Blue Morpho

The Accident

The wind drove the water in sheets against the side of the car, making it difficult for Aaryn to discern where the white and yellow lines were. The wipers whooshed madly across the windshield, but the road remained a slick black river. The gray of the storm masked the bends and twists in the serpentine street. She decided that it would probably be wise to pull over for the time and try to wait out the worst of the weather. She hit her right blinker, lifted her foot from the gas pedal, and tapped the brake. The back tires fishtailed, spinning the car to the left.

This isn't going to end well, she thought. Strangely, she was utterly calm. There was no panic, no fear, just the knowledge that she was probably about to regret trying to get to class. Suddenly, she could see a dark shape looming in front of her sliding ford. There was absolutely nothing she could do to stop the car or avoid the large tree that was quickly materializing from the torrential downpour.

She closed her eyes and braced herself as the car slammed into the great pine. Her head was whipped sideways into the glass, shattering the window, as the car spun around the tree. She heard some crunching and grinding sounds and then a searing pain in her abdomen. The world flashed white, her mouth snapped open in an attempt to gobble in some air, and her body twisted away from the fire in her side. She sank unconscious in her seat with a tree limb protruding from her.

Music whispered softly and haunted her from the abyss. It trickled around her ears and seeped into the pain radiating throughout her body. She struggled to remember where her eyes were, somehow it seemed important to open them. Warmth saturated her body as the music thrummed higher.

She tried again to open her eyes, and they fluttered vaguely. A hand stroked through her hair, easing her back towards sleep. She flicked her lashes one last time and saw a murky image of golden eyes rimmed in inky lashes. The pull of the music and the hand in her hair made it impossible to stay awake and she slipped into the sweet darkness.

***

She wasn't sure what woke her. Perhaps it was the constricting of her left arm, or the light turning her eyelids red, but she was suddenly wide awake. Her eyes flashed open and she blinked owlishly at the noonday sun streaming cheerfully through vertical white blinds. A quick glance around the plain beige room explained the tightness and the abrasive beeping: she was hooked up to a hospital observation unit, which was currently checking her blood pressure and oxygen levels.

I'm in the hospital, she thought, though she had no recollection of how she'd gotten there. A sharp memory floated like glass through her mind and she scrambled to check her stomach. The skin was whole and undamaged; not even a scar was left from where the tree limb had pierced her stomach.

Maybe I hallucinated that part or dreamed it, after all she had hit her head pretty hard, which reminded her that she should have an injury on her head too. She ran her hands all through her tangled hair, but there was no bump or sore spot.

“Oh, you're awake!” said the nurse as she entered the room to check on Aaryn’s increased heart rate. She was a pretty woman with gray eyes and dark hair. She was probably in her late 20s and was quite petite. Aaryn would be amazed if she was taller than 5 foot even and 100 pounds dripping wet. Her name badge said Alexandria Min, RN.

“Where am I?”

“Well, you're in Hershey Hospital, hon,” she responds in a sugary voice. “You were involved in an accident. Do you remember anything?”

“Not really,” she lied. “At least not much past the car sliding in the rain.” It didn't take a genius to realize that wounds couldn't just heal themselves. Aaryn wasn't sure what had happened to her, nor how much of what she remembered was real.