Who you once Were || Volume One|| RuthTheNerd

Chapter Two- It's Her

Nadia was still in shock.

It had only been a few hours, and she now had hundreds of questions flying through her head. All of them had to do with the unconscious girl who was sitting on the couch next to her, wrapped up in a blanket.

Nadia looked up from the second cup of coffee she had prepared for herself, a strong and bitter expresso to help her swirling thoughts. She kept blinking and rubbing her eyes, trying to make sense of what was going on.

She remembered walking drowsily to the door and looking through the peephole, seeing nothing but the pastel blue door of the apartment door across from hers. She had opened the door, just to be safe, and a girl collapsed onto the ground.

That girl.

Nadia stirred four teaspoons of sugar into her coffee, the cubes dissolving into the thick black drink. She took a swig, the sour taste burning her tongue. She kept drinking until there was nothing left but the soaked interior of her cup. 

She had considered calling Delilah but then recalled that she was busy. She could call her other friend, Blake, but he had told her he had a job interview to get to and she didn't want to ruin his chances.

Setting her cup down, she picked up her Holophone, brimming with notifications. She clicked on a search engine and proceeded to figure out something, anything, about this girl. Nothing had come up.

Eventually, Nadia became tired and went up to her room for a nap, sinking into the soft blankets of her bed and cuddling with her black and white cushions. It was warm and cozy, but Nadia couldn't sleep. She stayed awake, staring at the ceiling and analyzing molecules of dust.

Click.

Nadia sat up in bed, brow creasing as she heard a faint tapping sound downstairs. Leaping out of her room, she peered into the kitchen from her balcony.

The strange girl was on Nadia's holoscreen, clicking at the navigation icon. A hologram popped out, showing a blue sphere covered in splotches of green. Usually, the AI would be rattling off questions, but Nadia suspected that the girl had figured out how to mute it.

The girl stepped back and twirled the hologram of the Earth until she stopped at America, narrowing down her search to New York, and then Brooklyn. She paused for a minute, not knowing where to put her fingers.

"Need help?"

The girl whipped around, and Nadia got another good glimpse of the wonder she had been confusing herself with all afternoon.

The girl had long black hair that cascaded down her back, piling up just a little on the clean floor beneath her. She wore nothing but a light purple nightgown that stopped just above her ankles. The dress couldn't have been very long, considering how short this girl was. She barely went above the holoscreen, so Nadia presumed she couldn't be more than ten years old.

But besides those features, there was one aspect of her that immediately sparked recognition in Nadia's head.

Her eyes, yellow and large, glistened like morning dew on the petals of blooming buttercups. These same eyes that were so keenly observing Nadia now.

It was the girl from her dreams. 

The girl who dragged herself through the snow, the one who had smiled until her cheeks ripped apart, the girl who had begged her to come home.

That same girl was not responding to Nadia's question.

Nadia glided down the stairs and approached the girl, whose name she still didn't know.

She tried again. "Look, here's my apartment." She pointed towards a street name and an entire building hologram projected out, showing all ten floors, and her apartment on the top floor.

The girl remained quiet. 

Nadia leaned down to make sure she was face to face with the girl. It was risky; her eyes were very hypnotizing.

"Are you okay? Maybe you should lay down..." Nadia muttered.

The girl turned to the stainless steel fridge tucked in the corner of the kitchen and walked towards it. She pulled out a loaf of bread and toasted two slices, then grabbed a jar of jam and searched the fridge until she found a square of cheese.

Nadia watched with awe. Grabbing food from shelves wasn't amazing, but the girl took control of things and didn't care if this wasn't her food or not. For some reason, Nadia found that notion to be inspiring.

The girl fixed herself a sandwich, spreading on a clear layer of sweet jelly and placing one slice of cheese on the other slice of bread. She took her sandwich and downed it in three big bites, still looking small and innocent as she ate it.

Trying to ignore that the girl just ate jelly with cheese, Nadia attempted to talk to her again. "What's your name?"

The girl licked her pale lips, picking up some crumbs. Her expression was somber, and Nadia couldn't tell what was running through her head.

Nadia tried another method. "I'm Nadia, who are you?"

The girl chewed her bites slowly, savoring the taste. She kept eying the jam jar like she wanted another sandwich. 

Nadia wondered if the girl was struggling to talk because she could hardly talk in the dreams. Images of ice covering her lungs and her throat filling with snow flashed through Nadia's head.

The girl was reaching for the jam jar when an idea came to Nadia. Scooting closer, she swiped the jar from the girl's grasp. The girl turned to her, finally showing emotion on her face. Anger.

"Sorry," Nadia said, not very sorry. "If you want another sandwich, you have to tell me your name."

The girl sulked, looking defeated. She tugged at her thin black hair.

"Well?" Nadia pursued.

The girl sighed. 

Nadia had to lean in to hear her words, barely a whisper.

"I can't tell you. I don't remember my name. I don't remember anything at all."