And I've never been more sorry in my life." I could see the guilt on his face and I felt bad.
"Hey, Seb, it's not your fault. I shouldn't have been stupid enough to trust you, right?" I laughed. He smiled.
"You called me Seb. You remember a little don't you?"
"It's weird really. I get bits and pieces of things but I have no idea what they are. They're memories obviously but from what and who the people are...that's where I get lost." I admitted. It was the truth.
"Well tell me one of them and maybe I can help." He said.
"It's kinda embarrassing." I said.
"Soph, I'm your twin brother. I know everything about you. This is no where near the most embarrassing thing about you. Trust me." He grinned.
"Then what is?" I shot back.
"Zack Hutchfield's 13th Birthday party. You were wearing a white shirt and no bra that day. He soaked you with a water gun, and from that day on you were known as bra-less, boob-less Sophie Anderson. Guess I filled out before you in that area." He flexed his muscles and my mouth dropped. (Not only at the story I will admit.) I playfully hit him.
"That's horrible!" I said. He laughed.
"Don't worry. I beat up Zach and his friends the next day. I jacked em' up pretty badly too I must admit." He grinned.
"You did?" I said and smiled. I thought about how I would kill anyone who messed with Connor. Connor. My little brother. I hadn't talked to him sense the day before the crash. In fact we were on our way to pick him up when it happened.
"Of course I did. No one picks on my baby sister but me." He said.
"I thought we were twins?" I said.
"We are. But I'm older by three minutes." He grinned at this achievement.
"Wow. What an accomplishment." I joked. It was weird how easily I got along with Seb. Almost as if I really had known him my whole life.
"You're different, Soph." He said after awhile.
"Different? How?" I said nervous now. He's figured it out I thought.
"I can't really describe it, but It's a good different. I like it. Not that I didn't like you before, but you definitely have changed." He said.
"Change is good, I guess." I said. Not good when you're lost during all of it. I needed a game plan, and quick!
Hey Guys! It's Luxx! Hope you all are enjoying this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it! I'd really love some feedback so please vote, comment, tweet, what ever you feel like doing. Tell me if you like it, if you dislike it, what's good, what I should Improve on, or just say hi so that I know you're reading(: Thanks Guys!
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Luxx(: