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Alone

‘Where am I?’ Diane thought, knowing her eyes were closed but couldn’t do anything about it.

“Diane?” A boy- Tyson as she recalled- said, walking into the room. Diane’s eyes snapped open revealing hazel orbs. Her blonde hair spread across a white pillow, while she was attached to various machines.

“Where am I?” She asked out loud, sitting up and bringing her feet to the floor, relieved that they were working. Tyson sat next to her bed, his sandy brown hair was dull in the sunlight and his green eyes were apologetic.

“You’re in Boston hospital. We were attacked. A mugging.” He said bitterly.

“Yeah. He-he had a gun and I-I got knocked to the ground. I hit my head.” Diane said, reaching up and feeling the gauze and bandage around her throbbing skull.

“Well, I’m better now. Can we go home, please?” She asked, sitting back down on the bed.

“You have to up. Please.” Tyson whispered. Clarissa turned around and saw herself, lying in the bed, battered and bruised.

“You’re in a coma.” A girl said from the doorway. She couldn’t have been much older than Diane. Her hair was raven black and her eyes were harlequin green.

“So, I’m like…a ghost?” Clarissa queried. The girl laughed.

“Something like that. I’m Annabelle. I’m like you, but I’ve been here for two years. Welcome to the club.” Annabelle said, extending her hand. Clarissa took it and shook, thinking to herself.

‘This takes ‘weirdest day ever’.’

7 hours later

Clarissa and Annabelle had spent the entire day talking about how they ended up this way. Annabelle was in a car accident and Clarissa was involved in a mugging. Then Clarissa asked the most obvious question.

“How do I fix it?” The blonde asked, watching as her boyfriend read her Edgar Allen Poe.

“Your body has to wake up on its own.” The black haired girl said sadly, wringing the edge of her hospital gown in her fingers. There was a slight awkward silence before Clarissa decided to change the subject.

“I love this story. It’s my favourite.” She said when Tyson started reading ‘The Raven’. They listened for a while before a male doctor, Dr Hayes walked in, holding a metal chart.

“Mr Collins, I have some bad news to tell you. I’ll need her parents here.” The doctor said, looking through the chart.

“She doesn’t. She was emancipated and lives with me and my family. What’s the news?” Tyson asked. The girls listened intently.

“She has gotten an infection from the head wound she sustained and her immune system isn’t fighting it for some reason. It stopped fighting the infection early this morning. The antibiotics we have her on just aren’t curing it.” Dr Hayes said, trying his best to be sympathetic. Tyson put the book down.

“How long does she have?” He asked. Diane stood up and stared at the doctor as if he was an executioner.

“Four, maybe five days. Possibly less.” The doctor said, putting his hand on Tyson’s shoulder, who was trying hard not to hit something. Diane sank to the floor, feeling like the hospital just collapsed on top of her.

‘”Are you alright?” Annabelle asked, kneeling next to the blonde and put her hand on Diane’s knee, attempting to comfort her. Diane shook her away, replying shakily, through tears.

“I have less than a week to live. How do you think I feel?” She snapped. She sat there and let the shock wash over her, then, taking a deep breath, she stood up and walked over to her body. Dr Hayes had already walked out, leaving the room in an eerie silence.

“He said ‘early this morning’. That’s when I woke up like this. If I can get back into my body, it will start working again and I’ll wake up.” She said, wiping the slowly drying tears away with the back of her hand.

“How are you going to do that?” Annabelle asked, bringing her knees to her chest.

“I just have to want it bad enough. People can move objects with their mind or see into the future. It shouldn’t be too difficult.” Diane muttered the last part under her breath. Annabelle sat there, frowning, an evil glint in her eyes.

The next morning, Diane was sitting next to her bed, Tyson having left for a clean change of clothes and a cup of coffee.

“Still at it?” The raven haired girl asked, sticking her head in the door. Diane nodded and focused on her body, trying to figure out how to wake herself up.

“Hey, want walk around the hospital? You know, clear your head and try again a little later.” Annabelle suggested, leaning against the white door frame. Diane rubbed her eyes, purely out of habit, instead of being tired, since she had not felt hungry or fatigued since she woke up.

“Alright. Let’s go.” The blonde sighed, walking out of her room and went down the hall, no real destination in mind. Annabelle followed, glancing into rooms ever now and then. Soon, they found themselves in the paediatric ward. It was roughly 3:00pm, so the kids had already eaten lunch and were with their families, reading books, drawing pictures, stuff like that.

Diane was about to say something but before she could, she doubled over in pain.

“What’s wrong?” Annabelle asked, her voice sounding analytical rather than concerned.

“I don’t know, but-“She was cut off when images filled her mind. Her body was breathing on its own and twitching.

“I’m waking up.” She whispered to herself. Annabelle smirked evilly, turned and bolted down the hall.

“Wait!” Diane shouted, pushing back the pain and stumbled to her feet, then took off, going straight for her room. By the time she got to the door, Annabelle was standing over her, her right hand on her body’s forehead.

“What are you doing!?” Diane snapped, but she was bombarded with thoughts, emotions and memories, all at once. Annabelle gave her a sad look.

“I can’t handle being here any longer. My family’s stopped visiting me and I have no-one. I’m sorry but I need this more than you.” She said, then closed her eyes and disappeared. As soon as the last trace of Annabelle vanished, her body sat up, gasping. Tyson had come back during their walk and was at her side instantly. The real Diane stood by and watched as he hugged her body, asked her how she was and told her how sorry he was.

“That’s not me.” Diane managed weakly. She ran over to Tyson and stood in front of him, waving her arms, trying to communicate with him.

“It’s not me! Tyson!” She yelled, then the doctor walked in, surprised that she had woken so quickly.

“It feels like I’ve been asleep for years. Not hours.” Diane’s body said, flashing a quick smirk and for a second, her eyes turned harlequin green and back to hazel, then returned to talking with the doctor about getting more tests to check if her immune system was functioning correctly.

“Tyson! You know it’s not me! Please tell me you know it’s not me.” Diane begged, standing in front of the boy. Tyson smiled, leant over and gave Annabelle a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m going to get you a cup of coffee. Be right back.” He said, getting up and walking out of the room. Diane leant against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor, partially catatonic.

“He doesn’t know.” She whispered as a tear slid down her face. The rest of the day went by quickly. Annabelle going and getting tests done, all of them coming back healthy, meaning she was going home. To Diane’s home, with Diane’s boyfriend.

“And no-one knows it’s her.” The blonde said, resting her forehead on her drawn up knees.

Annabelle and Tyson left that afternoon, leaving Diane alone in the room, now understanding why Annabelle did what she did.

Because she was alone. And now Diane is too.

The end

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rubber Ball Theory

 

The Rubber Ball Theory.

The RBT explains most of people’s problem from the top of the political ladder to the bottom rungs of public schools. I might need to explain what it is first.

Well, let’s say you have two kids who are playing in the sand-box, a little rubber ball sitting forgotten in the corner. Then, one of the kids picks up the ball and starts playing with it. The second kid sees them and decides ‘I wanna play with the ball’. They fight over it and all they end up with are time-outs for beating on each other.

The RBT always gets you.

“Ari!”

Ariana Kramer turns, her black hair shining underneath the dull fluorescent lights and her green eyes sparkling innocently.

Sebastian jogged up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. He flashed his teeth at her in a dazzling smile, his brown eyes mischievous, accented by his brown hair, mussed up with gel.

“Hey sweetie,” Ariana said, walking down the hallway of the school. “What do you have now?” She asked, clutching the purple folder to her chest almost protectively.

“History. Mr Jacobs is pairing us up with different people for an assignment. I’m with Clara.” He said, giving Ana an affectionate kiss on the cheek before waving goodbye and going to his class. Ariana stood stock still.

Clara Roberts was a very pretty girl with long blonde hair and baby blue eyes. They were very good friends but Clara was renowned for ‘falling in love‘, very often. They used to make jokes about how those boys just ‘happened’ to already have girlfriends.

Ariana walked down the hallway to her geography class, twisting her sapphire and cubic zirconium ring on the chain she had around her neck. It was a common thing for her whenever she was daydreaming. Her mind ran with images of her and Sebastian sitting down together at lunch and Clara would walk by and his eyes would glance and get caught up.

Ariana paused her musings then shook her head and continued walking to class.

‘He wouldn’t do that.’ She thought to herself, and then she saw Cale leaning against a wall, his blonde hair cut in a very Cillian Murphy way and his hazel eyes scanning the halls, looking for something.

When his eyes caught hers, he jogged over and smiled wide. He didn’t even need to ask, because this was also a common occurrence.

“You forgot what you have again.” She said more statement than question. Cale smiled innocently.

“I didn’t mean to. I lost my timetable. Again.” She said, putting on the ‘please help me’ puppy look. Ari shook her head and gave him a light pat on the head.

“We have geography. Now hurry up. We’re going to be late.” She said, taking off at a fast walk, with the forgetful blonde following behind.

They got to class just to figure out that their teacher was away and a substitute couldn’t be found, so they spent the period in the room, talking or listening to music.

“What’s wrong?” Cale asked, putting in one of the headphones of his iPod and offering the other to Ariana. Ari took the headphone and put it in her ear, tapping her fingers sub-consciously to the tempo of the (what she thought was) Nickelback song.

“It’s nothing. I’m just a little paranoid.” She said, drawing little tattoo designs on her folder. Cale got a pen from her pencil case and grabbed a loose piece of paper, drawing some little sketches of his own.

“Sebby?” He asked, chuckling when she got a little pout on her face that told him he was right. Ariana scribbled out a small tattoo and restarted a new one, with little angel wings.

“Again. I’m just a little paranoid.” She said, and then showed him a few, letting him select one to be drawn on his arm. He chose a Japanese symbol with the English translation beneath, meaning ‘strength’.

“You think someone’s going to steal him away from you. I’m gonna take a stab and say Clara.” He hid a wince when she slipped and jabbed the pen into his arm.

“How do you know so much?” She asked warily. He smiled at her and changed the song to something by three days grace.

“You read like an open book Ari. Alright, I’m going to give you some information that will get me killed but if it makes you less twitchy, I’m good.” He said, running a hand through his hair. Ariana pretended she was just barely interested but inwardly she was paying very close attention.

“Me and Clara are going out right now. She was going to tell you but she wanted to keep it a secret a little bit longer.” He said, admiring the now finished, temporary tattoo. Ariana breathed out in relief.

“Thanks for making me feel better Cale,” She said giving his a light pat on the back. “You’re awesome.”

“I know I am. But, if I were you, I’d keep an eye on Karol Meadows. She’s just as bad a Clara.” He said, turning up the volume of his iPod. Ariana bit her lip. Karol was just as pretty as Clara and had the same reputation with boyfriends. Other people’s of course.

Stupid Rubber Ball Theory.

copyright Shawnee Benton 2010