Chapter Two: Lucky Break

Woke up. Blacked out. Woke up. Blacked out.

It's getting to be quite a pattern, now. It seemed to be a totally endless cycle. However, it's not living up to its name now: it doesn't seem quite so 'endless' anymore. I'm breaking free of the pattern. I did wonder why I could stay awake so long in the first place, and now I barely can stay conscious for five minutes. I'm not in any more pain than I was when I first woke up; in fact it's probably lessened.

Doctors come in and say it's shock. Shock from what? From forgetting things? I don't know. I can tell I've forgotten a few things obviously, but every so often when they question me ("checking to see if you remember anything else, dear") they glance at each other sideways and raise an eyebrow, like I'm saying something wrong or ridiculous.

I'm awake again now, obviously, but it's been two days. I've had only one visitor while I've been awake, no more, neither living nor dead. That kind of surprised me. I was kind of expecting loads of ghosts to come while I was sick, because that seems to be the way that things go.

As it so happens, the person who came to see me was a ghost, but one I knew. Jesse. We didn't really get to talk much though. He rushed off quite quickly when I was awake. I was very confused, because I didn't know how long he'd been there…

People must have been to see me while I was asleep though: I had some presents: flowers, cards, chocolates, even a teddy bear (which seemed a bit of a strange gift). I don't even know who sent many of them. I haven't had a chance to look at the tags, and I'm worried that if I do I won't be able to remember whoever sent it, who obviously cares about me in some kind of way to send me a present.

Well, okay, tell a lie. I did look at one. I didn't think that anyone I didn't know would send me anything. Low and behold, the first thing I picked up (the flowers) were sent by somebody I didn't know. Somebody called Paul. It put me off looking at who my other well-wishers were. I don't want to know how many people I've forgotten…

I started drifting off again… I've been unbelievably tired recently. I'm so drained and I don't know why. I was practically sleeping, but not quite. Having a nice slumber… Then the next second, I was wide-awake.

How? Because I heard it. I heard the crash of something dropping, and then a muttered curse. My eyes snapped open, but there was no one there. Nothing out of the ordinary, or even ordinary for that matter… there just didn't seem to be anything there.

…Well, except the smashed vase. I could see it when I rolled to the side, nearly cutting my face on the sharp fragments: there were pieces on the floor and on the bed. Piling on the pillow on my bed, just a few inches from my head. Those pieces on the floor had evidently fallen from there.

Cold fear rushed through my veins and I froze, staring at the pieces in shock and horror. What on earth was going on?

The shock wasn't because the vase had been dropped; that was perfectly understandable. No, I was shocked for two reasons: because the culprit was nowhere to be found and because of how close that vase had been to smashing my head… and cracking my head open, because let me tell you, I'd held that vase and inspected it when I was overwhelmed by the presents I'd received. It was heavy, and the broken pieces scattered about were very sharp.

All I could think of was, how lucky was I? Bad luck for accidents, good luck for it not hitting me. Lots of luck.

Unbelievable almost. I mean, who else has that kind of luck? But coincidences happen, don't they? And they can be used to cover up what's really going on. But at the time, I was just really grateful for my apparent large amount of luck.

Hey, the only reason I didn't connect anything was because I didn't know anything. My brain was still all woolly because I was so tired, so you can't blame me for thinking that I was lucky for it not hitting me, and unlucky that someone had been holding it near me. I wasn't thinking properly, okay?

I sat up. It hurt a lot, but I could sit up. Sitting up, it was so much easier to look around. I looked around the room. I don't really know what I was looking for. Maybe looking to see if whoever had smashed the vase was still around (although I'd looked lying down, I could have missed them as I didn't exactly have a great view of the whole room then), and even if they weren't, to see if there was a trace of them. You know, a clue. It didn't seem as important to me then, but I did want to know who'd visited me while I was asleep. It only seemed fair to, you know, let me know who my visitors were, whether I remembered them or not. Of course, I did want to recollect people and I'd recently taken on a new tactic: if I could speak to anyone I couldn't remember then maybe it would make me remember them. You know, memories and everything.

I did find something, but not what I expected. It was one of those post-it notes stuck to the wall near my bed.

I reached out. My arm felt strangely weak and pained as I grabbed for it, but I did managed to get it, although it took longer than I had anticipated. I read it as quickly as I could. My emotions were toying with each other: fear and confusion. Confusion won over.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I was a little bit scared, more because of what the note said that anything else. But I was also confused. Someone else I didn't know. Sure, the content wasn't that nice (okay, not nice at all), but it was the signature that worried me most. Alicia. Someone else I didn't know.

The weirdest thing was, she knew me very well, or at least she seemed too. The way she wrote about it. Empty threats hung around my neck like a noose. She seemed to hate me, but in a strange way, she was helping. I still had no idea who she was, I just knew she hated me, but was she trying to help me, or did she just not know…?

All of a sudden, Jesse materialized next to me. I'd been staring at the note for what seemed like hours, pondering, but it probably was less than five minutes.

"Querida," Jesse said, causing me to look up. I hadn't really known he'd materialized until then. "Are you okay?" I guess I must have looked pretty shaken up, but you can't exactly blame me.

"I'm fine!" I said too quickly. He raised an eyebrow at me. He knew that I hadn't told him the truth…

He pointed at the note in my hand. "Susannah, what is that?" He looked rather confused. I thought about explaining that it was a post-it note, but I think he knew. Besides, maybe he could help me shed some light on whom this Alicia person was. I really wanted to know. So I showed him.

When he'd materialized, he'd seemed very half-hearted, but he seemed to grow subdued and very angry when he read it. His scar was glowing white, and the room was shaking in an annoying fashion. He started muttering some words in Spanish – I didn't know what they translated to, but I'd grown to recognize them as some kind of curses. He didn't offer an explanation though, just dematerialised just like that.

Why? I have no idea…

However, a strange laugh came from behind me. "You are so predictable, Ms. Ackerman," said a strangely cold but amused voice.

I froze. Boy, things were just getting better and better.

Boy, I thought, and they say I've not lost my mind. Well, if I've not, it'll only be a matter of time at this rate.

As I slowly turned around, I found myself hoping against hope that my sanity held out, because this was getting beyond weird and bordering onto the impossible – and that was one thing I really, truly hated.

Author's Note: Thank you very much for the reviews, all of you. Once again, I appreciate the gesture and hope that you review again. :)
Revised 08/01/06.