Whisper

3

"Where am I?"

Her voice echoed, inside her head.

She felt as though she had just awakened from a very long sleep. Her eyes opened very slowly and closed just as quickly, as they attempted to adjust to the light.

She yawned, uncontrollably, shaking her head as she did so.

She closed her eyes again.

There was a familiar comfort in the darkness. She felt safe.

She watched as little streaks of light danced on the inside of her eyelids.

Again she opened her eyes.

The light was not as strong, but she still blinked repeatedly, as her eyes continued to adjust.

As they did, she realized it was not bright light, but merely the sun shining through a large window that was in front of her.

It was reflecting off the white walls of the room, in which she now stood.

She stared out the window.

There was something familiar about the scene, outside, but at the same time, it was completely foreign.

She could see a garden, with a lawn that stretched out to what looked like a cliff.

She assumed it was because she could see the ocean beyond and there was no beach.

"I love the ocean," she said aloud.

She suddenly wondered why she had said such a thing.

Did she really love the ocean?

She looked around at the unfamiliar walls, the unfamiliar floor, the unfamiliar room.

"This is not my home."

She was speaking aloud, but the words did not echo around her, but more resonated in her own head.

There were two archways that seemed to connect the room to other rooms.

She walked through the first archway.

It was a kitchen.

"This is so big," she said as she walked around the empty room.

Again there was nothing familiar.

"Where is my Mommy?"

She looked around.

"Mommy?"

There was no answer, just the echoes of her own words in her head.

She left the kitchen and began walking down a long hallway. There were open doors that led to other rooms. These offered no recollection to her either. They were just empty rooms with curtain less windows.

She stopped at the end of the hallway.

"Where can Mommy and Daddy be?"

She tried to get a picture in her head of her parents, but there was nothing.

"Do I even have a Mommy or Daddy?"

A sudden fear overtook her.

"I can't remember anything."

She began walking quickly back toward the big room with the big window that looked out over the ocean.

She needed something familiar.

"Who am I?"

She walked to the window and stared outside.

"Where am I?"

She put her hands on the window, but felt nothing.

Panic began to set in.

She turned quickly and ran out of the room.

"Mommy? Daddy? Where are you?"

She saw stairs that went to another room lower than the kitchen. She hurried down the stairs. There was a door.

She tried to open the door, but she couldn't.

"Why won't it open?"

She tried again, but with the same result.

She turned. There was another set of stairs that led downward. She stood at the top of the stairs and stared into the darkness below. She did not feeling like exploring the darkness.

Quickly she ran back up the three stairs to the kitchen and headed back down the hallway.

She could hear her heart pounding in her head.

She glanced in each room as she passed it, hoping to see something, anything, but they were all empty.

"Mommy, where are you?"

She stopped at the end of the hallway.

She was terrified.

"Mommy," she yelled as loudly as she could.

"MOMMY."

She could only hear the sound of her beating heart.

Suddenly there was silence.

No beating heart, no words echoing in her head.

Nothing.

"What is happening?"

She heard what sounded like a key in a lock.

Finally, something familiar.

A slight smile came to her face.

"Mommy and Daddy are home."

She ran up the hallway to greet her parents.

She heard a door opening and then closing gently.

She reached the end of the hallway and stopped, looking toward the door below.

Fear rushed through her.

It was not her Mommy and Daddy.

He hurried behind the edge of the hallway wall, peeking around the corner.

"Who are you?"

There was a man standing just inside the doorway.