The Forgotten of Kenopsia

Chapter 4 - Dream

      It had been a week since my mother passed away from a car accident. And yet, I couldn't fully grasp the situation and move on with everything else in my life. After all, it was was too sudden and I wasn't prepared to accept her death. I had skipped school for a week and I locked up myself in my room for the time being.

On the day of my mother's funeral, I was sitting in a corner of the living room. I was wearing a wrinkled black suit and I couldn't possibly stop whimpering as tears were still gliding across my cheeks. I haven't slept or eaten in days and I was a mess. There were still several people visiting my mother's memorial stand but I couldn't have paid any more attention to them. Not at all. I was mentally broken. I glanced at my mother's old photograph on the stand and somehow, her peaceful image relaxed my troubled mind.

A while after, my dreamy eyes started to roam across the living room and through all the people who were entering and exiting the door until my eyes locked onto a certain female who was siting down, showing her respects to my mother as she bowed towards the memorial. Her features seemed rather familiar but I couldn't see her face. But when she finally looked up, my heart almost dropped.

No, not this again.

It was 'her'

What was she doing here?

No matter how I looked at it, Something did not click right. I was missing something.

She glanced at me for a couple of seconds and this time, she didn't seem to avert her eyes off of me. My tears eyes blurred my vision but I could clearly see her pursuing her mouth in a self satisfied smirk. And I stared back at her until I couldn't believe what my eyes were witnessing.

Her face started getting distorted.

I wanted to run away but I couldn't move my muscles at all. Everything in my vision started to move in spirals around me and my head was starting to get dizzy. Then, I heard her say something very disturbing in a very deep and a husky voice that didn't seem to belong to her.

"Why did you kill her?"

Before everything in my vision darkened, I was able to take one last glance at the picture on the memorial stand. But it was no longer my mother's.

'She'  was in that picture.

______

  My mind was focused solely on the unusually fast rhythm of my beating heart and I could feel my blood vigorously moving through my vessels as if they've been released from a long period of indolence. After I slowly opened my heavy eyes, I was blinded by the burning sunlight falling on my face through the slightly open window right next to the bed I was laying down on. For the first time in my life, I felt as if I was a vampire who had been living in a cave, experiencing the brightness of the sun for the first time in his life.

I removed something away from my face that covered my nose and my mouth. It was an oxygen mask. I gasped for air, letting a strong smell of disinfectants gush in through my nostrils.

Without a doubt, my instincts knew that I was inside a hospital room.

I stared at the ceiling of the hospital room for a few minutes knowing that my whole body and limbs seemed to be somewhat paralyzed. I couldn't feel much besides the stinging pain in my left arm which had a saline tube inserted to it through a very thick needle.

However, the only thing that I wasn't certain about was the reason why I would be in a hospital room in the first place. What happened to me?

There was a small shabby table near the window and on top on it was a slender vase filled in white and blue torenias. I also noticed the red knitted scarf folded neatly on the table. The one that flew away in the wind the other day. The edge of the right corner of the scarf was slightly torn. Probably because it got stuck in the trees. But why is it here?

My memory was pretty hazy but I remember running after someone. It was snowing that day. Did I pass out in the snow? But who took me here? For how long have I been here?

These questions started to run through my mind until I was snapped back to the reality from a blasting thud sound of an opening door. I averted my gaze towards the now wide open door, to see a tall figure standing in the doorway staring in my direction. When our eyes met, I realized who he was. He was an old friend but his change in looks made me doubt if it was really him.

The next thing I knew, Ryu came bustling across the room to welcome my presence with a warm hug.

To my surprise, I felt tears falling down across his cheeks and on to my shoulder. I wanted to comfort him but my throats felt too dry and my voice let out a hoarse racket when I attempted to speak so I just decided to pat him on the shoulder instead.

I still had many questions rummaging through my head and after a moment of hesitation, I decided to break the silence in the room.

"What happened to me?" I mumbled in a voice that was deeper than my usual voice surprising even me myself.

A concerned look lingered Ryu's craggy face as he kept glancing at me and somewhere outside of the window consecutively.

"You don't remember anything?"

I nodded my head in affirmation as a response and continued to keep my gaze towards him for an explanation.

He let out a deep sigh. "You were in a car accident." He trailed off the rest of his sentence.

"And you were in a coma for three years."