R.E.birth Page 2

  “This is your ‘bathroom’?” I turn to her and give a questioning look.

  “Yes, this is a bathroom. That’s the toilet,” she points to the fixed seat to my right. “That is where you can relieve yourself. When you are done just push the silver handle and be sure to wash up at the sink afterward.”

  She exits the room and closes the door behind her. Taking a moment I look at the rest of the room around me. There is another closed door on the left just past the edge of the counter with the sink. When I investigate the tub I find a setup that seems unfamiliar. Inside are two knobs and a spout attached at the top of the tub, and above that there is a strange round device with many holes hung overhead with a coil that comes out from the wall.

  Moving to the toilet I touch the top of it and feel that it is cold and smooth, almost like a ceramic piece that has been fired and glazed and I note the metal lever on the top left of the tank as described by Agatha. After relieving myself I pull down on the lever and am amazed to watch the water swirl down, taking everything with it and then refilling with clean water. I stand there in awe of it, this strange contraption, and it comes to my attention that being so transfixed on such an amazing device that it seems impossible that I have ever seen anything like it before.

  Finding my way over to the sink, I play with the handles to adjust the water flow. I notice that there are two of them and after some trial and error find that one is hot water and one is cold. When I find a comfortable temperature I stop playing with the handles and wash my hands. There is a towel hung from a wooden ring attached to the wall adjacent to the mirror so I wipe my hands dry. But in the moment I meet myself in the mirror I find that the person in front of me is a stranger. I take the time to study what I look like.

  I have semi-short, chocolate-brown hair and green eyes. When I smile so I can see what it looks I find nothing abnormal and my teeth are for the most part straight. I apparently look the way I feel, battered. On the left side of my pale face I have a black eye and a bruise on my cheek but they appear to be healing, indicated by their yellow-green borders. Examining my skin and somewhat muscular build I appear to have kept my body in fairly fit condition, despite its injuries. Average in build and a fair height I examine every part of me, except my abdomen. Touching the bandages, I want to see the wound underneath, but a knock at the door startles me.

  Agatha is waiting patiently outside the door and proceeds to lead me back to the padded bench. As I sit back down I realize that I was not paying attention to how many doors down the hall the bathroom was, in case I need to relieve myself again.

  There were a few, to be sure, but the number eludes me. I suppose she will help me again when the time arises.

  “I’m going to tend to some chores. Please relax,” she says cheerily.

  She seems to smile a lot. Is she genuinely so happy?

  She leaves and walks up the nearby flight of stairs to the right of the hallway and quiet falls over the room. With nothing going on I try to remember anything about myself while staring out the window to the tree line. While searching my brain, I find that I can recall facts like: wood burns, metal melts, there is a sun in the sky and it is bright, but memories fail to surface.

  It is as if that entire part of my brain malfunctioned and flushed it all.

  I notice shuffling around the hallway yet again, and Ami emerges from the darkness, her head not bowed as much as the last time. As she gets closer I finally get a glimpse of her eyes, which are a very pale blue.

  It is like staring into a crystal lake. And she has the kind of face any young woman would love to have, smooth, flawless, beautiful.

  “Ami?” I whisper to get her attention.

  She stops dead in her tracks mid-stride with her eyes widened, but stays motionless for only a brief moment as she walks quickly over to me and sits down. When she speaks it is in almost a normal volume voice.

  “How did you find out my name?” She asks.

  “Your mother told me.”

  “My…mother…told you?” She looks around frantically. “Look, the things here aren’t what they seem. As soon as you are better you must leave from this house, otherwise you will become part of it. If you don’t leave the first chance you get, you will be stuck here.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” The enigmatic statement confuses me.

  “It’s best if you don’t know the details. I have to go. She could change without any warning.” She gets up and hurries off into the kitchen.

  Though Agatha says I am safe, I cannot help but feel uneasy and perplexed at the situation, but after a few minutes of trying to contemplate it my mind becomes fuzzy and I feel that darkness coming again to take me away. I close my eyes and rest.

  But the rest quickly turns to unrest as I dream and when I open my eyes everything is hazy and gray. It appears I am in the forest. Moving on its own my body propels me to a clearing in this forest but before I reach it I feel my body scream in pain. It feels like I am on fire both inside and out. Wiping my forehead I find that I am sweating profusely but when I look at my hand it is smeared with a vibrant red. Looking down I see a long, curved dagger pierced through my abdomen and blood soaks my white shirt as the dagger is retracted. I clutch the wound trying to stop the bleeding but I am unsuccessful. The blood gets all over and then the familiar darkness comes for me.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  My body does not startle me awake. Instead I find myself slowly regaining consciousness, lying there for a few moments with my eyes shut and I wonder if the dream that I just had is was what really happened. When I feel awake enough, I open my eyes and find everything fuzzy, but blinking clears my vision.

  I actually feel a little better; more refreshed than the last time I was awake. I wonder how long I have been out this time.

  My stomach grumbles deeply telling me that it needs sustenance. Struggling to get up, I stiffly walk over to the white door, shuffling my feet across the cold wood floor to the kitchen. I trip over my own feet a couple times but I make it to the door without falling face first and knock politely to announce myself before slowly pushing it open.

  I find that the kitchen is rather large with a grand dining table and half a dozen chairs around it to the right. To the left, about the center of the room, I find many cooking utensils and various pots and pans hung from a rack attached to the ceiling above an island counter with a delicious looking bowl of apples on it. My ears pick up a rummaging sound from the far left, and I press onward into the kitchen.

  “Hello? Agatha?” My voice comes out a little shaky.

  “What do you want?” A harsh tone rings out from behind a pantry door that is open to my immediate left. “You should be resting on the couch.”

  “I was wondering if I could get something to eat. My stomach is gurgling like I have not eaten for days,” I explain myself.

  “Well it’s no wonder. You’ve been out cold for about a week now. We couldn’t wake you if the world were imploding,” her tone rings like a schoolmaster scolding a child.

  She moves to the island counter, picks up an apple and throws it at my face. Fearing the impact my instincts kick in and with lighting reflexes I catch it, avoiding being pelted in the face with a rather firm red apple.

  How did that happen?

  “Thank you,” I reply politely, and begin backing out as she glares at me.

  Returning to the living room I notice Ami, head bowed and carrying a basket full of laundry up the stairs to the right. When I smile at her she pays no attention to me and an inquisitive nature kicks in. I follow her up the stairs on tip toe to see what she is doing, making sure to stay several steps behind her. Cautiously I look behind me to check and make sure I am not being followed and I hear Ami open and close a door. About half way up the stairs one of the boards creak and I am sure that I am going to be caught. Waiting a few moments while looking both directions I expect one of them to come ask me what I am doing, but when no one shows up I make my way up
the rest of the steps. I tread lightly in this new dark hallway, not knowing where she has gone, and I wonder if I should just turn around and eat my apple on the soft furniture below. But my curiosity piques and I try to figure out which door to put my ear to.

  There are two doors only a couple steps past the stairs; one on my left and one on my right and it could be either one of them, or neither of them. Making a quick judgment I put my ear to the one on the right and listen for a moment. When I hear nothing from inside I grab the knob on the door and twist as gently as I can. Slowly pushing the door open I find a very musty and unused room. There is a heavy drape covering the window and a dusty bed under it, but other than that there is not much of interest to me in that room.

  The door creaks a little as I pull it shut and release the knob. Turning to my left there is my other option and I grab the knob and slowly twist, but as I do I hear a noise from inside. My heart leaps into my throat and I am sure that I am caught now. But I am not confronted. The door is not pulled open from the inside and Agatha has not come up the stairs to scold me. The noise continues. It speeds up and slows down, beating softly over and over. I push slightly and the door slides open with ease. Though I hear a faint squeak from the hinges the rhythmic clacking noise covers it and I am still not noticed. With the door only open a crack I can see in.

  Light is pouring into this room, the curtains on the windows pulled back. Ami is there, sitting with cloth draped across her lap and she is pushing it up across a platform where multiple pieces attached to a base structure move rapidly. This strange contraption stabs the cloth over and over with a needle that appears to have thread attached to it. As it pumps up and down Ami directs the cloth.

  What in the world is she doing and what is that thing?

  Feeling a tickle in my throat come on I try desperately to hold back a cough, but it happens involuntarily and Ami looks up. I have given myself away as she looks back at the door and sees that it is cracked open. Before I can move back down the stairs, she is up and at the door pulling it open and the knob slips from my hand.

  “What are you doing up here?!” She whispers frantically.

  “I am…I am sorry.” I have no rational response for why I came up here. I was curious, but I have apparently invaded an area of their home at least Ami wished not to share.

  “She isn’t my mother right now! You need to be in the living room or else we’re both going to feel her wrath again.”

  “She is not your mother right now? What does that mean?”

  “I told you that it’s complicated. It’s best just to stay on her good side.” She grabs the door with both hands and looks at me with fear on her face.

  “What is going on?”

  “We can’t talk about it! Back downstairs!” She points her finger swiftly toward the stairs.

  Reluctantly I turn and head to the stairs. Looking over my shoulder I see her standing in the doorway watching me leave. She apparently was not expecting me to look back because I catch her smiling a little. As she sees me look, her face becomes straight. She brushes a lock of her wavy hair out of her face and quickly retreats into the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

  A very odd situation indeed.

  I tiptoe down the stairs and find my way back over to the padded bench without being caught by Agatha. As I sit down I begin eating my apple while I relax. The apple is so juicy and delicious that I consume the entire thing including the core and lie down again, running my hand through my hair. As I do I note a lack of contusions and it leads me to wonder about my loss of memory.

  There must be a rational reason that I cannot remember anything, but I have nothing to go on.

  Though I have not exerted much energy since I woke up I find my eyes are getting heavy again. Sitting up I try to keep awake but the room is warm and I feel cozy. My eyes droop and there is nothing I can do to fight it, so I stop trying.

  Finding myself in a dream state once again I find fog within the woods and I am running. My body feels like it is on fire because of the piercing pain in my abdomen from the stab wound and my hands are smeared with red. Blood spills out onto the ground and then the blackness envelops me.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  I wake on the floor on all fours by the couch this time, my entire body burning like a wildfire. When I stand up I try to take it slow, but no matter how slowly I move the pain and heat are excruciating.

  “Aaargh!”

  Bathroom! I need cold water.

  As I wander through the downstairs hallway I remember that I do not know which door on the left is the bathroom. The hallway reaches far and eventually fades to blackness. Checking the first door on the left I push it open and I realize by the interior that it is not what I am looking for. Instead I have stumbled upon a girl’s room. The drapes on the window are pulled back so that light enters, illuminating the light blue walls and ceiling and I am reminded of Ami’s eyes. There is a bed in the far left corner, a wooden mirror with a desk on the right wall and beyond that is a door in the far right.

  That door must be the one that leads to the bathroom.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” A semi-cheerful whisper in my left ear startles me. I nearly jump straight into the room, and let out a sigh of relief when I see that it is Ami. She is just standing there smiling a little bit.

  “Are you getting cabin fever? You seem to be finding your way to other places of the house. The two I’ve caught you peeking into happen to be my rooms,” she titters a little.

  “Maybe it is cabin fever, but I think I have a real one too and I needed some cold water. I was looking for the bathroom,” I grimace at the heat.

  “Hmm, just when we thought we’d broken your fever,” she presses her hand on my forehead and it feels nice. It is soft and cool to the touch and I am disappointed when she pulls it away. “But you are a bit warm.”

  “Your mother led me to it once, but I was not paying attention to which door it was.” I become distracted with conversation.

  “When was that?”

  “I do not know. I have no sense of time right now. It could have been days, or more.”

  “Well, you have been here for a little over two weeks now.”

  “I have been here that long already?” The amount of time I have been here is unreal to me since I have only been conscious for limited amounts of time and it does not seem like it could be that long.

  “Yeah. Your wound is healing nicely, but you will have a decent size scar. We’ll see about removing the stitches soon.”

  “Really? It is amazing that I have survived this far on whatever healing abilities you have and only having eaten some bread and an apple.”

  “Well, that’s not exactly correct. We kind of had to force feed you a variety of nutrient enriched and slightly medicated broths and water while you were passed out. And because you’ve had a fever most of the time you would just sweat the liquids out or…well never mind,” she quickly changes the subject and leaves me wondering about what was about to come next.

  “Never mind what?”

  “Let’s get you into the bathroom and get some cool water on that head of yours.”

  She avoids my question and takes me by the arm with her hand, pulling me into the luxurious room and over to the far right side door past a desk with a mirror. Opening the door she flips a lever against the wall on the inside, illuminating everything in an instant again. The next thing I know I am in the bathroom, having been pushed in by Ami and the door is shut behind me.

  “When you’re done, I’ll be waiting out here to take you back to the couch,” she says from the other side of the door.

  “Is that what I have been sleeping on?”

  “Yes, now hurry up.”

  I turn on the water and feel its refreshing qualities as I splash it on my face and pour it over the top of my head, draining it back into the sink. Cupping my hands I begin to trickle the water down my forearms and I feel the heat subsiding. When I fee
l that I have sufficiently cooled down enough I use the towel hanging by the mirror and dry myself.

  Before leaving I examine myself in the mirror again and look closely at the bandaged wound site. It is not as thick as it was the other times that I took note of it, now only seeming to be a few layers thick. Removing the bloodied bandages I stare in the mirror with eyes transfixed on where the wound is. As the final wrap falls off I peel the pad that seems to have stuck to my crusted scab and I notice that it is as Ami said it was, healing. The wound is growing quite small and little pieces of the scab have begun breaking away from the main piece.

  With no warning my vision blurs and my mind flashes with images. Fully awake, I appear to have left my body and am elsewhere. I see myself standing in front of the house clutching my chest as blood spurts out, but from the outside and hovering above my body. My attention switches to a glimmer and when I focus it looks like it could be the long dagger a few feet behind the image of me. It is covered in fresh blood. Mine. As the image of my body collapses, I notice some rustling of a shady character in the trees not far off, someone walking or maybe running away.

  I return to the real world and I have unknowingly collapsed in the bathroom, groaning in pain. Ami has rushed into the room to me and I see her lips move but I hear ringing instead. When I look at my hand I find I had been clutching my wound so hard that the front had begun to bleed again. She helps me up and replaces the padding and bandage wraps around my chest before moving me into her room to sit on the edge of the bed.

  “What happened?” I hear her concerned voice as the ringing dies down.

  “I am not sure. I think I saw a piece of my past, of me standing in front of your house...but not in my body.” I talk slowly and in fragments, wincing due to the sharp pain ravaging my torso as I breathe in and out. “I saw the weapon that stabbed me. And somebody leaving in the distance, but I could not see who it was.”