Chapter 2, take two. Enjoy! -DRA

I hated being in the hospital. There was just something that rubbed me the entirely wrong way and I couldn't figure out what it was. Maybe it was because it was so quiet. Weren't hospitals supposed to be loud and busy with doctors and nurses and patients? But this one wasn't. It was quiet. At one point, I made a comment about the surreal quietness to Tina, but she just laughed, told me it was a small town, and that everyone was super grateful that the hospital wasn't busy. Which I supposed makes sense. But still…. I found it unnerving.

Maybe it was Dr. Payne. There was nothing wrong with him per se…. It was just a feeling of uneasiness every time he came in to check on me and give me more medicine. He would also smile at me, ask how I was doing, and speak very politely to me, but I still couldn't shake the wariness I felt around him. I mean, it could be due to how the first memory I have is him strapping me to a hospital bed. But I wasn't truly sure that that was it.

Maybe it was my visiting "parents". They never knew what to do with themselves when they came to see me. They never knew what to do with me either. But the upset, nervous expressions and attempts at reassuring smiles always made me feel guilty. As if it was my fault for forgetting who they were. Then again, maybe it was. I still couldn't seem to nail down the details of what happened from Dr. Payne. Or from anyone for that matter. I just kept getting the answer of "You got hurt." Right. Because that is real informative.

Maybe it was all the painkillers and tranquilizers. They kept me so drugged up, it wouldn't have even surprised me if all the sudden I saw an orange elephant crawl through the window. They gave me weird dreams too, of rather strange people. I could never quite remember the dreams after I woke up, but it always left me feeling very odd. And even though the pain in my body was gradually disappearing, the massive headache refused to go away. Every time I mentioned it to Tina or Dr. Payne, they just doped me up some more, so I stopped telling them. I was tired of not being functional.

I hated being in the hospital, so when I was finally released, for a brief moment or two, it was like all my troubles were gone. The memory loss, the pain, the head ache, everything. I was finally out of there and that was all that mattered. But then Colleen and Jim took me "home" and all the worries came tumbling back. Because I didn't remember it. Not even a little bit. If I had been asked which house on the street was home, I wouldn't have been able to even hazard a guess. In fact, I wouldn't even know what street, block, or even town it was in. There was no sense of familiarity at all. Which, of course, upset Colleen and Jim. Which, of course, made me feel guilty.

I had a small bit of hope that something would happen when I went inside the house. Maybe I would see the kitchen and suddenly remember a time of eating in there with my parents. Or maybe my eyes would find the couch and my mind would suddenly go Yes! I've sat there with friends and watched a scary movie and ate pizza!

"Welcome home baby," Colleen murmured, leading me into the house. I waited. I glanced around and saw the couch. And there was the kitchen. And I waited. Nothing. At all. I felt bad because I knew what would happen next.

"Well? Anything?" Jim asked, both him and Colleen searching my face for some kind of hint as to what I was thinking. I shook my head, watching as they both sighed and turned their heads to hide their disappointment. And there it was. The guilt again. I sighed too because, ignoring the two of them, I was also disappointed. I didn't like this feeling. The feeling of being a nobody.

"It's okay Amy. It's just going to take some time, that's all. Why don't we go to your room?" Colleen once again attempted a reassuring smile before taking my hand like I was still a child and leading me out of the main room. Part of me wanted to pull my hand out of hers, but I just left it there, figuring I was already feeling guilty enough, why make it worse for myself. And of course, I also didn't know where I was going.

The walls of "my room" were white, the carpet was some shade of beige, and there were two large windows on the opposite wall, each with lacy white curtains open to show the backyard blooming with flowers and various plants. The bed had a white frame, with a comforter and sheets of a white and baby yellow sunshine design on it. There was a desk and chair, a vanity, a dresser, a couple of bean bags, some shelves with pictures on them, etc. There were also shoes and clothes strewn about everywhere, on the bed, on the chairs, on the floor. Colleen was eyeing the mess as well with a look of resignation on her face.

"We know how you hate it when we straighten up here, because then you can never find anything, so we left it as it was," she explained. She looked away from the clothes to once again examine my expression to see if it would give any sign of remembering something. "Anything look familiar?"

"Not really," I said quietly. I walked over to the disk and picked up one the of the picture frames. It was me in it, or at least I was pretty sure. I was in a car with two other girls, all of us were smiling, sunglasses on, sun shining on us making everything brighter. The girl driving looked tan and possibly Spanish with full lips and dark curls resting around her heart shaped face. The other was in the backseat leaning forward between us, with a rounder face, an upturned nose, and straight light brown hair.

"Do you remember them?" Jim asked, startling me. I hadn't realized he had followed us in here. I shook my head and put down the photo and picked up another one. Again it was me and the two girls, though in this one we were at some restaurant.

"Who are they?"

"Those are your best friends. You've known them since you all were in third grade. That one," Colleen explained, pointing to the tan girl, "is Camilla and that one," she continued, pointing to the brunette, "is Jenna. They've been worried sick about you. They wanted to come by today, but I told them that you probably would want to settle back in a little before you had any visitors. But if you're up for it, I'm sure they would love to see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," I murmured, thinking. "What is today?"

"Uh, June 7th," Jim answered. "Should we let them know to come by tomorrow?" I gave them a noncommittal shrug to decipher as they pleased and moved on to another picture. This one was of me and a football player. He was very tall, short blonde hair, and light brown eyes, and he had his arm around my shoulder. I put the picture down and glanced around and realized that he was in almost as many pictures as the two girls were.

"And him? Who is he?" I questioned, watching as Jim and Colleen shared a look.

"That's Tyler, honey. He has also been very worried about you. I'm sure he would like to see you too, as soon as you're up to it," Colleen was still trying to get an answer about tomorrow out of me, but I just shrugged again. We kind of all just stood there in silence awkwardly before Jim decided to let me get situated. He took Colleen and they closed the door as they left, leaving me alone to get comfortable in my room. I glanced around it, spinning slowly in a circle to take it all in before deciding that I had had enough. I opened one of the two doors on the other side to find it led into a walk in closet. It was even messier than the bedroom had been, clothes thrown about everywhere.

The clothes themselves seemed to consist almost entirely of pastels, whites, everything bright and happy. The shoes were heels…. and heels…. and, oh look, more heels. I mean, I could tell I was short, but still! I couldn't seem to find a pair of flats anywhere. I sighed and exited the closet, only to come back out into the room that was still covered in the clothes and shoes….. and it was driving me crazy. I went around and tried to pick up every stray heel and every article of clothing before shoving the whole pile into the closet and closing the door. I would deal with it later.

I tried the door next to the closet, revealing the bathroom. It was a decently sized bathroom, large mirror and counter with the sink, big bathtub with the shower next to it. Apparently us Reynolds were not hurting for money. Between the nice house, the nice car, the fact that they didn't even blink about hospital bills which I am positive had to have been expensive, and, of course, the fact that I basically had enough clothes to fill a store, I figured it was a fairly safe assumption.

I stiffened. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something shift in the mirror….. like a person….. behind me…. I whipped around, facing right the direction the figure was in. And there was nobody there. My heart was still racing and I had goosebumps on my arms. All for nothing.

"What is wrong with me?" I groaned as I slid down the wall to sit on the cold tile floor. I knew it was to be expected, considering the whole amnesia thing, but everything just felt so off. I felt so off. And my headache was worse than ever.

I put my head between my knees and tried to calm down, closing my eyes and taking deep breaths.

"Where are you?" My head shot up, looking for the source of the whisper I thought I heard. But there was nothing. Meaning that I was either hearing things or I had a ghost, and considering my current situation, my bet wouldn't be on the latter. So maybe I was crazy. Maybe that is why no one would tell me what happened to me. Because I somehow got hurt because of my craziness and hearing things. Or better yet, maybe what I heard was actually just the muffled sounds of Jim and Colleen talking to each other. The point was that no one was in the bathroom with me, whispering in my ear, asking where I was.

I sighed and stood up, a little voice in my head letting me know that pushing down my panic instead of dealing with it wasn't going to solve anything. I ignored it. What did it know anyways? I splashed my face, my very very pale face, with some water before taking another good look at myself. I still didn't look that good. If anything I looked like I had lost some weight while stuck in that damned hospital. But I didn't have any external injuries. At all. Anywhere. No scars, no scratches, no bruises, nothing. Which wouldn't be a problem, plenty of people can go through their lives without severely injuring themselves, except for the fact that I got hurt. Badly enough to lose all my memories. And if I was correct about being athletic, well generally there are injuries involved with that too. So why was I in perfect condition?

I sighed and looked away from my reflection. I was probably over thinking things. I switched on the fan and started filling the tub with hot water. Going back into my room and doing cursory search, I found a little radio, found a station playing classical music, and stripped out of the clothes that smelled of antiseptics and doctors. I slipped into the tub and stopped the water once it reached my shoulders.

Instead of overthinking trivial things, I had to start thinking smarter, more logically. Payne said that anything could bring back my memory, whether small activities gradually bring it back bit by bit, or whether something or someone might bring it back all at once. It was hard to say. But it was already proven that my trigger was not my parents or my house. Could it be my friends? I didn't really want to see anyone but maybe, just maybe, they were the key. Maybe I should call them, let them know that they can come over…. Except I don't have a phone. Unless I do. Something to ask Colleen or Jim about later.

As I laid there in the nice, hot water, trying to logically map out what has happened and what to do, at some point my eyes had closed and sunk a little deeper, the water at my chin. I was relaxed. Maybe a little too relaxed…

"Where are you?" Huh. Where was I? I seemed to have fallen down into a hole. It was dark and damp and a circle of bright light far above me was the only thing I could see. The voice logically would have come from up there. Except…. It hadn't felt like it. It had felt close to me, all around me even. But that was impossible. It had to be from above. If only I could get up there somehow.

"Down here!" I thought I had yelled it up to them. Except I didn't hear it. I tried again to no avail. I didn't have a voice. My mouth moved but I couldn't get words to come out. But if I couldn't tell them where I was, how would they ever find me? Who were they anyways? Could they help me? Help me figure out who I am? The light above me didn't seem as bright anymore.

It took me amount to realize that my feet were wet. As were the bottom of my legs. Water was coming in from somewhere around me and filling up the hole. I had to get out. I tried to grab on to the sides, but they were smooth and cold to the touch. Nothing to grasp onto. I tried to jump, but it was like my feet were glued to the ground. The water was at my hips now.

"Something is wrong." That same voice again, almost familiar and yet so far. I tried to yell for them again to help me, but I still couldn't get any sound out. The light above me was definitely dimming. I tried to stay calm. The water was above my waist.

"This is bad." I wanted to yell no shit, but along with everything else, my voice still was not cooperating. The light was more like a hazy glow now, the water lapping near my chin. I was going to drown and I couldn't even cry out. The panic was slowly building up. I was going to die and I couldn't stop it. Couldn't even try to stop it. Nothing was working.

The water engulfed me. The light was gone entirely. I was completely under and stuck and worse of all, I was panicking. I wanted to take huge gulping breaths but I couldn't. There was a pounding in my ears. My head about to burst. I was dying. This was it.

"WAKE UP!"

My eyes snapped open and I realized I had slipped too far into the tub. I couldn't breathe. Water filled my lungs. I shot upright and tried to breathe, coughing up water, scrambling out of the tub. I sat there on the cold tile, panting, trying to catch my breath, until I got too cold and got up for a towel. I fell asleep in the tub and almost drowned. I almost died in my bathtub. Who does that? Only idiots. So now I couldn't just be classified as crazy, I also had to be classified as an idiot.

My head hurt, my lungs hurt, and I couldn't stop trembling. I tried to hold onto the dream I had had, but it slipped right through my fingers and was lost. I had a sense though. A sense that there was something important to it. Guess I would never know.

Once my heartbeat calmed to a respectable pace, I left the bathroom, threw on some clothes, and went to the kitchen for some food. Maybe it was the lack of food and the heat of the bath that made me light headed and caused me to fall asleep. If that was the case, I'd rather it not happen again. As I snacked on an apple, I walked around the rest of the house to see if anything would spark something in me. The faster I regained my memories, the faster I could go back to being me. Whoever that was.

Thank you all for either sticking with me, or just now deciding to give this story a try, but either way, thank you. Also, the following chapters probably won't make as much sense after my revisions of the first two, but maybe I won't be a total slacker and Chapter 3 hopefully won't take half a year to be posted. Either way, if you want to continue the story as it is now, all you really need to know is that she still doesn't remember anything, but shes in school, she's met her friends and her boyfriend and she doesn't remember them. That's pretty much the only big difference in the plot after the revision. But anyways, thanks for reading! :)