𝕕𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕪 𝕚𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤

16. for love and loss,

disclaimer: this is a lonnnnggg ass chapter. literally a book within a book. if you don't like long stories, don't read.

this story is about a girl who is struck by lightning and becomes immortal. not entirely realistic, but i had a lot of fun writing this strange story.

I was 19 when it all happened. It's kind of like that Adaline movie, she does something and becomes magically immortal. Unfortunately, that's not how it happened with me. When i became immortal, I was playing a rugby game for my college. I had the ball, my legs were pushing me as hard as they could while i was running towards the line. It was raining, pouring down rain, and as of just a few minutes prior, it started thundering. No lightning was in sight, so they continued the game.

I was ten feet from the scoring line, the opposing team was hot on my tail. It was a flash, literally, I had turned and moved to go across the field to avoid the herd behind me, and as i turned to escape, there was a flash. I can't remember the details of what happened, all i can remember is waking up in a hospital. But based on what my friends told me, here's what happened after that flash.

My mom who was standing in the bleachers saw the flash, and it was like someone turned on a spotlight that illuminated the whole dark, rainy field. She said there was a static presence and her hair nearly stood up on her head. When she turned back after the light was gone, she saw us girls scattered on the field. The girls who had been around me were blown away essentially and it was just me left in the center of what used to be a group of girls. She said smoke was essentially pouring off of my body.

The girls that were chasing me don't remember much, just that they felt extremely warm when that flash happened and nothing after until they were at the hospital as well. None of them seemed to get the kind of powers i did from that flash, or well, lightning strike as you guys have probably figured out, so it was very bizarre. Besides those girls being thrown back from where i was, they said they didn't feel any pain or really didn't feel anything when it happened.

When I woke up in the strange hospital room, i was surrounded by people. Not my parents, not anyone i knew, I was swarmed with men in black suits. The doctors that seemed to be checking me out were in with these men in the black suits. They were speaking a language i couldn't understand at the time, and had me hooked up to so many goddamn vital machines. They questioned my parents, questioned me about what happened on that field with the lightning. I should have died, they said. The clearest explanation there is of what happened. The lightning had enough power to fry the skin off my bones, but it didn't.

Scientists were puzzled about how my heart rate wasn't fast when the paramedics got to my side, and it also puzzled them how the lightning strike only etched its presence down my back. It didn't press its presence as it traveled down my limbs and through my body, it just left marks down my back. The lightning bolt appearance starts at the base of my neck and fades just below my bikini line. It travels down the center of my back and strays out wider along my lower back. It honestly looked like an upside down bouquet of flowers. My eyes changed color after the strike, they went from a chocolate brown to a hazel-green, with literal streaks of brown throughout the middle of my eye. Think of the prettiest hazel-green eyes, and then put small strips of brown throughout it, and those are my eyes. They almost glow in the evening, the blue specks sticking out the most. The doctors tried so hard to explain my eyes.

My personality changed, I went from the book smart, tough girl who loved to play sports, to a girl who knew things I shouldn't know. Somehow it altered me and i was strong, physically strong and my senses were alert. My reflexes were sharper as well. I could hear better, see better and everything was just enhanced. Strange right? The doctors desperately tried to explain my senses.