Before It Ends

Darkness surrounded me as my eyes desperately darted all around. Left, right, up down... nothing but an blackened abyss of nothingness.

"Hello?? Is anyone there?"

Nothing. Not even an echo radiated through the shadow that I found myself entombed within.

"What is going on... I... wait... an accident... mom... we were in a car accident... the hospital... I was there... they drugged me! That's why I can't see anything, my eyes must be closed but somehow... consciously I'm still... awake? This makes no sense... shit... the ring!"

I remembered as I tried to look at my hands but I could not see them or even tell if I was actually moving any part of my body in this eternal eclipse of darkness that I was stuck in. I had to wait until the drugs wore off and I could wake up, but it still seemed odd because I felt like I was awake... just enveloped in some kind of shadowed abyss.

"What if... no... I remember the doctor putting something in the IV... so it's just the sedation... I just need to wait for it to wear off... it's fine... it's fine..."

I repeated those words to myself over and over again as I waited in the nothingness to wake up.

"Sage? Sage?? Can you hear me?"

"W... where.. wha.."

"That's it, Sage... Open your eyes. Do you remember what happened to you?"

The darkness slowly began to dissipate as a light began to shine through it. I heard a voice but I did not recognize who it was, as I began to see more brightness as my eyes slowly pried their way open.

"C...car accident..."

"Yes, you were in a car accident. Can you focus on the light, follow it with your eyes, Sage."

The light was brighter as I tried to move my eyes with it, following the glowing dot dancing around in front of them. I heard other voices around me, but none of them sounded like my mom's voice.

"Whe... where... my mom... where's... she...?"

"That's what we're hoping you can answer for us, Sage. Where were you going in your mom's car when the accident happened?"

"We were... was on the way home... from grams and gramps... mom didn't see the other car..."

I tried to explain but for some reason I found myself struggling to get the words out without difficulty as the bright light was turned off and I began to see shapes of people around me, but I still could not quite make out who they were.

"Who is 'we' Sage? You said "we were on the way home"... Who was with you?"

"Wh... what do you mean... you know mom was... she was with me... she's here right?? Where is she?"

I struggled to comprehend the questions asking who "we" was. It was obvious because my mom was there with me so she had to be here in the hospital with me too. Their faces began to clear up as I saw expression of fear and confusion in their eyes.

"Sage... your mom isn't here in the hospital. She... she wasn't in the car with you. We found you in the drivers seat and no one else was with you. That's why we were trying to find out where you were going in your mom's car when the accident happened. It's very important, Sage..."

The words made absolutely no sense as I felt a throbbing pain shoot though my head as I tried to remember what happened.

"No... no... that's not right... Grams and Gramps... ask them! They know... I was there with mom... we were there together and we had just left their house just before the accident... Mom was there... they know!"

My eyes darted towards the left side of the room as I saw my grandparents standing there crying as they looked at me. Their faces were ripe with fear and confusion as they shook their heads and said something to one of the police officers in the room. The police offer then looked at the person questioning me and shook his head no as I looked back at my grandparents and saw them embracing one another emotionally as they looked at me with desperation in their eyes.

"Sage... your grandparents said that they haven't seen you in several days. You or your mother. In fact, no one has seen your mother in the last week. She hasn't been at work. She hasn't answered her phone and your neighbors say that they haven't seen her come or leave the house... just you."

"What??? What are you saying?? Where the fuck is my mom??? No... no this is... YOU'RE WRONG!! YOU ARE LYING!! WHERE IS MY MOM??!!"

Shock and terror radiated through my entire being as the words spoken continued to repeat in my head as I hopelessly replayed the past week in my mind.

"Mom was there... she was there! I know she was there with me!"

"Okay, that's enough, please. She is getting too upset, her vitals are erratic and we need to put her back under sedation for her own safety...."

"What?? NO! NO! DO NOT SEDATE ME!! I NEED TO FIND MY MOM!!!"

I began to scream as I started trying to get up, determined to get out of the hospital bed so that I could go find my mom but the medication hit instantly as everything again faded to black.

There I was again in the massive void of physical unconsciousness but still mentally awake and aware. I could not move or speak. I could not see anything but blackness all around me. I began to try to focus to think about what was going on. What I remembered over the last week. None of what they were saying made sense to me. Mom was there. I know she was there. I began to think maybe I was in a coma or dreaming... maybe it was the ring, or the shadow twisting reality to drive me insane. Something was not right, but I could not figure out what it was. All I knew was that I needed to find my mom... she was in that car accident with me... I had to find her...

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