The Next Chapter: Twisted Series Next Generation

Chapter 75: Jeremy Chen

 At least a few moments passed before I registered that I was not actually dead. All the white surrounding me had me fooled for a moment, before my Moms tearful face immediately caught my sight.

For a moment I was terribly confused.

Was I not supposed to be on a date? First of all, where was my date? And second of all, did I actually admit I was on a date?

It was impossible for me to register my thoughts as Mom tearfully clung to me and cried out in relief.

It was a sentimental moment and I did not have the strength or the heart to end her sob session.

So unlikely normally, I waited patiently.

Only then did her tears cease. And then my Father began his tear of weeping and thanking some sort of higher power for bringing me back.

This was one of the reasons I felt alienated in comparison to my parents. They were so in touch with their emotions. They hardly portrayed emotions of vulnerability or sadness. Normally they were fierce and joyful.

Which had me confused as a child. Why did I not respond to things the way they did? Why did I always wear such a sullen expression? For a long period of my life as a child, I was certain I was swapped at birth with Niko.

I remember asking Uncle Alex if he was my actual Father. And for once, that hardened expression he had softens into one of remorse. He merely picked me up and rested me on his knee before he explained that the most different people are sometimes the most compatible. That was why I fit so perfectly with my parents.

It was a sweet Aphorism that I tried to carry out and live by my whole life. Easier said than done.

When the woeful sound of my parents' sobs died down, they gently explained to me like I was a child, the situation I was in.

An allergic reaction. To pepper, of all things.

First I actually felt the urge to smile at the absurdity. Granted I did not, it was painfully out of its element.

How did I have such a serious reaction to pepper? It was discovered that I was allergic to it back when I was around ten years old, but back then I just broke out in hives. I did not actually suffocate to death.

Being the son of a doctor, Dad took the precautions very seriously and banned all things pepper from my life.

So nobody could have anticipated that this would be the reaction invoked.

I had been out of it for only one night, yet when you took one look at my parents you might as well have believed that I had been in a coma for a year.

My continuous attempts to remember the discombobulated events that took place before I pretty much passed out never ceased.

All I remember was sitting directly in front of Nerissa.

I asked my parents about her, but they had no clue what I was talking about, or who I was even talking about.

Then to my rescue came Uncle Christian, the last person I expected to see here.

He calmly explained that she left shortly after my parents arrived, so they were too out of it to know.

"How did I get here?" I asked my uncle. He sat in the chair that occupied the space by my bed, both my parents had to step out to take care of things.

Dad was talking to some doctors and Mom went to get me food. I had no doubt that the two had been awake for more than twenty-four hours. My attempts to coax them to go home had fallen deaf on their ears.