Arranged Revenge

Chapter2

Elena heard the buzz in the air all around and felt it all against her skin, but the outside world appeared smudged now and became a hazy blur as the vehicles drove past in the street. Quite literally dripping like a painting, the edges smudging and fading as the brush moved rapidly to the canvas.

Nothing felt quite right: the trees on both sides seemed just too tall, too green. The shadows on the tarred surface seem a contrast of sorts. All of the houses that she would have recognized but seemed to have lost touch with currently went like something out of reality. The sort of dream that was just slipping through with every blink.

Elena blinked. She grasped the seatbelt for dear life. The smell of the air, the feel of the wind on her skin, they sounded quite unreal. That was six months, during which she had slept in a coma. Six long months. Home, she knew, was where Uncle Dante would be driving her to, but home is not a destination anymore, in her mind, it felt not really hers.

She had lost them all: her parents. Brother. In a car crash. A memory drowned in an ocean of unconsciousness. Awake now and gone into another world as if she had stepped into a parallel version to her own life where all was so senseless.

Her uncle, whom she used to know very well, sometimes stole a glance at her from the front seat, but he felt more like a shadow than a comfort. The truth she thought is that she wasn't quite sure of him as well.

"Elena," her uncle's voice interrupted the quiet. It was kind, but there was an edge of concern in it. "You're doing good?. We're nearly there. Just another little while."

She began to nod her head little by little; her lips parched, her throat dry and tight. She was just too overtired to talk. What would she say, anyway? The very weight of grief in her chest was so suffocating that she felt it would be impossible to breathe anymore without gasping in it. Not the kind of grief that wore thin with time; instead, it just became heavier, dragging her down more and more with the ticking second.

Just as the vehicle turned into the street, Elena's heart suddenly beat a little faster. Maple Street. This was where she had spent all her living days. But it no longer had the feel of home. The houses appeared strange; their house too bright, immaculate lawns. The street lamps were too blinding. The trees seemed too tall. And there was this overpowering silence. Too silent.

Dante’s voice emerged loudly: "Elena, we are here; come inside now." Though it wasn't harsh, his insistence managed to pry her from her other location. When her uncle finally stopped the car in the driveway, Elena lived clutching the sides of her seat.

Next, Elena fought with trembling hands to free herself from the safety harness and exit the car. She stepped outside on the gravel drive, and her legs shook. The cold air slapped her face: sharp, sweet, and heady intoxicating.

Immediately, her uncle came forward to support her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "You're alright. Just take it slow."

Elena did not feel alright. She felt rather like a stranger in someone else's existence. It all felt like watching long-ago memories through a glass wall. Everything seemed distorted-too distant, so far removed. As she stared at the house, it felt foreign. Somewhere, paint was peeling, and she could not even remember when that happened. The porch swing was now empty, devoid of lifelike so many times she had seen it sway in the breeze. That was cool and empty in which silence was audible: silence grave enough to almost feel as if the house were mourning with her.

Her uncle led her to the front door, but Elena lingered. Although she was at the threshold, she could not even dare to cross north. Her chest felt tight under the invading waves of the familiar curl of scents that made up her house, cinnamon and lavender, with just a hint of old wood.

Somehow, it was as if it belonged to another lifetime. One she could never return to.

"Elena?" Her uncle's voice had grown soft and was whispering against the familiar storms wavering inside her. He opened the door and gestured for her to step in.

The sprawl of the pictures covering the walls contained a family she barely remembered. One of her parents smiling in the kitchen, the mother lovingly draping a tender arm over the shoulder of her father. Another picture of her brother and her while on a trip to the beach, arms wrapped around each other in smiles. She did remember the sun pouring on her skin, a distant sucking in of salty air-from faraway echoes.

Her fingers brushed against one of the frames, and an electric shock started from the cold glass into her veins. All of a sudden, dizziness swelled back in, blurring the edges of her sight. She could hardly breathe. Her chest felt almost as if it were being crushed by painful constrictions and then everything, the hurt, the loss, the utter confusion all at once crashed upon her.

But it danced far away for Elena to even mouth anything. Movement again was lost to her. It was some kind of time-stopped flashback. Memory after memory drowned her in a flashback.

In that crash, she lost everything: her parents, her brother, her whole world was torn apart. All that she could do was piece together what remained in a world that just did not seem to make any more sense.

"Elena." Her uncle, all the more insistent, tightened his grip on her face, forcing her eyes to settle on him. "I know it is hard. It is going to be very hard. But we will make it together. You are not alone."

Elena wiped out hard and finally lifted her head to look at him. She wanted to cry out; she wanted to say how scared she was, how uncomfortable she was feeling, but the words just would not come out. The past was fading away, and a thick fog stood over the future, waiting for her in the chasm. That house didn't feel like home anymore. The world she had known was now beyond hope.

"I'm here," her uncle hummed again. "And I'm not going anywhere."

The truth of his words sank into her heart like a tiny anchor. Gradually, she began to feel some steadiness in her heart. She wasn't ready for whatever life would bring her, but for now, she supposed she could take it all one small step at a time; the unknown lay ahead.

Again dizziness overpowered her; her vision began to fade. Breathing in deeply, she closed her eyes to try to bring herself back to the moment. It was all too much chaos in her mind.