AN

Before you read this, understand that I don't mean to offend anyone with anything that may happen. The opinions of the characters are not reflective of my own opinions.

Disclaimer: You know who's not mine.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen. ~Edward de Bono

I dreamt that I was in a car with my best friend's mother and sister, a boy from school who was notorious for drinking so much at parties that he'd often throw up, his step-brother, and my English teacher. I think I was lying down. No one would tell be where we were going. "Just breathe," they kept telling me, trying to calm me down, but I couldn't be calm until I knew where we were going. They gave me different answers, "an amusement park" "a birthday party" "Canada" "the hospital" "heaven". I began to cry. The saltiness in my tears burned my face.

When I awoke, there were bright lights all around me, shining in my eyes. My skin began to heat up. The light was moved back and a person stood behind it. He had been holding it in front of me. I tried to scowl at him, but it hurt my face.

"Hey there Myra. I'm Nurse Daniels, and you're in the Seattle General Hospital. You were in a pretty bad fire, so it might hurt to move for a while. Just take it easy," he told me. "There are some people who want to see you."

Two adults came in first, one male and one female. I didn't recognise them, but they were calling me baby and princess and pumpkin, so I guessed that they were my parents. A girl came in with them. Was she my sister? She looked to be about my age. Smallish, nice facial features, long black hair. She seemed nervous, like a girl with ghosts following her. She looked like she wanted to talk to me, but not with other people in the room.

My 'parents' didn't visit much after that, but I didn't hold it against them, partially because I didn't feel like I knew them and partially because they seemed like busy people.

I had two new visitors instead, but they didn't come in together. The first one was a very tall man who had darker skin, like mine, and short black hair. He didn't stay long. He looked like he was looking for someone rather than there to see me. I thought the second boy was the same as the first, but when he came closer, I saw that he was a bit shorter and more muscular. He was nicer too. He sat with me for hours and held my hand. I wished he would talk; say something to help me remember who he was. I wanted to ask them their names and how they knew me, but I couldn't bring myself to hurt them like that. I wouldn't want to be forgotten.

I started to remember things in little pieces. My memories of the fire scared me at first.

I was trapped, flames blocking my only exits. The smoke was filling my lungs, so I fell to the ground.

I began to remember the people too; Jacob first, then Kim, who was not my blood sister, but my sister in just about every other way, then my parents and Jared.

My room usually always had someone in it, because they would never be in at the same time. When Kim came in she would whisper things to me about monsters, blood, and harpies, and I wondered why she was saying these things, but I was always zoning in and out, and I thought it rude to ask a question about something she might have already told me. Then whenever Jacob was coming towards the room she would tell me to be careful then run off.

Jacob would hold my hand mostly. We got to talking, like before I ruined our friendship, or he did...there were still some things I couldn't quite remember.

I couldn't stop coughing. It was strangely violent. I was passing in and out of consciousness. The flames were closing in, but I couldn't stop coughing long enough to move.

One day before bed I had a new visitor. She wore a hospital gown like me, but a different colour, so she must have been from a different ward. She was moving strangely; limping like she was injured and very weak. She came closer to me. I wanted to know what she had to say, but a doctor and a security guard came in and pulled her away before she could tell me. She shook her long red hair, whipping them with it as they pulled her away. She never came back, so I may have dreamt that.

A few days later I was feeling much better; I was remembering most of my life and was also able to focus on conversations for longer than 14 seconds.

Kim decided that this would be a good time to narrate to me everything that happened during the past few months. She did a pretty good job about not being bias, or at least that's what I thought. I wouldn't know entirely until my memories caught up to me. Although I found it hard to believe I got that crazy over Jared, the memories that I had of Elementary School matched up, so I trusted that she was telling the truth.

I didn't know what to think when she got to the part about Jacob turning into a giant wolf. I knew she wasn't the crazy type, or the type to make something like that up.

"Jared too," she told me.

As if he had sensed us talking about him, Jacob had appeared.

"Do you want me to get rid of him for you?"

I told her no, because even though I half believed her, I still trusted Jacob.

I decided that I wanted to ask him about it, but I didn't know how to phrase it.

"Jake, are you..." I struggled, "Kim was telling me some things about the day of the accident." I paused. "About when you were in the restaurant."

He asked me to trust him, and told me that he would tell me everything later. Apparently the time wasn't right.

I did trust him completely, but I wanted answers, and I wanted to be able to give Kimmie some answers, so I told him that I was scared, and that I couldn't trust him until he gave me the truth.

"The first thing you have to understand is that you are completely safe with me. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm never going to hurt you."

"I trust you," I reassured him, and he gave me this look saying didn't you just tell me you didn't trust me? He continued anyways.

"You know the legends of our tribe, of the Spirit Warriors and the Cold Ones. They're true. Well, they're mostly true. There aren't any true Spirit Warriors in our tribe, but there are warriors nonetheless. You see, what happens to us instead..." he proceeded to tell me all about the werewolves and vampires. He told me how they became shape shifters, about the heated body temperature and accelerated healing.

"And that's it? That's the truth? The whole truth?" I asked.

He got a pained look on his face. There was something else, and he didn't want to tell me. I didn't understand what he thought could be more nerve-racking to tell beyond what he had already said.

I was surprised at how much seeing him in this confused and upset state was hurting me. I reached out to him wanting to stop his pain. "What is it, babe?"

I froze; surprised that I had added a pet name at the end of my question. I could feel my cheeks reddening. I was dying of embarrassment, and the worst part was that Jacob was just smiling. No, the worst part was that I loved that he was smiling, because I loved his smile.

I spent a while just looking at his face, really looking. It's strange that even though people see things all the time, they rarely ever take time to just look at things. It's strange what you see when you spend time at it, sometimes it may even scare you. I was definitely scared by what I found.

I suddenly realized that while I had been studying his face for a couple of minutes, he's been studying mine for days. I also realized that due to the fact that there was no mirror in my bathroom, I hadn't looked at myself for over a week; since before the fire, and before the skin grafting surgery. If my face looked anything like my arm, I didn't want anyone to be looking at me.

"Well, babe," he said, trying to make a joke or a segway into something else, but I wasn't in the mood for jokes now. He reached out to caress my face, but I pulled away, jumped out of bed and began running down the hall. I had to find a mirror. I ducked into the women's washroom, but there were none there either.

I ran towards the elevator, now knowing that there wouldn't be any in this entire ward, as if everyone was working against me.

Jacob was catching up to me, calling out my name. I managed to get the elevator door closed before he could open it.

I ran out of the elevator. Jake was still on my trail; he had taken the stairs. If I can just duck into the women's washroom I'll be safe, I thought.

The smoke pulled me in to darkness, and the pain brought me back. The fire was close now, so close that it was touching my leg. My pants didn't do much to protect me; they were consumed faster than I thought they would be. The fire crept up my body.

I couldn't breathe. This is what people had been looking at? Most of my left side; my arm, shoulder, neck, face, looked rough, scarred, and discoloured.

I was wrong about the women's room stopping Jacob from following me. He was right there beside me, holding me as I cried. I didn't want him to see me anymore, but I couldn't bear the thought of him leaving either.

"Oh, Myra," he said, tilting my head up so he could look me in the eye, "you're beautiful." I was still crying. "Nothing is going to change that," he told me, "And nothing is going to change the fact that I love you, and I would do anything for you."

I knew that if I blacked out again I probably wouldn't wake up, but I almost just wanted it to end.

Something fell on me. I would've thought that it was a piece of the ceiling, but it felt like a blanket, except for the fact that it was wet. I was lifted off of the ground. The arms that held me were just as hot as the fire. They pulled me out of the flames. I heard the siren coming. There was yelling all around me, people were arguing. I cried again when the strong arms lay me down on the bed. I wanted them to stay around me. "Just breathe," I was told by a comforting voice beside me, so I did. But then I passed out.

I hope I did a decent job portraying the fire and thereafter. I'm really nervous about this chapter, so please let me know what you think.