Alarms are blaring, my ears screaming even as I press my hands into them. I can see the smoke as my stomach jumps into my throat. There's no way we can survive this. I glance around to the faceless crew with me with a sense of unease. I open my mouth to speak, but the words get caught as our velocity increases. We strike a tree, and I'm thrown across the ship, smashing my head into the corner of the control console.
I jerked awake, my brow glistening with sweat. My racing heart smashed against my bruised ribs. The ache in my head crowded my eyes with darkness as I sat up. I swayed for a moment, balancing between a dream and reality. I heard parts of words as someone gently laid me back down, wiping my forehead with a cold cloth.
I sighed into the mattress. I desperately hoped this wasn't becoming the new norm for every time I slept. In the short two weeks that I had been here, I had managed to wake up screaming nine times. The tears stopped falling by day three. The other times I woke to emptiness, my shouts having stayed internal. And, still, the only thing I could remember about who I had been, was the ship falling to the ground.
The people in this place had kindly taken me in when I somehow wandered from the horrific wreckage with just some bruises, cuts, and a nice knock to the head that conveniently stripped me of all of my memories. Since I couldn't remember my own name, they started calling me Astra, the girl from the stars.
"Just lay back. It'll be alright, dear," the kind voice said.
I sighed.
"Thank you, Dorinne."
"You were crying out for them again. Did you remember their faces this time?" she said sympathetically.
I shook my head. My mind refused to recall anything. I had no idea if I was in love or had a family. No one had come searching for me here, and there was nothing telling me where else I had to go. I was beyond grateful for the help of these gentle souls, but something kept pulling me elsewhere. I had been fighting the urge to sneak off on my own for a couple of days, but I couldn't rationalize what I felt.
"I'm sure things will start coming back to you soon," she smiled sadly. "Try to just get some rest. Can I get you anything else before I go?"
"No. You've already done too much. Thank you."
She cast one last worried look at me before closing the door. My eyes fell shut again, but my adrenaline wasn't going to allow me the reprieve of sleep.
"She can't stay here, Dorinne. Every time she has a nightmare, something in our house gets broken. I'm telling you, I don't trust her," I heard a deep voice whispering loudly outside my door.
"Stop it, Jake. She's hurt. We're going to keep taking care of her."
As I listened to them, my skin pricked with goosebumps. What did he mean that things were getting broken? How could he even possibly blame me? It was insane! I had barely left the bed, let alone this room. I strained to hear more.
"We don't even know if she was here to try and kill us. Her clothes were burned beyond any semblance of cover. She supposedly walked away from a ship that's wreckage is completely unidentifiable. The worst injury is this claimed amnesia. Which, I admit, she did have quite the gash on her scalp, but I'm telling you, something ain't right. You need to get her out before she attracts unwanted attention."
"I'm not going to argue about this again right now. Let's just clean this up, and we can chat with her in the morning. It's late and we're both tired. Come on," Dorinne said gently.
I forced myself to stay awake until I heard their door shut and muffled voices coming from their room. My body felt like it was being crushed under the weight of the universe as I made my way out of bed. The fear of not knowing who I was yet understanding the basic functions of the world threatened to paralyze me.
I took a few breaths, steeling myself, then wrote a note to thank them for everything, while apologizing for helping myself to some survival tools and food. I quietly placed the note on my bed before making my way to the front door. I glanced back over my shoulder, questioning my choices before I let the strange pull take me into the forest.