Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Fiction category.
Only One
The Only One
“Iris. Iris. Wake up.”
I open my eyes slowly, and try to follow my mom’s voice. When the fuzziness leaves and my sight starts to clear, I see my mom is not there. No one is.
The last thing I remember was singing in my car to the O’Jays, “Sing a Happy Song.” And now I’m in a hospital bed. Definitely not a happy song place. I hate hospitals, with papers and files everywhere, bright lights, old people, crying babies, all too chaotic for my OCD Libra personality.
I yell for help. I need to understand why I’m here, but no one answers. The hallways are silent. There are no babies, nor any patients, not even doctors or nurses. No one.
I decide to walk home and find my mom. The hospital is too creepy. My mom will definitely know what has happened.
I see my almond-colored, small house that I share with my mom and my younger sister. I assume my mom would be sitting on the bench outside, but she’s not there. I don’t see my sister either.
Just then a dark figure runs out of my house carrying a couple of bottles.
“Hey! Wait!” I yell.
The mystery figure turns and freezes in his tracks. He’s classically handsome, and I can see his striking blue eyes from afar. He has an ease to him, like he could do anything he wants, and he’s not afraid of anything. I instantly feel drawn to him.
He introduces himself as Jack, and then, as he stares deeply into my eyes, he grabs my arm and says, “We are the only ones. Come with me. I want to take you to a special place, a fun place.”
“The only ones? What happened to everyone else?” I cry out, but we’re already running through the woods. My mind races. How long was I out? Was it a zombie apocalypse? Nuclear war? Everywhere around me are the same buildings and landmarks I remember. It couldn’t be any of that. But then what happened to my family? What happened to everyone else?
I’m having trouble keeping up with him, and am running and stumbling as fast as I can. We arrive at a creepy old cabin. My mind is reeling, and now I feel like I’m in a horror movie. I followed some stranger into an old, decrepit building in the middle of nowhere. It is littered with cans and reeks of alcohol. If scary music were playing I’d have no doubt I had wandered into a slasher movie. This is definitely not a fun place.
Suddenly in the corner of my eye I see Jack coming at me with a broken bottle, and staring at me with killer eyes. Then I feel a sharp pain in my neck, but know it can’t be Jack because he was still on the other side of the room. I look up and see a woman soaring through the skylight grasping a shovel. It must be the shards of glass that hurt me.
Without hesitation, she hits Jack and grabs my arm, dragging me out of the house.
“Who are you? Why’d you save me?”
“I’m Susan,” she says. “I saved you because I knew if I didn’t get you out of there, you would die.”
She leads me out of the woods and I see my beloved town again. Though instead of the busy streets and music all around, it is deathly quiet. It’s so eerie and feels like a ghost town. Some memories start flooding back into my head from the night before. I remember listening to the song in my car, and now I remember leaving the street party. I look down and see the remains from the party littering the ground. Walking along, straining to remember what could have happened to me last night and why I’m stuck in this nightmare. Where is everyone?
Distracted by my thoughts, I trip and fall over one of the hundreds of beer bottles littering the ground. As I fall to the ground, images rush toward me. I’m walking all crooked to my car, swaying and fumbling with my key. I’m in my car, singing at the top of my lungs as the street rushes by too quickly. Oops, there was a stop sign, I laugh. Then Crash! Screech! Bang!
And everything is dark.
I’m afraid to open my eyes, for I can’t stand the thought of being all alone again. I just want my mom, my sister, my friends, even the crying babies in the hospital would be better than being all alone, with only that scary Jack trying to kill me, and the stranger Susan who don’t know..
“I don’t want to be the only one! I don’t want to be the only one!” I scream, though it seems like I make no sound.
“Iris. Iris. Wake up.”
What is happening? I swear I hear my mom again, but am very afraid that I’m just starting this nightmare all over. “I don’t want to be the only one!” I scream with as much force as I can.
“You’re not, Iris. I’m here.”
I open my eyes, and there’s my mom. I feel an overwhelming rush of relief, but also so much confusion. And is that Susan sitting at the foot of the bed? What in the world is going on?
“Oh, Iris, thank goodness you’re awake. We thought we’d lost you,” my mom cries.
Lost me? I was the one who lost everyone. What is happening?
“You were in a drunk driving accident. Your friends said you had been drinking whiskey all night, and they told you not to drive. But you said you were invincible, that you’d be fine, that you didn’t need anyone else telling you what to do. You ran a stop sign and crashed into another car. Thankfully, Susan was out walking her dog, saw the accident, pulled you out of your car and called 9-1-1. She saved your life.”