A Tale Of Time

Eight

                                                                                                                                                        Age of Vianna-Heler

                                                                                                                                                        Year 2750B

                                                                                    VITALE

WAKING UP was overrated.

I mean, everyone wanted to wake up at some point in their lives but damn it when your entire body was shot to hell with endless pain radiating like the sun from every nook and cranny, you become slightly averse to alerting your conscious to it.

Especially if the first thing your conscious sees is the old woman you saw last before the pain came.

Her eyes were owl-like, staring at me through lowered lashes like she'd been waiting, in vain, for me to wake up. Those eyes brightened when she noticed me.

"Hello, Vitale."

I groaned. The whirring of the machines and the beep beep of the heart monitor annoyed me. I wanted it gone. Everything was so uncomfortable; the bed was hard like if I was to fall on it, I could break my back and it was restricting. I wanted to move but moving hurt too much to try.

"You..."

It was then that everything began to click in my conscious mind. I was in the hospital and in serious pain. Was I at one of my check-ups for the migraines again? Where was the quack doctor that had duped me last time? And if this was for the migraine why was my whole body on fire? Besides, why was she here? I'd seen her at the premiere last. Yes, the premiere with Opal and Violet Girl -Adrianna. And I'd had another migraine in the car...

"My...  my car-"

The beeps were coming faster as the memories hit me like clubs. I could remember a flash of white, screams and rushing.

I'd been scared out of my head!

The old woman touched my head and brushed the hair from my face, "You were in an accident. A huge white truck careened around the corner and crashed near the theatre. Half the truck landed on your car and the impact knocked you out. Thirty people died and your car was totaled."

Thirty? She meant spectators, those innocents who had come out to give support to their favorite actors had died because of...

"The driver..?" My voice was hoarse with disuse but she seemed to have heard me because she nodded.

"Was drunk. Died on impact."

Bastard. He got the easy way out. I hoped he burnt in hell for murder... and car destruction.

I turned my head the other way and faced the window. The sky was alit. Evenings in Old Helirix were always bright, like the sun had shared its light between each major establishment round the city. The sight of the city at night was a tourist attraction on its own. The view from up here was spectacular but no normal hospital would give regular patient this private space so high up. This was probably one of the more exclusive rooms in a more exclusive hospital, not that I could identify which hospital it was. But it was probably still in the Quincy area where the theatre had been. I'd seen quite a few expensive-looking hospitals on my way to the premiere, after all.

The woman cut the silence, "You were the worst injured, among those that survived, of course. It took almost an hour to remove all the glass shards from your skin and stitch up your gashes. You're very lucky, Vitale."

Yes, lucky to be alive when some were dead.

But I was grateful that I knew what had happened. If I'd heard after getting discharged, then God knew what I'd do with my guilt. This way I had more time to get used to it. I supposed I should thank the woman...

Which brought me to the important question of how the woman got here.

"How did you-"

"That doesn't matter. It's more important that you know what is happening. I have been monitoring your family for a while and a move has been made-"

"You've been monitoring my family? Are you some kind of stalker?" I tried to sit up so I could press the help button for the nurses but fatigue and pain knocked me down on my back. 

She looked at me reproachfully, "You might hurt yourself. Relax-"

"How do you even know me? I've never seen you in my life."

It was a lie, but it wasn't at the same time.

She sighed, "I knew it was too early." Then she fixed me with a stare from those eerie eyes and said, "My name is Iris, just Iris. I am now a travelling old lady but was once, a long time ago, the priestess of the Temple of Chelone in Helirix."

There was no temple in Old Helirix. "You're lying-"

"Helirix, Vitale, not Old Helirix. You know of the old Kingdom of War, do you not? Or has History gone down the drain, as well?"

Helirix...? Of course I knew of Helirix. Ayznver and Helirix merged to form Vianna-Heler under the guidance of...

But that wasn't important. There were no priestesses of Helirix left, there couldn't be. They'd have died off a thousand years ago.

She cut into my thoughts, "I understand your suspicion, Vitale. But you must listen to me, they have begun their move and we must not be left behind-"

What was she talking about? There was a crazy stalker in my room, talking about moves and Temples. My heart began to hammer. What would she do if I provoked her? I was useless now! She had all the power against me.

I reached in a rush for the nurses' button and slammed on it, watching with trepidation as her eyes widened at my movement.

"You..." Her eyes narrowed, "You don't understand! You will die! Everyone around you will die! They'll make sure of it! Vitale, you have to listen-"

The nurse traipsed into the room, tugging at her braids. A bubblegum popped between her dark lips, "Oh, Mister Vinchesi, you're awake."

"Yes," I was shaking with unease. "The woman-"

When I looked around, she was gone. Vanished. No trace that there'd ever been a crazy lady there. And because no one could disappear, I concluded that I was going mad.

Bubblegum Nurse checked my vitals, "A woman..?"

"I-" How would I explain without sounding like a nutcase that a woman had been there wasn't there currently because she had gone poof. That was all I needed if I wanted the press to label me as mentally unstable due to brain damage. "It was a dream... I thought... I thought it was real."

She chuckled, "The best ones are, sugar. Now, do you hurt at all?"

I did. I hurt like hell. So I nodded.

"Really bad?"

Her second question annoyed me. What did she think? That a car landing on top of my head was too small to give me more than some tiny itch?

"Yes." I gritted through my teeth.

She blew her bubblegum again with a sad head shake, "Stay still for a while, sugar. I'll give you something to help."

And that was the last thing I heard before the world fell away.

I HEARD her before I saw her. My sister, Olivia, had always had a domineering presence like the world was her playground and she was the big, mean bully. I could imagine her now wearing some obnoxious but still fashionable dress as she screamed outside and I must have guessed right because I could hear her platform heels clicking impatiently over the clean sanitary tiles. She seemed to be speaking to who sounded like Bubblegum Nurse.

And it was not going well.

"He's my brother-"

"And he's asleep, Ma'am. The procedure was tasking and he's in a lot of pain. If you would please-"

"I did not fly in from Grand Cleome just for you to tell me that I cannot see my brother-"

"Ma'am, please-"

"Move out of my way."

"Ma'am-"

"Move out of my way or I swear to God I will write all the bad reviews under the sun against your hospital and get you fired before the end of today."

See? My beloved sister.

The threat must've been potent because the click clack of her heels came closer till she was through the doorway.

I noticed the red in her eyes on her neck first.

"Vee." She crooned, tears spilling over her cheeks. She looked so much like our mother when she cried that it was scary.

She rushed up to where I laid helpless on the bed and took the bedside stool, snatching my hand in hers.

It was so warm and comforting. "What have you done to yourself?"

I spluttered a laugh, "Not much. Just survived a fallen car."

"It's not funny! The news arrived hours after it happened over there in Cleome and I was horrified. I had to drop everything and rush over."

"I'm sorry-"

"Shut up! Don't be sorry, you i***t. Be safe! What possessed you to stay still on that spot? You were in the car, you could've driven away-"

"It wasn't like I could tell that I was going to be crashed into-"

"Vee." She warned.

I sighed. Olivia was scared. Period. And she had this need to know I'd be okay. Unnecessary need, yes, but it was her self-imposed role as my big sister. And she wouldn't stop till she made sure.

"I was talking to-" I stopped. The old woman and her disappearing act still didn't make sense to me. Who she was and what she wanted seemed too troublesome to humor her so it was best to keep this hallucination as my dirty, little secret. Because if everyone around me at the premiere had been killed or injured, then it made no sense for her to be completely unharmed. "My head hurt."

"Your head-?"

"Yeah," I coughed, "I get these... migraines sometimes."

"Migraines? Since when?" Her nose was scrunched in confusion.

To avoid a ditch, I'd fallen into another. And a much worse one at that. One thing that Olivia hated more than questions about my mental health was questions about my physical health.

"Some weeks now."

Her left eye twitched, "What?"

"It's no big deal," I tried to sit up and this time it was bearable, "I'm fine. The doctor said it's probably stress."

The doctor had said that she didn't know what was up with me. But I wasn't going to let my sister know that.

Olivia glared at me, as thought trying to figure out whether I was lying. But Hollywood made me better at it and time apart had loosened her up. 

She sighed, "Vitale, I keep telling myself that you will update me on your life. I keep telling myself that you remember that we are the only ones we have left, that we have to look out for each other. But sometimes I think I'm the only person who care." She sighed again and looked down at her perfectly manicured nails, "I feel like a fool sometimes, Vitale."

Her next weapon after threat was  guilt tripping me. And it worked.

Every. Damn. Time.

I sighed, "That's not true. You know I love you."

"Sometimes I can't tell."

"I do." I covered her hand with mine, "I really do."

"Really?" Her eyes were bright with the question.

I knew what was coming but I still fell into the trap. "Really."

Then her face fell into its usual viper-like expression, "Then you don't scare the f**k out of me by almost dying-"

"I didn't almost die-"

"Or failing to tell me about migraines you're getting-"

"I didn't think it was that serious-"

"Or maybe try your hand at actually calling once a day. It helps calm me-"

I rolled my eyes, "I'm hardly a baby, Olivia."

"No you aren't."

Her voice was so serious that it felt like a true reprimand.

I had seriously hurt my sister.

"I'm actually really sorry."

She pouted, blowing on her long nails and opened her mouth to say something when Zayn Knight- my agent- burst into my room with the most serious expression on his face. I wondered what he would have done with that dramatic entrance if I'd been asleep.

Olivia and I turned to face him when he said with a huff, "We have a problem."