Old Soul Syndrome |ONC 2020|

February 10, 2020

The first thing I noticed when I began the long swim toward consciousness was a dull beeping sound. When I opened my eyes, I was in a room with bland taupe walls. A plasma screen tv was mounted on the wall across from me. My entire body ached.

Tears sprang to my eyes and I lifted my hands, pressing them gingerly to my temples. 

"Christ," a familiar voice muttered. "Mom was right. You'd wake up the moment she left."

I dropped my hands and turned my head, groaning as pain radiated through my neck. The light coming in from the window seared my eyes, blurring my vision. I shut my eyes and turned away from the light, just for them to spring open when the side of the bed sagged.

"Hey Abs." Aiden—the oldest of my younger brothers—grinned down at me. "You look terrible."

I blinked stupidly up at him, my brain trying to process what was happening. I had just...what had just happened?

"Wh—" The words caught in my dry throat and I began to cough. Aiden's smile slipped away and he leapt to his feet, darting across the hospital room to a pitcher of what I hoped was water.

I closed my eyes against my aching head, then immediately opened them when images started to flash through my mind. 

Memories.

Aiden sat on the bed again, offering me the cup. I managed to grab it with both hands and drank deeply. I hadn't realized how thirsty I was until I started drinking. An image of Deniel—exhausted and bloody—drinking greedily from a water skin flashed in my head. I gasped and dropped the near empty cup. Aiden somehow managed to snatch it before it could spill all over the blankets.

He set the cup on a nearby table, then turned that serious blue gaze on me. Scrubbing a hand over his short hair, he asked, "I should probably get the doc."

When he went to stand, I placed a hand on his knee. He grabbed my hand gently. Upon closer inspection, I could see how exhausted he looked. Then confusion grabbed a hold of me.

"Wait," I croaked. "What are you doing here?"

Aiden blew out a breath, a frown drawing a crease between his eyebrows. "You don't remember?"

I remembered too much. That was the problem. My head felt packed to bursting. I couldn't seem to focus on any single thing.

All I did was shrug. Aiden leaned back, peering around the corner of a curtain protecting me from the rest of the world. He swore under his breath, then shook his head. "Okay, if the doc gets pissed, it's your fault, yeah?"

A short laugh burst from me, my hand tightening around Aiden's. Of my three brothers, he was the closest to me in age—only a year younger. We'd always been tight as ticks. I nodded and he smiled that devil's smile of his that meant we were about to do something that would probably land us in the doghouse.

His smile disappeared as quickly as it came. He drew a circle on the back of my hand with his thumb, staring down at our joined fingers. 

"You don't remember me calling and telling you I was gonna get some leave time? That I wanted to come see you?"

I frowned, trying to concentrate, but everything was still too jumbled. So I shook my head apologetically. Aiden squeezed my fingers again.

"What happened?" I whispered, starting to feel scared.

Aiden shifted uncomfortably, again leaning back to peer around the curtain. When it didn't seem like anyone was coming to rescue him, he said, "You were in a car wreck, Abs. A pretty bad one."

Absurdly, the first thing I did was wiggle my toes. From the look on his face, I was sure the next thing out of his mouth was going to be that I was paralyzed. I don't know why. When I could feel my toes flexing, I let out a relieved breath, even smiling a little.

Aiden scrubbed a hand over his crew-cut again. "You've been unconscious for three days." He said it all in a great rush, like that would make it seem not quite so bad.

"What?" I said faintly.

My brother squeezed my hand hard. "You've been in a coma for three days, Abs," he said softly. "The doctors didn't understand what was going on."

"Well what does that mean?" My voice shot up a few octaves, straining my throat and making Aiden wince.

He held up both hands in surrender. "I don't know, Abby. I'm no doctor. I think it would be better—"

His words were drowned out by a shriek and a splattering sound.

"Mom!" an exasperated voice started. Then, "Abby?"

I was engulfed in a flurry of arms and hair as my mother flung herself past Aiden and began sobbing against my shoulder. I widened my eyes at Aiden and my middle brother, Alec. They both shook their heads, letting me know I was on my own.

Turned out, all it took was a minor wince as I tried to lift my arms and Mom sprang off me, immediately wiping at her face. I snickered when she immediately rounded on Aiden. "You said you'd get me if she was awake!"

Aiden nimbly dodged that bullet by pointing out that he couldn't very well leave me alone. Mom started crying again and Aiden stood, drawing her into a hug. Alec edged past them, giving me a much more cautious hug. He crouched down beside my bed, resting his chin on his crossed arms. "How you feeling?" he asked quietly.

I gave a wry grin, which only made my face hurt. "Like I was hit by a truck."

He frowned, unamused by my attempt at humor. "You were hit by a truck, Abby. Your car was totaled. It's probably amazing you're even alive."

I stuck my tongue out at him, earning a brief grin. He reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "What were you doing driving in the snow, Abs? That was just stupid."

"I was..." I trailed off, frowning. Then I gasped at the deluge of new memories. My cheeks turned pink and I muttered, "I was...meeting someone for breakfast."

Alec raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. I guessed being near death exempted me from teasing for the moment. He started to say something more, but then Dad walked in, trailed by Alec's wife and their daughter. I went through the whole rigamarole of hugging family members and answering questions about how I was feeling.

It was all interrupted when a nurse came strolling in. She gaped at me, then darted out of the room and shouted down the hall before coming back in and brusquely telling everyone they needed to give me a little space.

She began to check my vitals, then told my family that they would need to wait outside while the doctor came in. Mom settled herself stubbornly in a chair while Alec began to herd the cats out of the room.

When it was quiet again, I slumped back against the pillow, trying to ignore the nurse and the steady beeping of the heart monitor. Mom stroked my hair, giving me a watery smile.

"You really scared us, Abby-doll," she whispered.

"Sorry, Mama," I managed, my eyelids beginning to droop. "I didn't mean to."

She hiccuped—which might have actually been a laugh—and said, "Oh, baby, I know that."

After that, everything sort of started to blur together. I remember talking to the doctor—telling her what I remembered about the crash, which was next to nothing. She went through a whole checklist of questions and my answers seemed fairly satisfactory. 

Then, she said something about how my case had been strange because there had been an abundance of activity in my brain.

Particularly the parts that dealt with memory.