Eli shielded her eyes from the bright sun, wobbling closer to her mother's car. Once she was inside and buckled up the car took off. Everything happened in a blur as her life whisked around her, yet kept her awake. She saw that the amount of trees increased greatly, and that she was seeing many more shades of green than there were in the entirety of Strangerville. What she had seen there was way more… orange.
Though the fog in her brain hadn't cleared, she was still aware of where she was. Eli was laying in the back of her mother's car. What she hadn't seen was her dad, where was he? And why was the car ride taking so long? These were all questions that popped into her brain at some point of the ride, until the car stopped at the front of a parking row and her mother unbuckled herself, leaning back to shake Eli's shoulder if she was asleep.
Eli turned her head to face her mother before she could even get her hand on her shoulder, as Eli muttered "Where are we…?"
Her mother's face softened, slowly rubbing Eli's shoulder, then she said "We're at my office sweetie. I'm sorry I had to drag you all the way out here but your dad will come and pick you up soon!" Eli's mother turned back and took the keys out of the ignition, grabbed her purse, and got out of the car.
Eli, still processing what her mother said, unbuckled herself and got out of the car too. Her mother came around to her side of the car, perplexed at Eli's fast reaction. But she looked quite hazy, like she was possibly tired or in a daze.
"Well.. shall we go? I'm kind of in a hurry!" Her mother said, bringing Eli to the front door. Eli followed her inside the door, immediately feeling the cold shivers running down her back, and the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
Eli paused, starting to breathe intensely, her heart rate speeding up in quiet panic. She seemed to heat up, perhaps a means of raising her dropping body temperature from the quick change of body temp. Time seemed to slow as Eli slumped into her shirt, "Since when was I wearing this"
"Eli? Are you okay?" Her mother asked, helping Eli realize that she wasn't moving while her mother was halfway across the room already starting to walk upstairs. Eli saw that while she was somewhat roaming within the area, the office seemed to get smaller. It wasn't that it was changing, but maybe she was becoming more lucid through the time she walked past the three cubicles and… into a bathroom?
"Thank you for not throwing a fit, sweetie. But… if you could just stay here for a while that'd be great! Bye!" Her mother mused, still going to fast for Eli to comprehend. Through the numbness Eli still felt, she could feel a cramping on her legs so she sat down on the bathroom floor.
"Don't sit on the floor, it's dirty!" Her mother's voice rang through her head as she rummaged through all of her pockets and found her phone. The glory she felt in that moment was nothing compared to joy she had previously felt "That seems like a problem". Putting her password in, she immediately headed to her gallery, full of pictures of the ground and pictures she harvested from pinterest. In her opinion they weren't that interesting but she still gazed longingly at them when she had nothing to do.
She looked at the patterns, colors, what she had missed when she first saved them. The easily missable details in the bushes and intricate designs in the clothes brought Eli back down to Earth. This grounding feeling soothed her, softening the distant music flowing through her brain. She drifted in and out of calm consciousness as her head dipped up and down and her eyelids quickly shut.
Letting go, she fell into her shoulders and her back laid against the wall.
–
Eli blinked, coming back to reality in the same... farmhouse in the countryside. She was never told where this farmhouse was, but knew it had been somewhere in the south, maybe Chestnut Ridge.
But what she had worried about before was that she would be back here regardless of what happened. What she saw now was the same scenery of the kitchen where she seemed to be all the time, as long as "all the time" means for about a few minutes. She was always there, staying idle and remaining in the same place in the kitchen by the window boxed with a table in front of it.
Eli sighed, putting her head in her hand. "What am I doing here...?" She asked herself before hearing footsteps coming towards the kitchen entrance. They were particularly light, so she rested back in her wheelchair, waiting to see who it was.
It was significantly early in the morning when Annabell stepped onto the kitchen floor and made an annoyed look at Eli. Eli suppressed a groan and looked out the window to avoid eye contact. The two's last exchange was rather heated, with Annabell mainly being mad with Eli despite her confusion.
What Annabell was wearing shocked Eli, which was a tank top and booty shorts. She knew that Annabell and Eli were supposedly older in this dreamscape, but Annabell was just never the type to wear that selection of clothes. She was always so modest in her decisions of what to wear. Eli didn't care all too much, and instead focused on the children playing outside in the grass.
A part of Eli felt empty, like there was a hole in her heart and a yearning in her mind. But she almost felt numb to those conditions and tried her best to toughen up, but small tears still unknowingly made their way out of her eyes. Annabell started talking, not facing Eli and pouring herself a bowl of cereal.
"You should be out there, playing with those kids. I mean like, what, you never get any physical activity? My daddy does say that you're walking every now and then, but I don't believe it. You deserve to leave, I don't want you at my house, in my ranch..."
Eli's eyebrows drew together as her tears became faster and she started facing down, looking into her lap. Could she even stand up? She knew nothing about the body she was in and, apparently, it showed. She hadn't gained much weight, mostly due to her not eating enough... But to a teenager who was always very skinny and small and often told that was "great!", she couldn't help but cry at her almost failure to keep up with her body.
Annabell turned around and saw Eli facing down with tears falling from her eyes and sneered, turning back to her bowl of cereal and leaving the room with it.
Eli whimpered, alone in the kitchen. For the first time she was there it was a scary experience, but now it was just depressing. Was Annabell? always like this or did she have a better, more charitable, side to her. Eli slowly rolled around in her wheelchair, wondering if she really could stand, if she could do anything in this chair…
Supporting herself on the table, she heaved herself up with caution, but noticed that she was... lighter than she thought she would be. Her legs slightly trembled as she supported all of her weight with just her legs, hands off the table, and mind clear. She really could stand up!
She tried to walk, ignoring the aching sensation in her legs and walking all the way to the counter on the other side of the room. For once, Eli felt triumph, but quickly hurried back to her wheelchair as her legs hurt even more. It was something she would have to work on, but still worth the small glimpse of hope and tiny glint of excitement in her mind.
Eli sat back down, putting all of her emotions on hold as she took a deep breath in and out. "I can stand, I can walk.." Eli whispered to herself while she wiped her tears and started rolling out of the kitchen.
But something stopped her. It wasn't herself, but a sense of dread following her when she tried to leave the kitchen. She felt sick as her insides twisted into knots and all of her previous feelings welled up inside of her. Uh oh.
–
Eli shot back to consciousness, finding herself back in the office bathroom, she was seemingly in there alone. She recollected herself, picking her phone up from the ground and getting up to stare into the mirror.
She looked disheveled, like she needed to calm down and... maybe fix her hair. Putting her phone deep into her back pocket, she shook her head at her current appearance.
It wasn't so shameful, but was she really her right now? From her mother bringing her to the office to being put into such a depressing dream... It all felt like a punishment. She sucked her teeth, hearing familiar footsteps coming from outside of the door.
Was that her? Did she find me!? What does she want, why would she be here...!?
Eli's breath quickened as the world seemed to get 10 sizes smaller around her. Her knees buckled under her own weight and sweat trailed down her already panicking face. She gagged as the footsteps got closer and heavier.
Eli tried to run, but her legs wouldn't move an inch. Yet her face, painted with terror, got increasingly more horrified of who was outside that door. Then the steps got father away, leaving Eli to only hear her heart beating through her chest and her heavy breathing.
She was standing there, looking like a maniac, goosebumps creeping across any uncovered skin it could reach, and some even under her sleeves.
Eli tried to calm her breath, why was she overreacting so much!? She took deep breaths, in and out, focusing on her lap.
Back in the dream she had, she seemed to be wearing a skirt that reached her ankles, but here she was just wearing regular sweatpants. The aching pain inside of her legs coming back from the dream.. Was she really free of pain?
What had been going on in her head was just racing thoughts all clamoring for dominance, a creeping sensation making her all feverish.
As Eli looked back up into the mirror, she saw the fragmented shell of a person she once was... before she moved to Strangerville. Was all that was going on something really wrong with her or was she just unlucky at the recent number of seizures?
"Two is too many..." Eli said, gripping the sides of the sink as she fell over and out of consciousness.
–
Looking up at the ceiling of the abyss, things were really put into perspective. Was Eli the whole problem, or did she have another one that wouldn't leave her side no matter what?
She blinked, finding herself in her hospital bed, blinked again and she was in the empty vacuum of space. The eerie black canvas had encased Eli, trying to hold onto her forever. It was freezing, desolate, yet the cosmic plane kept her on board.
The massive yet deafening space left Eli observant of the scenery. What was fiery rage had become calm banter, and a puff of fresh air was let go into the atmosphere.
The prejudice, opinion, personality, and life had been lifted from Eli before she fell, yet that was the part she was most eager about. She adored the quiet moment she got whilst swimming to the tune of her life.
Rough, empty, and trouble ridden. All of that seemed to be so bad, and Eli had none of it under control.
She hadn't felt so forlorn in her entire life, but her teenager years took the cake for the most low-spirited times in her life.
What she had seen and felt wasn't just her feelings, but she was so low on empathy.
Eli blinked once more, waking up to her mother.
–
Eli had blanked once again, but she wasn't having a seizure, she had simply been too tired from being in a coma for so long that her body was trying to replenish its energy by sleeping even more. That was what put Eli through so much trouble, her body was tired but her mind was wide awake.
Her mother helped Eli stand back up, softly telling Eli, "Your dad's here sweetie." As she led her downstairs to her father's car. Eli groggily crawled onto the backseat and promptly fell asleep. While the car seemed to go on for miles, Eli felt it a short split second as she was woken up by her dad and placed inside her house.
"You really should eat, Eli. I don't want you sleeping on an empty stomach." Her father pleaded, getting a heavy sigh out of Eli. She shook her head on the way towards the kitchen.
"...I'm sorry, dad." Eli muttered, tears welling up in her eyes. Eli was no longer the starry eyed kid that was new to the world and still figuring things out.
She just couldn't be that kid.
