In Oblivion (part.2)

Suddenly, Dylan came out of the darkness that she walked in. He looked stunning as always. No! His looks charmed her a little more than ever. He looked godly.  He was smiling at her, she smiled back meekly. She had no clue why he was present there.

She asked him, “Dylan, what are you doing here?” and the curve of his lips broadened, making him look very mischievous.

He answered playfully “Why, you just called me”. This grin of his could kill her. For the first time in the time span she had spent here, her heart skipped a beat.

"So am I still alive? Where am I if not dead..? Do spirits keep wandering like this..? Or am I in a dream…? Is this what they call an astral world? What had happened to me?"

Suddenly all the peace she had been savoring dissolved into panic. Trying to figure all out, she asked him in confusion… “Am I dead?”

He looked straight into her eyes and his gaze reached somewhere deep inside her. He answered, still looking into her eyes, “I don’t know.. you tell me.. are you..?”.

She looked at him in bewilderment. He came closer and asked her to come and sit beside him. She obediently abided. Few seconds passed in silence and she asked…“Dylan, why did you leave me?”

After a long pause, Dylan answered “See, I have already told you. You deserve better and if I stay, I’ll only hurt you. I liked coming to you because I had the power to leave. I liked it that ways, unattached, but then I realized I am only doing you wrong, thus I left.”

 Then he took her hands in his, and she felt it again, 1/6oth part of her heartbeat skipped. “Look at me!”

He told her and continued as she looked up into his eyes again. “Listen, I want you to come back to me. Please don’t quit now. Come back to the place you belong.”

She didn't respond to his request, instead she just sat there holding his hands, not willing to let go off him. He stood up saying that it was time for them to leave. She felt disappointed to this abrupt termination of their conversation. She too stood up and asked him if they would meet again. And he answered it was her decision solely. And all blacked out again. It went pitch black. And she stood in nothingness. This time it provided no tranquil, instead it was suffocating her. She wanted to leave this place. She wanted to follow him, wanted to see him again, hold him again and be with him again. She kept calling out his name, hoping that he would come back. Then it happened. She went through a wormhole like thing which pulled her inside, as if to teleport her to some other world. She felt everything whirl again. It seemed to be an eternal fall and she feared she might never land anywhere, this might never end. Spiraling down, she kept falling and falling and it suffocated her. Then finally it ended into a numbing blackness. She didn’t know what just happened. Where was she now? Did she take the wrong turn…. Or did she take too long to decide...??                                                     

She woke up, but the brightness was blinding and she couldn’t open her eyes. She tried to call out for someone to dim the lights, but her throat ditched her.  She heard the same voices again and this time they were louder and clearer. Now she recognized them. They were of her family and acquaintances, but there were other voices as well. Her head thumped hearing all those voices simultaneously. She drifted back to sleep; the next time she regained consciousness, it was all quiet in there. Those loud, disturbing voices were gone. She felt a soft touch on her forehead, and then she heard that gentle, soul-soothing voice of her mother. “Sarah..?”

Even her mother’s voice seemed alien to her, still, her voice had that enigmatic vibe to pacify all agony. The last thing she saw before opening her eyes was Dylan’s face. And the first thing she saw after a deep long slumber was her mother’s face; which noticeably portrayed what she (her mother) had been bearing. Her eyes were sunken and a layer of black settled under her eyes. Yet, now her eyes were gleaming with alleviation and the happiness of getting her daughter back.

 Sarah, now fully conscious, looked around and found herself lying on a hospital bed. Several bouquets, which made the medicinal smell of the hospital a tad bit more bearable, were arranged upon the far right corner shelf. She tried to recall everything. She tried to recall anything!  But nothing surfaced in her mind. She thought hard about “what had happened, how she ended up in here, what was the last thing she did”. And still she could not remember anything, no matter how hard she tried. Feeling dazzled, she asked her mother.

“You don’t remember? You were stabbed!” her mother answered. But Sarah was still in oblivion.

She tried to think about being stabbed. Her head started pounding, yet she could not recall anything.  Things started to black out. She fell unconscious again. Next time she woke, she heard her mother sobbing. But feeling too drained and weak, she just lay there with her eyes closed. Then she heard a male voice consoling her mother.  
“….but Doctor, she might never regain her memory. And every time she tries to think about it, this is what she would face. It’s pathetic.” She heard her mother complaining with a choked voice.

“Ma'am, I have already told you. We have gone through all the reports and we did not find any major or permanent damage, so we are hoping that Sarah will be fine in no time. You have to understand that this is just a partial memory loss. If we can make Sarah believe that whatever happened that night is inconsequential and not worth remembering, she will be fine. All we have to do is just make sure that Sarah doesn’t think about what’s missing. Losing a chunk of memory- about a couple of hours- won’t affect her life much. ” Sarah drifted back into sleep.

(to be continued...)

Click here to read the next part