Eli woke up from her frozen state, realizing her surroundings, and boy were they not good. She could recognize the scenery, the sidewalk near her new school, right? What she didn't realize was why she seemed way shorter than before. The thing was, she wasn't shorter, she was on the ground.

The only people around were Leah and a little kid that she had never seen before. She looked around, barely only seeing the sun's light cascading over her. Confused, she let out a small grunt in an attempt to get Leah's attention. Leah snapped back to Eli, focusing on her struggling to get up or even move.

Eli, scared and shuffling on the ground, could hear a deafening sound at a very high pitch as it got less and less loud to the point that she couldn't hear it at all.

Leah reached down to grab Eli's hand, and tried her best to heave her up before giving up and leaving Eli on the floor. Although she noticed something, Eli wasn't closing her eyes, at all.

Her head was also twitching, and Leah didn't know what to do so she just stood there, helpless. Eli couldn't hear exactly what Leah was saying, but she knew she was panicking and didn't know what to do from her tone of voice.

Eli's vision was starting to get blurry, but could see that Leah had taken her phone out, probably to call the ambulance. The child standing next to her was also panicking, but seemed like he was about to run away.

Things were starting to get hazy, and Eli was lapsing in and out of consciousness. Leah was getting more and more hectic, with people walking by grouping up near Eli's body. Suddenly Eli could feel a sort of fluffy substance coming from her mouth. Everyone saw that Eli was foaming at the mouth and most of the people ran away, then Eli heard a loud siren in the distance, the ambulance.

In just a minute Eli was hoisted up into the vehicle and strapped down onto the bed. She was on board for the nearest hospital building.

"So that's all you need to worry about! Although you should contact us again if this happens in the next 24 hours." The doctor said, but Eli wasn't listening to her, she was spacing out.

She stared blankly at the wall in front of her, before her father called her name. Eli snapped out of it after that and turned around to see a look of concern on her father's face.

"Are you okay, honey? If it's another seizure, then you need to tell us." The doctor and her mother both looked at her, also worrying for Eli, but she felt fine.

"Are you feeling Deja vu or a bit uneasy?" The doctor asked, and Eli shook her head no. The doctor and her mother continued the conversation, but the doctor still had her eye on Eli, she could feel it.

"Alright, Eli, since you seem to be fine now, how about you tell us how you think the seizure started?" The doctor said, and once again, bringing all attention to Eli.

Eli paused for a second, thinking back to the events of the way back home. She and Leah weren't that far from the school, and they were close to a playground. Leah was being her usual self, and Eli wasn't being very weird either. That's when it hit her, literally.

"We were near a playground, and I think I got hit by a softball or a baseball. Then I fell, and my head hit the ground last, but it still kinda hurts." She said.

"Ahh, that makes sense now." The doctor said before typing something into her keyboard. "If I could, I would like to check your head for any major injuries."

Eli nodded and let the doctor examine and probe her head. Luckily, she didn't find any lumps, and went on with her job. "I would like to point out that she most likely has a concussion, so it'd be best to…"

Eli got up from the medical bed and walked over to the chair her father was sitting in. They watched her mom take notes at the speed of light, and the doctor went over what she advises for concussions, for Eli. Even if the instructions were for her, she wasn't listening and instead started spacing out and staring at the wall again.

When they left, the doctor warned Eli's parents to monitor her heavily, just in case she had another seizure. Her parents said they would, also stating that if another one happened then they would report it to the doctor right away.

Eli was carefully placed into the car and strapped in, being treated like a child. She didn't mind much, since she actually was very tired. Once they were home, she was briefly tucked into bed while her parents talked outside.

Of course, she couldn't sleep without the safe sound of crickets, and got up and turned around to yet again open the window. This time, though, what she saw heightened her senses to an unstable amount.

She saw the blonde girl, the redhead too. They weren't doing anything inherently bad, but it was just their presence that sent shivers down Eli's back. She couldn't even pay attention to them; her vision was blacking out, and her hands were shaking. Still, she opened the window and immediately shrunk back down into her covers, trying her best to calm down and get to sleep even if it was a bit early.

Sitting there, hugging her knees up to her chest and rocking back and forth, even if she knew she couldn't calm down until she felt they would be gone, and they wouldn't be gone for a long time. That night was an especially long night for Eli.

Eli woke up in a nervous sweat, practically jumping out of her fetal position. Breathing heavily, she slowly got out of bed and walked towards her mirror. This girl she saw, it wasn't like her in the slightest. Her face and neck were drenched with sweat and her clothes were all in disarray. She walked away from the mirror, going towards her dresser only to be interrupted by her father poking his head into the room.

"Honey, your mother wants to talk to you." He said then walked away. Eli was uneasy about that, and that uneasiness paired with the perilous feeling crawling up her throat. Though that wasn't the only thing coming up her throat.

Faster than she could think, she ran to the bathroom and just missed it as she slipped on the cold wood floors and fell. It was in a matter of seconds that the fluids stemming from her turmoiled insides all came up and out of her mouth.

She couldn't move, and getting dizzier and dizzier wasn't helping, instead she felt even more sick, like she wouldn't stop throwing up.

As soon as her parents heard the thud from upstairs, they got up from their comfortable positions and rushed to the sound. Of course, being a bit old, they did take a while to get up the stairs.

"Eli! What was that? Are you okay!?" Her mom called, but Eli's words were hurled out of her as she continued spewing vomit until her mother got her up from the floor. Her mother shouted as she ran to the bathroom door, where Eli was.

Her mother heaved her limp body up off of the ground where she lay in her own puke, unaware of what was happening. Her father, phone in hand, started dialing a number. Eli didn't suppose that it was 911 since they never usually do when she gets hurt.

Eli noticed at some point that they were dragging her into her room, but in a haze, she couldn't move on her own.

"Rick, what did Bridget say!?" Her aunt, Bridget. They called her aunt who worked with small children. She often sent the kids to the nurse's office but if she had to, she would take care of the situation herself. Bridget lived far away from them so she couldn't come to Eli, and she wasn't a small child anyways.

A little bit of time passed between Eli's dad rubbing circles into her back while her mother was downstairs getting her a glass of water and expecting that she could at least keep that down.

More and more time passed by as her father kept asking her if she could speak and if she was okay, she slowly nodded every time he asked her, and waited for her mother to get off the phone with her aunt Bridget.

Bored, Eli was bored and going crazy. Her mother occasionally came back with a wipe and a bag that she could puke in, but she was pretty sure that she was done with hurling yesterday's lunch up her throat.

The clock was further convincing her that she wouldn't be going to school that day, and her mother's absence spelled out that her father would be the one to coddle her today. Aside from that, what was stalling her mother for so long? It was already… 8 something, and she hadn't come out of the hall yet.

Eli made a pained expression at her father, making him murmur a soft "I know…" and get up, leaving the room.

Eli sat on her bed, fearing that if she moved even an inch she would collapse. Soon later her father opened the door and asked her to take a shower, and that he would get a comfortable change of clothes for her.

Complying with her father's request, she forced her legs to get her up and wobbled past her door. She saw that the puke had been cleaned up, and was instead replaced by the fresh smell of bleach wafting in the air. That was good, she probably couldn't keep anything down if she even smelled her own puke.

It had been at least two hours after Eli threw up, her dad stopped comforting her as much and she felt less uneasy. Though, her not being present at school was definitely noted by the teachers and Leah.

"Eli, honey! Could you come downstairs?" Her dad shouted from down the stairs.

When she was halfway down the stairs, she saw her father holding her backpack next to her mother with a somber expression. Eli started to question her parent's mind and what they were doing.

Once she was in front of the two her mother started talking. "Honey, we know that you aren't feeling good, but if you miss today then you might miss an introduction to a whole unit! I don't want you to feel like you have to stay the whole day, but if you start feeling sick again then just go to the nurse's office and call us, okay?"

Eli took this as them forcing her to keep up appearances, but just shrugged it off and went to grab her shoes. Her dad glanced at her in a disturbed expression, but she didn't pay him any attention and grabbed her bag from him.

"Eli, I'm sorry I couldn't get your mother to let up, but she insisted that you attend school, I really tried…" He muttered to her once the mother was gone.

She nodded and followed him to the car, getting in and refraining from touching anything metal inside the car. And soon they were off to the school building. Eli didn't speak a word to her father and he didn't even try to meet her gaze in the mirror. He dropped her off at the front building and drove off.

"Ugh, this heat is making me delirious…" Eli muttered as she walked through the glass doors. As soon as she entered the room her gaze fell on the secretary talking to a classmate of her's. Ashamed to be this late, she dejected her head to the side and moved over to a higher desk that looked to be for signing students out.

The classmate trudged towards her before noticing her face. Their eyes widened and eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Hey, you're Eli, right?" They asked Eli, further increasing her embarrassment when she forced a smile on her face and nodded.

"Yep, that's me…" She said, attempting to step up to the secretary's desk, but being intercepted by the surprised classmate. Eli wondered what was going on and why they were being so pushy when she didn't even know anyone in this school, well, besides Leah.

"Oh my god! Are you okay? I heard what happened yesterday after school." They finished, clearing things up to Eli.

"Ohh, so that's why they're hounding me, some of the people staring down at me yesterday must've been classmates… Wow." Eli thought as her fake smile faltered. She tried to walk around the classmate, but they quickly zipped out of the way and bowed to her.

"Ah.. I'm fine, really! It only hurt a little." She assured them as they left the building in an uneasy wobble.

Once she made it to the desk, she got her late pass which was strangely in the form of a card. But the secretary didn't explain what to do with it, so she just accepted it. And so, Eli strode out to class hoping not to be treated like she was by the classmate. It was off to algebra; she went in slight despair over the situation.

Eli sighed heavily and tried to focus on the board, but who really wants to solve 5y=45 over and over again? After being swarmed by their classmates all she wanted was a break. Her sight was blacking in and out, which was all too similar to an experience she had yesterday. She didn't want to call it too early but if she had a seizure in the middle of class then people definitely wouldn't leave her alone.

She shot her hand up and the teacher immediately called on her. To her shock and annoyance, the teacher wanted Eli to answer the question. Even if she was starting to have a drilling headache this question was probably her ticket to the nurse. "5y=45, right… I know this, it's easy! Work, brain!"

"Uhh, 9, but I was actually raising my hand to go to the nurse!" She answered, panicking that she would black out at any moment, she was on limited time.

"Well, since you answered that question then you can go, come up here to get a pass." The teacher said as Eli quickly shuffled to the front of the room and out of the door.

It was yet another card that seemed to be custom made for the nurse's office. Though, Eli made no waste of her time as she placed her foot in front of her and started sprinting towards the nurse's office, the wind hitting against her and slightly slowing her down., and not caring if someone like a staff member saw. But unfortunately, she was caught by a teacher with her class behind her.

"Ah, ah, ah! Stop right there right now, young lady! Now where do you think you're going in such a hurried manner?" The teacher commanded to know, grabbing Eli's shoulder and bringing her to face her.

"I- I don't know.. I think I'm having a seizure, I-!" Eli babbled before gagging and almost falling face first on the floor. Still in her panicked state, she scurried off to the nurse.

"Wait! What's going on!? Dear!?" The teacher yelled, but eventually gave up and left with her class behind her.

Eli kept running until she was out of the building and outside of the nurse's office. She stepped inside the heavily air-conditioned room as she felt the walls slowly close in on her, her legs turning to jelly in an instant.

"Ahh, shit." She thought before collapsing on the ground, everything after that was a blur. The nurse calling the hospital, her being stuffed into yet another ambulance, the ride there was especially quiet. Yet she couldn't see any of it, it was like her eyes were welded shut and she had to rely on her other senses like hearing and touch. What a fun ride it was, but it was hopefully temporary.

Yet she couldn't do this the last time.

A heavy sigh was heard from the other side of the room, Eli looked over to see her cousin, Annabelle, older than she thought her to be. Eli looked around to see that, my god, they were in her aunt's farmhouse.

"Uh- Annabelle…" Eli whispered, trying to get the attention of Annabelle who was heavily fixated on a book she was reading.

"Save it, Eli. Things are never going to be the same and no matter how hard you plead and whine I won't forgive you. Just be an adult and suck it up." Annabelle said, greatly confusing Eli and making her ask a question.

"...What? No, since when did you look-'' She said before taking her words back, trying to find a way to rephrase "Why do you look so old?" She already seemed mad so taking a calm approach to it would be the best. "Why am I here? I… what happened?"

Annabelle glared at Eli, sneering as she put her book down. Annabelle would never treat Eli like this, she was always so nice and pleasant. What the hell was going on? In what world would Annabelle treat Eli like this?

"...Listen, just because you have Alzheimer's doesn't mean you get to hurt me like this!" Annabelle said, tearing up and getting ready to stand up. "I'm not some stupid minion of yours, I know who you really are. And I'm done with your antics, I'm going to go stay with Tony, the only man who ever loved me!" She said, choked up with tears. Although, that last part sounded like she was bragging to Eli, like it was something she needed to know.

But Alzheimer's!? What was she talking about? And why was Eli's vision fading?

Eli came to when she heard the beeping of the hospital machine, "Which one is it again? My… blood pressure?" She thought as she turned her head to see her father sitting down next to her bed. She tried to move over and tap him on the shoulder, but had just noticed the oxygen mask on her.

This was the first time she had been in this situation before, she never had to wear an oxygen mask for any reason.

But besides the fact, where was her mother? She knew that the woman was busy but how long would it take for her to leave, one hour…? This oxygen mask was preventing her from even moving an inch, since she feared that trying to do anything would disconnect a wire, and could she even talk in this thing?

"Dad…" She could hear herself whisper through clenched teeth at her father. He still didn't jolt awake like when he would when he fell asleep at dinner… Things were different now, now that they're in Strangerville. She could barely get out a whole statement, too caught up with trying to breathe normally and trying to express her voice, desperately making an attempt to wake him up and find out where her mother was and see if it had been long since she was admitted into the hospital.

In a flash the day went by, Eli lolling back and falling to sleep. But one thing she could notice was the surroundings around her, she knew what the people in the room were saying and doing, she was awake. She didn't have have to be in this hell, if only she could just open her eyes for one second!

"Eli, honey… please wake up soon."

Eli darted straight up, almost hitting a nurse in the head. Soon all eyes on the room were drawn to her in surprise and wonder.

Her mother stood up, bewildered at the sudden movement from her daughter who she thought was… gone. She slowly stirred together the prices in her head, witnessing Eli blink multiple times. However, it wasn't too fast like the other times she had a seizure, she was blinking at a normal rate.

Her mother fell into agony as tears streamed down her face as she stumbled onto the girl, hugging her tight like she would never let go. She had her daughter back and she was safe. She was safe.