This scene contains graphics involving blood...
I had woken up confused a lot of times before but not as confused as today. Starting with the fact that I was definitely under water and it was thick red. Shocked, I sat up immediately, splashing some of it outside the bathtub. That was definitely blood. I wiped away the strands of hair that plastered on my head. Some of it dripped into my mouth as I was drying off my face with my relatively wet and cold palms which you might guess wasn't exactly productive.
I felt something inside the water tickle my toes and I almost jerked out of my skin, only to see my glasses floating up the red sea. I liked the taste. I did. Of my blood?? Well, there is just a new level to being messed up that even I didn't think existed. I tried to jog my memory, all I could find was that I wanted to die and not wake up to this amount of... I don't even know what. Seriously what would you call it.
Then it got weirder, I could see perfectly well without them, I had spent a whole night under water. And it wasn't like any other sleep I have ever slept. I don't lay for hours like a log, my paranoia wouldn't allow that. I always had stayed conscious through my sleep. Unless I was really tired. Which only meant that I had died, which I recalled was my business in this bathtub. I sunk my hand deep into the water and unplugged the stopper so the water started to flow down the drain as i comprehended everything i saw. I felt fine, too fine. Well and conjested. Not that I was fat or anything,just that there was more to me than there was before I mean, I wasn't even shivering from spending twelve plus cold hours in a tub with nothing but a vest and boxers. Both looking pathetic in disgusting or not maps of red. Well that and a ring. A vintage ring just fitting perfectly on my finger looking innocent and normal. Like people just wake up to rings on their fingers on any normal day. I was picturing the devil and God arguing in archaic terms and accents and booming voices who deserved me more not my freaking bathtub. Also, my skin which had a detail of a scar at a rate of a scar per two inches of my rough previously cracking skin was clean. Nothing, no cuts no marks....flawless.
At this point, of course I wanted to see what madness was in the rest of the house. It looked like fast and furious had been filmed in here, the house was a total mess, if it had just a few wrecked pieces of metal it would be perfect for the movie, it was about 6:00 AM so I had minutes to blow before I got ready for school. My stomach rumbled so loudly am sure it echoed the whole neighborhood, which I gotta say was creepy quiet, it is always super noisy at whichever time of the day, unless they had all. moved out and left me for the dead because odd things were happening, nothing else could make sense. I opened the tap and let the water wash off the blood on me before I could continue with this dream. I knew it wasn't a dream but I needed to believe that if i was to maintain my sanity for much longer. In case you are wondering? It didn't work, not even a little bit.
I managed to quickly finish my assignment which I didn't think I would have to do but well I was alive, strangely enough. I slammed my books shut and shoved them into my bag. Still not believing I could see and had miraculously healed. I thought about how crazy I would look trying to get my friends to believe the story and forced out a laugh.
I was changed. I felt different..I thought I looked different, well with no glasses and my eyes were not sinking back into my sockets or popping out of my head like a zombie. This might be the weirdest, but I felt like there was something or someone else living in my body. Struggling to , to take over my mind and body and each time sending signals of dispeakable pain through my body. Putting the ring back on didn't make the pain go away but was manageable. I had taken it off because it just wasn't my style. Max and Ruby would notice it immediately
After wolfing down everything there was in the fridge...I wish I was kidding but I did...and not getting satisfied, I climbed up stairs to change my outfit one more time. Dressing like the old me didn't seem like quite the plan. Neither did losing the glasses I was too used to them. I had changed my outfit more times than i could count like a nervous girl going on her first date and settled for a black T-shirt and pants, clothes my parents always bought me hoping I didn't dress almost the same each day like I was a cartoon character. The new side of me, whatever it was seemed to agree to it. It was a bit chilly outside so I threw on a leather jacket too. I just hoped nothing crazy would happen at school.
***
School started off okay, except for the fact that people looked at me like I was wearing just an underwear to school. I really didn't think the difference would be that noticeable. During Chemistry, something crazy happened, I realized the class was too noisy. All people seeming to talk at the same time and not discussing anything to do with the lesson. But when I looked around, everyone had their lips sealed and looking straight ahead of then like they were concentrating. Along with the voices were echoes, and really loud ones training after them so the teacher's voice just drowned in everything.
Am sure I looked crazy. Trying to shake the voices out, realizing there is a good chance they were their thoughts. I could hear their thoughts! A percentage of them truly were concerned about where I had popped from. I could concentrate on one person if I tried. Max was worried about my lenseless glasses, Ruby thought I was hot and Alvah, well she was sitting in front of me, but I couldn't hear hers. I tried to shake them out, I tried to narrow my eyes at the teacher, he seemed to be blurring out...like I was seeing everything through the edges of a flame, the world around me was spinning....the voices rose above me as I tried to suppress them. I gripped onto temples, taking deep breaths. I was feeling weak, and hungry...no thirsty...both.
Max rushed over knocking his books off the desk as he reached over to me, helped me off my own chair, draped my arm over his shoulder and dragged along with me outside...I must have been very heavy since it took sometime to reach a bench in the far end of the field, under a couple of planted trees...the forest stretched out further and with a fading path but no one ever dared go deeper into it. He offered me some water which I gulped in relief and handed him back the bottle...feeling worse. A burning sensation gulped my whole gut and it was as though my lips too were burning.
I tried to cough out the water but it went on to scorch me.I sure sounded like I was dying from supply of air or something and felt like it too. Max just stood there tapping my back, not knowing what to do. I was choking, the most painful choke ever. This went on for a while till it didn't and I finally blinked my eyes up to see Max, his face masked with a worried expression, paralysed with fear, but still willing to help.
"What was that??" I screeched feeling all bitter.
"Flavoured water, you always drink it and that, whatever it was never happens! What was that?" He threw my question back at me, high pitched like a worried mom, his hands trembled and the bottle of lemon flavoured water slipped from his hands and rolled to my feet. Something about how close it was to me made him not pick it, it was very obvious.
"I don't know...I don't know, I guess its just some allergy." I mumbled.
"You sounded like a wizard's cat being exorcised!" He exclaimed.
I wanted to tell him, I had to tell someone. Everything that happened replayed in a flash, causing me to shudder. I hoped he would believe me. I had thought about this discussion, Max isn't illusioned like me. He doesn't believe in things that don't he can't see. I doubt even God is an exception. He is always too quick to judge me when I come up with theories. All he does is live in the moment and ooze confidence .Also, struggle to prove that he is cool. Big chance, he would not even believe me, but I had to fail trying right.
" I need to explain something to you, I don't if its gonna make any sense. You can't tell anyone."
" K..." He trailed sitting across me. He whipped out his phone and held it between his hands, you know, in case my story is too cheesy, he could just frantically nod and encourage me to make background noises for him as he texts. Yes, he sometimes does that.
"Its me or the phone dude.You can't just...do that." I rolled my eyes, which usually isn't my thing. I like to act like am okay with everything so I cannot loose the few people I have. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, surprised as I was. I never had a problem with that till now. I didn't even think that, it just came out, like I wasn't the one in control of my mind anymore. He ran his hand through his hair and leaned closer instead of talking back at me, because then, he would have to do his homework on his own.
I bet he used every face on the advanced keyboard emoji while I was telling the story. He nodded, convincingly, agreed, kept me going, kept his eyes pinned in mine as if searching for something. And then out of nowhere, when I was almost finishing, my rehearsed speech he slamed his fist on the table, suddenly mad. Which is not how I pictured this.
"Ruby and I have been worried about you for two weeks, and this is the story you cone up with? Couldn't you tell a believeable lie atleast?"
" Two weeks...that's crazy!"
"There is no way you would have been lying in a tub full of water for two weeks!"
" You think am lying." It hit me like a heart attack, I even clasped my hand over my chest, which would have been too dramatic for this situation. That was on me.
" I know you have been avoiding us...and we get it, you are going through a very difficult moment, we wouldn't get. But when you are ready to come out with an actual true story, we will be happy to listen."
" You just saw what happened!" I pointed at the spot where I had felt my life almost flash infront of my eyes.
"I did. I care about you, alot. But i don't want you to think am stupid. Now anyone that would believe your story would be just that."
He walked away as I watched. It felt like a thousand knives were being stabbed on my neck, not even bothering to turn. At first keeping things from him, which was a bad thing and now that i was pouring my heart and soul, it was still a bad thing.