The feeling of falling in your sleep had become so frequent to me, it almost seemed like that was how a normal human being woke up. But I knew it wasn't.
Everything was blurry and quiet. My eyes weren't exactly adjusting, if not getting worse as I blinked.
I moved my fingers towards my eyes but soon realised I had some sort of restraint holding me and my breathing began to increase once I couldn't figure out where I was.
I felt a mask over my mouth and nose, full of stuffy, moist, air. I shook my body from side to side, trying to move.
"Charlotte."
The voice sounded sleepy, but almost immediately switched to alert.
"Charlotte, baby, your okay. Your okay."
Their hands grabbed my waist softly. "Settle down, it's just me." the voice pleaded.
I could tell it was a man, he sounded familiar too. With a deep accent and soft vowels.
His hands took up most of my abdomen as he held me against the bed.
I fought against the strength, and heard a loud beeping sound come from right behind me and shot upward.
Not seeing anything but a slim outline of walls and the floors, and at this point I was far beyond scared.
I could feel the mask on my face fogging up as my breathing raced.
"What happened?" a female voice asked, "She woke up and just began to freak out."
The mans touch was gone within a few moments and I felt stronger hands pushing me down.
"We're going to have to ask you to leave, sir." She said.
"I'm not leaving, look at her, she's terrified!"
I continued thrashing while they yelled, until I felt a needle being pressed into my forearm and slowly fell back into the sheets.
|||
"She's fucking blind?" the reappearing voice boomed from close by.
"No, she's not blind. Not permanently. She's just experiencing temporary vision loss. It's quite common among car crash victims -"
"Don't fucking bullshit me."
It was silent for a few seconds.
"When will she be able to see again?"
"All are different. I've seen people recover within days."
"And what's the longest?"
"Up to two years." The female voice replied.
"Does she remember me?" he asked.
"Chances are she will remember scattered pieces, her memory will fully come back sooner or later. But at the beginning patients normally only remember good memories or bad memories."
The male voice made profanities under his breath.
"You can visit her whenever you want, but need to leave by eight o'clock."
"Sharp."
Click-y footsteps walked away, followed my heavy ones walking in.
He sat on the edge of the bed.
It was quiet.
"How's your eyes?" he asked.
"I can't really see."
Quiet again.
After a few minutes that seemed to last forever, his hands picked up mine. He intertwined his fingers within mine and scooted closer to me.
I could feel is cool, minty breath against my face and could sense how close he was to me.
"Touch my face."
"What?" my voice was quiet and cracked as I spoke.
"Touch my face." He repeated.
I took a breath in and undid our fingers while moving my hands up.
As bad as it sounds, I couldn't find his face. I was disoriented, and still didn't know where I was at, who this was, or what was happening.
His large hands guided my own hands until I felt the soft touch of flesh.
He let go and watched.
I could tell that his eyes were wide and on me.
At first, my fingertips brisked across his cheek.
My touch got stronger as I felt one side of his face, replacing my fingers for a thumb as I ran it against his jawline.
I moved both hands to his cheeks and began to trace his eyes, and his nose.
I then got to his lips. Slowly, I outlined them, feeling the softness of them.
And then it began to come back.