Blacken by Alandra Rankin (i love reading books txt) 📕

you just in case it is anything more serious, but short-term memory loss can happen after a bump on the head. Your wallet and notebook were turned in as well, how about I grab them for you, Avie?” Caroline smiled gently at her, her purple lips splitting to reveal a perfect smile, Avie couldn’t help but reciprocate one back.

“Yes, thank you, Nurse Ericson. I’d appreciate that.”

“Call me Caroline if you’d like, I’ll be back in a little while.”

After the nurse left, an exasperated sigh escaped. Both hands came up to comb through her ginger locks, finding a few spots tender and covered with a bandage. She grimaced. Just how bad was the damage?

Spotting the bathroom, the redhead took her time to shimmy to the side of the bed, adjusting her legs inch by inch before finally resting the shaking appendages on the cold flooring. She was in a hospital gown, the top of her knees poked out and revealed a dark bruise on the left, wrapping from the top and down the side of her knee cap.

Avie almost couldn’t help herself from touching the green and purple discolouration, wincing before laughing at her terrible decision.

It took her a few times to try and stay up on quivering muscles, feeling a rush of dizziness. Yet she managed and was stable enough to limp to the small enclosed bathroom. The young woman leaned onto the IV that wheeled with her, happy to have some stability from the cool metal as the door swung open for her with a push.

Flicking on the light, the dim wattage allowed her to see the damage. In the mirror across her, the woman saw the aquiline bridge of her nose covered with gauze and a strip of tape. It was split skin, she figured, not broken to her relief. Her eyes were swollen and dark, both able to open and close without pain at least, only when she strained it would cause discomfort. A bandage was wrapped around her crown, a couple thicker dressings rested on her forehead and a small cut traced vertically on her bottom lip.

“Jesus,” she told her reflection, “you look like you’ve had better days,” she laughed once, turning in the door frame to lean up against it. Avie huffed, letting her eyes fall closed.

What the hell was she doing out here? She thought back to the last thing she remembered.

An opened drawer. Out of tape. Picking up tape from the drug store and developed photos across the street. Drive thru. Driving home. Road was closed. Detour. And then…

Her eyes opened.

“The vibration.”

It came on suddenly, no onset warning to prepare for such an unusual experience.

Taking the recommended detour leading into an unknown part of the city, she promptly got lost.

“Damn it. Everything looks so different at night, where am I even going?” The woman turned onto a street that she was positive led back to the main road. That was when it hit her.

It was the most surreal experience; an almost vibrating commotion emanated from her body, causing her to exhale from shock, winded, and unable to inhale again.

Avie pulled over, needing to park, taking gasps of precious air while panic rose in her chest. This was not normal. The sensation that washed over her felt almost on par to the bass at a music concert—the music pumped up so loudly that deep tones hit right through to the core.

It was an itch that made her squirm, should she go to the hospital? The feeling had her wanting to do something, a compulsion to just move.

With a few shaky breaths, she calmed herself down enough to start driving again, becoming entranced; driving in various directions, finding that it caused the feeling to lessen. It felt better, if only a fraction. But the compulsion kept on.

The young woman continued to drive, the feeling a compass of sorts to her. If she turned one way, it came back to its initial intensity, if she continued down the ‘correct’ path, it reduced. All of it very peculiar. Still, Avie pressed on with driving for what felt like hours.

The further she travelled, the better it felt.

The redhead had no idea what she was being led to, but she didn’t want to stop, the curiosity burning through her veins.

Even though the vibrating sensation decreased as she advanced, her apprehension grew. She was only stopping to rest at motels or inside her own car, the need for an answer taking over. What exactly was she being led to? Or rather, would it even have an end?

She was too far to stop now. Avie pressed on with her body reverberating akin to a tuning fork.

The forest surrounding her made the woman uneasy. The mountainous area she drove into made her feel small and watched in the darkness, paranoia growing as it seemed to stretch on forever into the unknown. Mentally, she kicked herself for not stopping at the last town about an hour or so back to rest up for the night. She yawned.

Just how much further was it until the next town?

It may have been that she ran over something. It may have been that her tires were overdue for an inspection. It could have been anything really, even what some may call a form of Divine Intervention. However, in that moment, the front tire on her small punch bug blew out, causing her to lose control, swerve, and overcorrect, all before colliding head on with a tree.

Forcefully, the airbags deployed, knocking the wind out of her while the car came to a sudden halt, her small stature receiving more damage from its power.

And then darkness…

Avie thought over the memory a few times, staggering back to the comfort of her bed. How could she have forgotten such an experience? A million questions rang through her mind, but the one that was prevalent was the issue on how she was found in the first place.

The woman was all alone in the middle of the woods.

Was it possible that someone just