She grabbed the cup from my hands and touched my forehead. Her hand was sure and strong now. I felt her fingers press on my shoulders, directing me to face her. It wasn’t painful, at least my body wasn’t hurting anymore.

She explained to me that the fire I saw was not a dream. The roaring flames started in the cafeteria and ate away the frail, rotten wood of the building until it reached the many bedrooms of the Orphanage. It all happened in the dead of the night. Many had died, too many to count.

“You’re lying! You’re lying to me. I don’t want a new family” The words scorched the back of my throat as I let them out. Fresh and painful tears were pouring like lava down my cheeks. It felt like my body wasn’t mine, and wasn’t accepting whatever reality was unfolding.

She tried to repeat her speech, but I shouted at her again, begging her to leave me alone this time. After a few attempts, she stood up and brought the chair back against the wall she took it from. She sighed longly, her back now facing mine. I buried my head under the pillow, letting my tears wet the bed sheet under my face.

If what she was saying was true, then all the pain and suffering happened that night and I’d done nothing to help my siblings. They had most likely perished next to me, and I was here, almost unharmed, sipping tea.

If she was lying, then she had taken me from my real family and brought me to this unknown place, showing an unknown smile to me. Everything was wrong. My body hurt, rejecting any rational thought. All I wanted was for it to stop. I yelled inside as loud as I could. I called out to my friends, Merie, Mother, but no one came. My arm was in so much pain, sometimes it felt like something was pulling hard, out of my body. I cried as much as I could, until it felt like the voice crying wasn’t even mine anymore.

~

A soft thump met the floor right under me. I extended my arms quickly under my chest. I pushed myself away from the bed and stayed alert for a few seconds. As I did, a warm cautious little ball fell off the bed, like a bag. Everything was quiet around now.

After my pillow had landed on the wooden floor, and that other thing rolled off the bed, the night sky outside the window was standing still. It seemed like it was holding its breath and waiting for me to do the next move. The woman from before was gone and so was the tea cup she had given me. I sat gently on the bed and reached for the pillow on the floor, still warm.

Holding the fluffy square against my chest, I turned to take in everything in the bedroom. Only illuminated by the moon’s light, a small dresser was standing against the wall on the opposite side of the bed, topped by an imposing square mirror. The bed I was sitting at the edge of was big -bigger than any bed I laid on before. An old woman like the one before would easily fit in a big bed like this, but compared to me, it looked like an immense raft that landed me here. I scanned the floor for whatever I had disturbed before, but it was gone now, as if it rolled away.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Letting first my toes meet the hard wood, I extended my legs to test it beneath me. It didn’t crack or budge so I tempted it further, and soon my whole weight tried it. No sounds. I walked a few cautious steps towards the window in front of me.

As the moonlight illuminated my face, my eyes landed on the outside. First, tall trees poked the sky, a dark and intimidating blue. There were a few stars shining through peaceful clouds, but it didn’t feel like there was any wind. It was mostly warm out, between breathing in and out, it seemed like I could hear the sea calling me.

Looking down past the awning right under, I could see fields and forest patches extending until they faded away in the abyss of the night. There was something out, but it was hard to identify. It didn’t really sound like birds, and it wasn’t leaves ruffling either. There was some sort of thumping sound in the distance, slow and paced. It was heavy and low, and the only thing I could picture making that kind of sound was a whole mountain walking beyond the glass pane and the horizon.

I let go of the windowsill I was holding and turned my back to the window to face the room once more. The chair was still there waiting, facing now what I figured was a chest going all across the foot of the bed. I kneeled in front of it, curious to see what it was concealing.

It cracked open gently and I found inside a large piece of fabric, folded many times over. It was soft and reflected light from inside. What I assumed to be a dress seemed to glow under my fingers, cold but precious. It reminded me of the silky ribbons we used to tie around gifts but somehow, this was a full garment.

As I pulled it closer to my eyes, I heard movement from behind the door. It was faint but it sounded like a voice, or a small cry. I pushed the robe away down the chest and closed it as quickly as possible, making sure it wouldn’t echo loudly in the dead of the night. Waiting for the doorknob to turn and unlock, I held my breath for as long as I could, making sure not to break eye contact. Nothing happened.

I stood up and contemplated searching the dresser for clothes but I didn’t want to risk making another hazardous decision.

My eyes suddenly caught my reflection in the mirror. In many ways I looked nothing like the face I knew and saw many times in the old mirrors of the common lavatories. My cheeks were hollow and thin, and my hair was all over the place, loosely gathered by a thin tie in a bun. Looking closer in the clean, smooth glass, I traced my silhouette and landed on my left shoulder, still tender.

The pajamas resting on my skin was the same as the one I was wearing that night and yet, the cuffs fell a few inches higher than they did before on my wrist. Peeking through the collar, a darker patch of skin revealed itself as I moved. I reached to uncover it with my right arm, and I saw what was causing me so much pain. Under the cotton shirt, a bruise was screaming on my shoulder down to my arm, and stopped midway to my forearm. It looked like it was fading a little, as some areas were back to their normal peach tone, dulled by the moonlight.

I quickly covered my arm again to hide it. This night was a lot different from the last I remembered. The screams, the flames were gone. Everyone else was gone: Merie, my siblings, my friends. It felt weird and cold to be here by myself, without knowing exactly what had happened that night. If some of my features weren’t somewhat familiar, it would have been easy to imagine that my mind and soul had been implanted in someone else’s body, like a broken parasite in a foreign host after a long, cold sleep. It felt like it was just yesterday.