sense of where she was and why she couldn’t seem to wake up
and why everything hurt. When her vision finally focused, she
realized it was white ceiling tiles. White with little gray dots.
She couldn’t roll her head to the side, couldn’t make her eyes
roam her surroundings because they wouldn’t focus, but she
slowly moved her head, trying to swallow down the sick
feeling that rose immediately with the movement and the red-
hot blade of pain that travelled through her neck and shot
through her chest.
She blinked again and slowly, something that wasn’t white
swam into focus. A monitor. It was the source of the beeping,
Cassia was sure, but she couldn’t figure out why it was so
close to her. Why it should be in the same room she was.
“You’re awake.” The softest, most musical voice shot
through Cassia’s head like her brain was a pincushion and
someone had just jabbed it full. She groaned and tried to turn,
but her stomach sloshed, and her head ached and she was
forced to close her eyes and just lay still. The voice continued,
softer, lower, gentler. “Try not to move. You were in an
accident. You’ve been in the hospital for three days.”
Three days?
Three days missing out of her life. Three days she couldn’t
remember. Cassia let out a whimper, even though she tried to
hold it back. What accident? What had happened? She tried
hard to remember, so hard that it felt like her brain was being
stabbed at again.
“Wh-what?” It took her forever just to form that word, and
even then, it came out distorted, but the soft voice that she
couldn’t see, probably belonging to a nurse, understood.
“You were in a car accident. Nothing’s broken, but you’ve