Trapped In Life

Starting Over (Part 1) - Where to Start

“Good,” Death said with a smile showing relief while hiding something. I knew he was still hiding something about my situation.

Honestly, I had no choice. I was never one to give up. Death seemed to know how to push my buttons. He knew I wouldn’t back down on the challenge. I couldn’t go back into the frozen stasis I had been in for ten years and stay there for eternity. I didn’t know much about this girl’s life, but now I was trapped in her body to live her life. I would make the best of it.

“What can you tell me about Kaitlyn? I need to know something about her if I’m going to convince people I’m her.”

“You are her now. If people don’t believe you, that is their problem,” he said standing. I suddenly knew he was going to leave me with no information about Kaitlyn.

“Wait, you can’t leave me like this. I need information.”

“Actually, I can leave you. I don’t have the information you want. I have told you all I can. Now, I have to go. I have a job to do. I will come to check on you at times. I have to make sure you are fulfilling the terms of your test.”

“Wait, how long is this test going to last?”

He took a step back as he looked deeply into my eyes. “Till I say it is over,” he said.

“That’s not fair. You could hold this over me for the rest of my life…her life.”

“Your life,” he said finally breaking the awkward silence in the room. “No, I will not hold it over you that long. I will tell you when it is over. Now, I do have to leave. I have a soul to take forward.”

I sighed before I said, “I guess that means I’ll see you sometime in the future.”

“Yes,” he said as he moved back to the corner and faded into the wall.

Suddenly I had the feeling I was going to hate it when he does that from now on. This was only the second time he had done it, but I could tell it was something he liked doing. I sat looking at the corner where he disappeared while thinking of everything I now knew. This was going to be my life now. I needed to decide what I was going to do next.

I know the media has never been a good way to find things out about someone famous, but it was my only way to start. I looked at the newspaper on the table. I started looking through it to see what it said about her if anything. In the entertainment section, there was an article on her and the accident which killed her. The article didn’t say anything about it killing her, only injuring her. That was normal. The studio would spin it their own way. Yet the article didn’t say much about her personally.

The only thing I could glean from it was Kaitlyn was on her way to stardom. She was compared to me in many ways while she moved her way forward to fame. I hoped it meant that it wouldn’t be hard for me to take over her life. It was going to be hard to move forward not knowing anything about Kaitlyn. I looked up at the muted TV. I found the remote and started clicking through the channels. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I knew sometimes when a star was injured, there would be a play of their movies and possibly biography shows about them. However, I wasn’t finding anything.

Giving up, I sighed frustrated. Laying my head back on the pillow, I closed my eyes. Death had given me a lot to think about and a lot to consider. I needed to decide what I was going to do or not do about our deaths.  Kaitlyn had died.  Her soul was gone.  Whether the rest of the world knew that or not, I did.  I wasn’t Kaitlyn, but for the rest of my existence I, Anara Rose Praxon, am Kaitlyn Rose Dupre.  For better or worse, this was now my body and my life.

I didn’t know when I fell asleep. I was awakened by a nurse coming in to take blood. She was a bit star-struck. “I’m so sorry I had to wake you up Miss Dupre,” she said as she worked.

“It is ok,” I said with a small smile. “I understand it is part of your job.” I had never liked needles but didn’t have a fear of them. I watched her draw blood in several vials before she added something to my IV. “Can I ask what all the blood is for and what you gave me?”

She nodded with a bit of a grin before she said “Well, these are for different tests. Dr. Reeves wants a complete blood panel done. He wants to check to see if there are any deficiencies or signs in your blood of issues we missed while we treated you for your head wound and your coma. We did one while you were under, now he wants to see if anything changed. The shot was a bit of insulin. Your blood work this morning showed a rise in your sugar levels. It could just be from IV during the coma, but he doesn’t want to take a chance. I suspect it will have leveled out by later this morning.”

I blinked. This was a lot of information I barely understood. “Does he do this type of detail for all his patients?” I asked wondering if there was a reason for all this.

“Actually yes, he’s a very good doctor. That’s why he takes care of most of our VIP patients.”

“VIP patients?”

“Patients of importance,” she said giggling softly. “Patients like you. Patients who are high profile.”

I laid there looking at her. Of course, VIP patient was what I was. What Kaitlyn was. I hated that and somehow I felt that Kaitlyn had too. “Thank you,” I said to the nurse.

“You’re welcome,” she said with a smile. “Do you need anything?”

“No, well, maybe some more sleep. You would think I didn’t need sleep after sleeping for so long.”

“It is actually normal. When you were in a coma, your body was fighting to heal. Now it is tired from all the work. You may find your mind is spinning with lots of information and thoughts, that too is normal.”

I gave a slight chuckle as I said “Yes, exactly. My mind is going a million miles an hour, but my body just wants to go to sleep.”.

“It will be ok. Just rest,” the nurse said. “If you need anything, use the call button.”

She left me alone with the thoughts in my head.   I was understanding more.  I needed to know more about Kaitlyn if I was going to make this work.  The doctor had an idea something was wrong.  What had he said?  I thought about our talk when I woke.  I have short-term amnesia, but what he doesn’t know is I don’t know anything about Kaitlyn…my life.  For now, the amnesia would cover, but that wouldn’t last long.

My mind was restless despite my falling asleep again.  My dreams were like going over the words Death had told me and what I knew of the world since I woke up in Kaitlyn’s body.   When I did wake up, I was being looked over again by the doctor.  I blinked slowly as I looked at him stuttering as I said “D-Dr. R-Reeves, nice to see you..”

“It’s good to see you too, Miss Dupre. How do you feel today?”