Trapped In Life

Soul Exchange (Part 3) - May 5, 2027 0115

My body ached as I took a breath. I opened my eyes to see two EMTs working over me furiously. There was someone in the background asking how this happened and why. I couldn’t really place the voice.

I looked around as a man just next to the EMTs said “That’s it Kait, fight girl, show death it’s not your time yet!” I didn’t know the man. He was rather handsome. He looked like he might be tall, but he was kneeling at the moment. His light brown hair was cut in a high and tight military cut. I tried to focus my eyes on him, but soon all I could see was a blur of bodies.

I closed my eyes to relax into the sleep my body wanted. “Wait,” I thought, “What did he call me? Kait? Who’s Kait? Why would he call me Kait? Am I dreaming? Is this an upcoming role? Did something happen to me?”  I tried to think of what I could remember before I slept.  Did I sleep?  I remembered coming home from dinner with Jan. Then, I took a swim. There was a sound in the sunroom.  I went to see what cause it. No, I saw something there…or I was confused.   I remembered going into the sunroom then something hit me in the head.  Everything went black then.  Was that why they were bandaging my head?  Who hit me? Why?

These thoughts took me to another blackness. I’m not sure if the blackness was sleep or something more. With my eyes closed, I didn’t really care.

May 10, 2027 1130

Opening my eyes, I realized the beeping I heard was a heart monitor. I am in a hospital. I looked around to see what was around me. 

 “Ah, you’re awake,” said a young man in a white doctor’s coat with a stethoscope around his neck. He had the bearing of a doctor. I watched him as he checked my eyes before he started checking my pulse by hand. I looked to the machine next to the bed which was beeping out my heartbeat and pulse rate with other numbers on it.   It didn’t seem to change what he was doing. “ Several people will be most happy to hear the news. I’m going to have to keep you overnight for observation. I’ve told your director she will have to work around you for the rest of the week. Now, Miss Dupre, do you remember what happened?”

“No,” I said honestly. Then I paused looking at him in shock “Wait, what did you call me?”

“Miss Dupre,” the doctor said with a tone of concern. “Do you remember your first name?”

I thought a moment.  What was he playing at?  My name was Anara Rose Praxon.  I moved my hand up to run it through my hair and found the bandage around it.  I was still thinking internally before I saw a man in black jeans and a hoodie standing in the corner of the room.

He put a finger over his lips telling me to be quiet. I knew somehow it was not just to his presence, but my name as well he wanted me to stay quiet about.  I gave him a questioning looking. The doctor watched my face as I struggled to understand everything at once before looking at the corner. However, he didn’t see the man. I could see him, but he didn’t. Now I was more confused.

He started checking my eyes again by flashing the light in them. “It’s ok Miss Dupre,” he said looking into my eyes. I guess my confusion was more evident to him than anything else. “Your head was hit pretty hard.  Some short-term amnesia is not completely unexpected.  You rest.  I’ll keep the wolves at bay,” he said as he smiled at me before walking out the door.

I had a feeling my stay in the hospital had just been extended.  Yet, I was still looking at the man in the corner.  He smiled at me.  He mouthed “I’ll be back,” before he disappeared into the corner of the room.  I mean, he literally melted into the corner of the room.

I was left with my thoughts.  I looked at the bedside table where I saw a newspaper.  I presumed it was the current day’s newspaper.  Strange that newspapers were still even printed as digital as the world was.   I looked at the headlines.  There was something about the headlines that didn’t make sense.  I looked up to the date wondering how long I had been unconscious.

At first, all I could do was blink.  It couldn’t be right.  I kept staring at it while panic filled my mind.  It was all I could do to keep from screaming.  I actually dropped the paper on the bed when I put my hands to cover my mouth.  How could ten years have passed?  How could he, doctor, sound like it was just a few days?   What had happened?  I looked at my hand noticing how young it looked.  Shouldn’t it look older?  It had been ten years and a handful of days.

I remembered what he said my name was.   I turned on the television in the room to find the headline news channel.  “And in entertainment news this afternoon, filming of “Soldier of Wolf’s Lake” has been stopped,” said the anchorman.

“Well, yes it has Jack,” an anchorwoman said as the camera moved to her.  “Actually, it stopped filming after what might not have been an accident involving the two stars, Marc Hayes and Kaitlyn Dupre. Studio representatives say while Mr. Hayes is fine other than a bit of a fright, Miss Dupre is in the hospital. The studio is not releasing her condition nor is the hospital.   We tried to reach her representatives at the Oscar Talent Agency but were unable to reach anyone. Miss Dupre isn’t the first to be injured in relationship to this movie. Ten years ago, beloved screen goddess, Anara Rose Praxon, was killed just after starting to film the movie….”

I didn’t hear anymore.  My mind was frozen.  I was dead?   What?  How?   I suddenly was having a very hard time breathing.  Once again, the room went black.

I guess they were dreams that surrounded me. I heard voices whispering words which I couldn’t understand.   I did remember the movie I was working on.  “Soldier of Wolf’s Lake” was a romantic werewolf movie. It was a new style of a werewolf horror movie.   Many thought it was going to be a horror film, but those of us who read the script knew better.   The story was of a couple, a Gulf War soldier and his new wife, who moved into the remote town of Wolf’s Lake.   The house was one they were given by a family member.  Unknown to them, their new community was full of werewolves.

But, why would someone want to kill me over the movie?  Yes, it was a new type of werewolf movie, but it was more a romance than horror.   It just had elements of horror in it.  Beyond that, why did someone want to kill this new actress and actor over it?   Had it indeed been an attempt on her life?  Then the question came around to the doctor calling me “Miss Dupre.”  Why would he call me the name of the new actress?   Who was Kaitlyn Dupre?

My mind was overloaded with all of these thoughts as I was lost in my own mind.  Even in my dreams, I was in the dark.  I hoped these were my dreams.  I feared they were my dreams.  What if they weren’t?

When I opened my eyes, I found the hospital room was dark.   The window shade was closed, but I could tell it was night.  The door was cracked, but the hallway showed the lights were dimmed outside the room.  It must be night.  I didn’t know when my visit with the doctor had been, but the clock on the muted TV now said it was 11:30 pm.  I was hungry but wasn’t sure I wanted to eat.   Eating meant asking for food.  Asking for food meant letting people know I was awake again.  I wasn’t sure I was ready for that.

“Good, because I’m not ready for you to have visitors again yet,” said a seductively smooth, male voice as the door closed.

I looked to the door, but no one was there.  I know I made a face as I moved to sit up to look around the room.  It wasn’t till I looked at the corner where the man disappeared earlier that I saw him.  I blinked as he was now walking towards me taking down the hood of the hoodie as he did.  “Who are you?” I managed to say as his dark eyes looked at me.

His pale face smiled as the hood revealed it.   It was framed by black, shoulder-length hair while he stood up to his full height upon reaching my bedside, he spoke again “Well, most people call me Death.”