The Guest

Chapter 2

One Year Later,

One… Two… Three…

Breathing in, I close my eyes. I imagine myself by the sea, taking in the fresh yet salty air. The soft sound of the waves humming in my ears as I immerse myself in the dance of the ocean, back and forth.

Four… Five… Six

Slowly raising my hands, I trace the patterns of my new room. Its cold metallic touch makes me shiver and every strand of hair on my arms straighten up. I search for anything and everything – a clasp, a hook whatever I can find to get out of here.

Seven… Eight… Nine

Peace, Inner Peace. I remind myself as my hands come up empty. I don't know how long I've been inside but the deadly silence and utter darkness are slowly sinking in and my patience and fear are finally getting to me. There is no one here and no one will come to my salvation. Just me… alone, suffering. The thoughts make the breaths come heavy and hard; the heartbeat is spiking up as the seconds pass by.

Seconds become minutes and the minutes become hours. Whatever I was counting inside my head had stopped, I don't know when but the fear is getting the best of me as it slowly creeps up my spine and finally engulfs me into its darkness. My eyes flew open as the trance I had created finally broke and I start banging and slapping the walls around me, screaming my lungs out. My thoughts run wild and the air inside decreases. I waste all my energy trying to push the heavy metal off my body but all the efforts go in vain. Tears stream out of my eyes as my lungs gasp for air.

The alarm by the bed jolts me awake as I come up for air. I dry heave as one of my hands goes around my neck and the other one clutches the sheets tightly. Tears stream out as I attempt to fill my lungs with air, fighting to breathe. My palms are all clammy, hair greasy as sweat treads my forehead. My heart is running a hundred kilometers per hour. Trembling, I turn off the alarm on the phone and toss it away. I drop back on the pillow breathing heavily, thinking about the dream that I had … yet again.

The terror, the panic, the horror – everything feels so real. Every touch of the box against my body, its cold feel, the raw rustic smell is etched inside my brain as if it happened just yesterday. It's so vivid that if I close my eyes, I can relive the nightmare all over again without missing a detail.   

Pushing myself off the bed I get into the bathroom to shower the sweat away. "Things will get better soon," I tell myself a lot these days. But the worse part of it is not knowing what is happening to me.

I open the closet to take out a comfortable pair of jeans and a warm rose-pink blouse to go with it, but instead, I find a hundred pairs of clothes stocked in that I never wore nor did I ever buy – or at least I don't remember doing so. The style is so unlike me that I am sure that someone else bought them for me. I asked my brother once but he shrugged and said that he didn't have a hand in it.

Rushing downstairs, I look for Will but he is nowhere to be seen. He leaves early for the hospital these days and I barely get to see his face. This was another reason why I believed the clothes could not have come from my brother. Will barely had the time to go shopping for himself, he possibly wouldn't shop for me. He's always running to the hospital checking up on patients. The only time he finds himself free, he either spends it with me or sleeps his free time off. He doesn't fancy shopping much either and I guess that's the only thing we have in common.

"Well, you're l-a-t-e … again" snickers Emma. "You were supposed to be here an hour ago to go over all the arrangements for tomorrow's Fresher's party."

"I did say that I was gonna be late and I also asked you to recheck everything," I point out.

Rolling those spiteful eyes of hers, she remarks, "Well I most certainly would've done it and proudly so if you hadn't foiled my plans by running for class president at the very last moment,"

Class president! I sigh. What on Earth must have I been thinking to run for it, one of the many things I don't remember doing. I remember signing up for it last year, that was the day I met with the accident and went into coma and didn’t wake up for at least two months. I had lost the chance to be the president last year, my friends told me, and the teachers asked me to take the time off to recover but I pushed myself and picked my grades up.

After I started to feel like myself again, I felt like I lost parts of myself and nothing excites me anymore. I was even willing to give up my position as the class president if it wasn't for Emma. Regardless of all the emotions, she triggers within me every time I see her, but that demeaning tone of hers made me continue and all of a sudden that bitchy smile of hers, the voice filled with arrogance and that superior ego-centric attitude of hers seemed more bearable. I felt a sudden urge to fight for the position she desired so much and put her in misery. Yeah, I'm a b***h too.

Even now, she looks me up and down and sneers in a low voice, "Huh! you're back to your old self," and strides off. Oh, you have no idea!

"Set two more tables here," I instruct one of my classmates, Emily. "And make sure that James takes the school micro to bring the food from the restaurant. They canceled delivery yesterday."

"Everything's organized and set. You need to relax" Mia interrupts me as I lay out a few more instructions. She looks at me with those dark brown eyes filled with concern and asks, "Did you get any sleep last night?"

Sighing I reply, "I'm fine. I just need to make sure everything's in order."

"Things are in order. Did you have breakfast?"

"Oh, here comes the mother," I mock.

"I brought some sandwiches. It's in my bag up on that shelf. You should go and eat. I'll check things over here."

I jump on her to give a bear hug, telling her how much I appreciate her support. We've shared our secrets, our accomplishments, our breakups together. She was the only person who told me I acted extremely weird up until one and a half month ago; forgetting our childhood, asking weird questions, and then ignoring her. Acting weird wasn't news to me even though others shooed me off saying I was the same other than a change in clothes, but something felt awry.

    I don't remember anything about my first year, but I intend on making a memorable year for the freshers. These are the small things that keep me going and keeps my sanity intact. Students started to flow in through the doors by eleven and I was at the door welcoming them and handing them the itinerary for the day. It's Halloween and some dressed horrifyingly while others gorgeously. I wasn't really interested in dressing up. Moreover, I was so indulged with all the decorations that I didn't get much time to do anything. I simply put on bunny ears I found in my wardrobe and Mia put on a crimson red lipstick on me which just makes me look slutty. Mia, on the other hand, is wearing a lab coat and has a stethoscope around her neck that she borrowed from my brother. She painted her face gruesomely in red illustrating a half-stitched face, but somehow, she still looks adorable in it.

"Wooh! Look at that geeky boy with the glasses. He's so cute." Emily sighs beside me.

"Nah, I'm too busy gawking at that Wolverine over there. Look at those muscles popping out. Come to Mama!" roars Mia as she comes and sits on the table beside me.

"Seriously guys?" I exclaim, organizing the lanyards on the table.

"Why? I mean, look at the guy inside the BMW. I could just rip him off!" Emma, dressed as a slutty nurse, chimes in. 

"If everyone's here then who's taking care of things inside?"

Completely ignoring me Emily continues, "I think you’re into the car more than the guy. Besides don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“And your point is?” demands Emma, raising her eyebrows.

Rolling her eyes, Emily smirks at me and asks, “So, what’s the issue?”

Without giving me the chance to answer, Mia smiles crookedly and replies, “Aqua's not into 'noona' romance."

"What?" Emily asks scrunching her forehead.

"Dating guys younger than you," Emma answers. "Noona is Korean for older sisters."

"What's wrong with that? Inexperienced boys are so adorable and would save me the insecurity of him comparing me with his exes."

Breaking the conversation, I say, "You guys continue, I'm heading inside." I gather my bag and cellphone and get off the chair.

"Look another guy is getting off a sedan and whoa he looks so…" Emma cuts off as someone grabs and turns me right when I was supposed to open the door.

"Nate?"

And for a moment everything froze as I look deep inside his eyes – his amethyst eyes – and I didn't even know people could have violet eyes. Flecks of black sparked amid the violet as I stared at the eyes that are puzzling, questioning, and concerned all at the same time. I couldn't fathom what but something just felt right. Like I knew him? Did I? I don't know but I am enchanted and nothing in my mind is working properly at the moment. I try to clear my head and find my voice but my throat is so dry that when I open my mouth nothing comes out.

Clearing my throat, I pull myself away from him and tuck my hair behind my ears, "I'm sorry you've got the wrong person, I'm Aqua James." I extend my hand but he doesn't shake it he just stares at me like he's searching for something. Frowning, he gazes at me as if trying to detect a lie.

"I'm sorry," he murmurs. He looks at me for another second and paces away. Baffled, I stand there with my hand still extended. Voices beside me bring me out of the spell he put me in.

"Looks like Aqua just dropped herself in a 'noona' romance," Emily squeals.

"That was so intense," Mia adds.

"Did you see his eyes? It felt so surreal." I whisper.

"How would we? We just witnessed the chemistry between you two." They all sound so excited but I just give them a death-stare and stomp off.

    The rest of the day was a blur as people showed off their talents and played around the campus looking for the treasure hidden in one of the classrooms. I vaguely remember playing 'Bursting Balloons' with one of the freshers. He blew the balloons and I burst them without touching them with my hands, the team who burst the most won. After everything ended, Mia drove me back home. I was so exhausted that I thought I'd be fast asleep if I hit the bed. However, images of the guy with the purple eyes flashed through my mind. He could easily have mistaken me for someone else but the way he looked at me was so intense, it was like he knew me. Do I know him? He definitely looked like he thought I was lying – what if I did? What if I knew him and have lied to him about who I really am? I’m missing about eight months of my life - what if he is the answer to all my questions? What if he knows something if not everything? But who is he and why did he call me Nate?

The questions spiral around my head attacking me one after the other and yet I had no answers to them. I try hard to think about the past despite knowing that it would be futile. I have been trying to place the missing pieces all these days and haven't come to any conclusion but I still try to place him. Suddenly, a striking pain starts at the back of my head that slowly travels across and reaches my eyes. I groan at the unbearable pain and squeeze my head with my hands in the attempts to stop it but the pain only intensifies, and I blackout.