I woke up staring into a bright, piercing light. My immediate reaction was that I was dead. But death couldn't possibly be this uncomfortable. My head was pounding, and when I lifted my hand to touch my temple, I noticed that there was a needle taped into it. That's when my mind started to clear a bit. I blinked a few times and then looked at my surroundings. Only then did I notice I was in a bed, a hospital bed to be more specific, in a hospital room, with a lady looking down at me.

"Mother?" I asked confused.

"Oh thank God! It's about time you woke up Andrea, do you have any idea what the hospital bill has sky rocketed to these last few days! You owe me a lot of money young lady," she rambled on giving me a hard look. I sighed, yup, this was definitely my mother.

I touched my head again and cringed. "What happened? Why the heck am I here?" I asked desperately.

"You don't remember? There was an earthquake … it nearly destroyed the house … and my new car was hit by a lamp post!" she said this and almost cried. Of course, me in a hospital bed makes her angry, but her new car being destroyed makes her want to sob into a pillow …

"Where's dad?" I ask uncertainly.

"Oh, well, you know your father … he, he doesn't like being around sick people … he decided to stay with Diane." She said this without meeting my eyes.

"Diane? As in, 25 year old girlfriend Diane!? Typical …" but I wasn't all that upset really. "Tell me again, what happened to me?"

"You really don't remember do you? We were at home when the earthquake struck, and that bookcase in the parlor fell on top of you. This …" she said reaching inside of her purse and pulling out a worn out looking novel, "fell on your head pretty hard." She passed me the book, and I slowly turned it over to see the cover. It was Eragon.

"This fell on my head?" I asked, feeling confused and afraid.

"Yup. I don't understand why you enjoyed reading this so much. I was skimming through it since I had nothing else to do while I was waiting for you to wake up," and she gives me another hard look as if I had any control over being in a coma, and continued. "And it has a horrible ending." And with that, she got up and left the room.

I hastily threw it open and started skimming it myself. The more I read, the more and more horror I felt. This was not a novel about love and friendship and magic anymore … it was a story about hate and destruction and dominance. It spoke of Galbatorix conquering all of Alagaesia and destroying the resistance for good. It talks about Saphira's capture and Eragon's death, the last hopes of defeating the evil king, vanquished.

Even though it made no logical sense that I had anything to do with altering the story, one phrase kept repeating in my mind over and over again, getting louder as it went.

What have I done!?

THE END