Roots

Chapter 1: Lightning Strikes Twice

Instant and blinding, a bright flash of lightning flooded the bedroom completely into a solid white world before the blinding illumination faded. Soon to follow was the roll and rumble of thunder, loud and forceful enough to have shaken the shelves and all the seated trinkets on them. Even the door rattled in its snug fit frame until it popped open. There were two screens that flickered for a moment in a blizzard of static; a TV hooked up with an array of game consoles below its cedar table and the monitor to a computer upon a plywood desk.

Another display of awesome power lit up the outdoors and shined through the window with its roaring and devastating quake following close behind it to cause the whole room to tremble. The drowning noise of the storm's fury had yet to cease when a third streak of lightning exploded outside the instantaneous shattered window. Each and every piece of flying glass reflected brightly like a sparkling light-show somehow suspended in slow motion. Within this stalled time, a fourth strike entered through the broken window to instantly touch down upon the fearfully wide awake figure huddled into the corner of the bed.

Then time unfroze and I was convulsing on the floor. For how long I could remain conscious, I didn't know, but to distract that disturbing dark thought I followed the trail of these constricting sheets, those ones that remained wrapped around my foot, to figure out what was going on. The sheets went back to a bed, and farther along the blackened mattress I saw evidence of a fire... and an impression on the wall where I had been violently thrown back into before literally bouncing off the wall. My vision moved, like I was repeatedly looking away without trying. I knew I was shaking, but my sight appeared to tremble, like I was shaken by something.

Then a face was over mine.

I didn't recognize who this was. Their mouth was moving, speaking faster and apparently more loudly, but I didn't hear anything. There was a flicker and something caused the darkness in the room to seem a bit less dark. A light from outside the window came back on. Then the bedroom's light came on. That light allowed me to see that a woman was over me. Her eyes widen and the features on her face had strained with an obvious scream.

My vision moved with a jerk upwards. I couldn't move when I tried to look around. For a second, I saw the woman kneeling on the floor, her shoulders shaking and her face buried in her hands. How was I able to see her when I… I was in the air? No, someone carried me. I could tell by the fast and smooth motion of being carried away from the bedroom.

It was at this moment that I could feel a burn in my chest. I wasn't breathing. All I could do was watch the path we took through this home. A short hallway with four doors was first. The light was on and I could tell that each door was a different color. The one I came from had a pink hue with a variety of different colored hearts. Some glittered, others patched together like a jigsaw puzzle, a few solid and plain, but many others with a photo of someone framed by the same colored hearts on the pink one I came from. I only had a glimpse of the other doors, a blue and red one with their own decor. Then one more door -- I had no idea who or what carried me -- but we passed through a officelike door that was a plain brown and entirely undecorated.

We entered a living room. I could make out the carpet, a nice clean white with a single glass coffee table in the center that was set in front of a long and large beige couch. I think there was a large flat-screen TV across from them. All I saw of it was a snowy-flicker on the screen as we passed. Not sure if the TV was on mute or if I was deaf… I believed it might’ve been the later.

Soon after, we rushed through the kitchen. A dining table nearly clipped me in the head. I only knew that because I saw the flat-plane edge of the table close enough in my perspective for the shape’s sharp image to be blurry in my face and just unfocused further over the tabletop. There was a neat setup centralized on the table for a family to be passed utensils, napkins, and a number of slots that could be dished and filled with a condiment like gravy or marinara.

We had stopped for a moment and I saw my vision raise. I only had a single instant to see a man hold me up and cradle my body closer to his chest. As he drew me up, my unblinking vision was now seeing over his shoulder. I now saw that the woman had recovered enough to follow us and was accompanied by another woman. They both looked identical except one might have been a younger version. I could barely tell the differences between the two except one was devastated with agonizing grief and the other burdened with worry. Maybe mother and daughter?

The two of us rushed into a new world. My vision became obscured as water ran down into my eyes. We were outside in this storm and the bouncing told me the man holding me was racing somewhere. It took a moment for me to realize that we were on a driveway. The two women were running and passing us. There was a new light and scenery as my sight took in the interior of a vehicle. I was being laid down in what I guessed to be the backseat.

For the first time, I felt something other than the burning in my lungs. On my cheek, something cold. It streaked down my cheek for a second before something warm wiped it away. I tried to look, but I had no control on where to look. Some sound was coming back. I could tell my head was laid on someone's lap. I didn't know how much longer I could remain aware, but this was like I was trapped in an object that was slowly regaining all of its senses. If I didn't start breathing soon...

An explosion of pain wracked in my chest as I inhaled the deepest and richest breath I've ever taken in my life. I shuddered it out and blacked out, blinked, and could see again. I was breathing again and did it ever hurt to do so once more. There was a static tingling in my lips that allowed me to sense my mouth was opened wide and hyperventilating.

No wonder my chest hurt. I thought, ’I'm going to pass out if I keep breathing like this.’

I tried to make my breathing more shallow, but control was still very difficult to grasp. I managed to clench my teeth at least. Then I noticed I could flip my vision left to right a bit. I was focused on that exercise and worked to accomplish more. Gradual practice did wonders. I could look up and see who's lap I was in. It was the grief-stricken woman. The younger of the twins I saw.

The face of the woman had displayed an emotional pain that I could tell she cared about me for some reason. ’Did I know her?’ She would be beautiful, but the sobbing made me want to turn away in shame because I knew it was me who was causing her to be in pain. ’Funny, I'm in actual agony and I'm more concerned about someone else. Was that normal?’

How long I was like this, I couldn't tell. Eventually, I felt, rather than watched, as I was carefully extracted from the vehicle we rode in. It took a moment, but I could turn my head and look around. The chilling rain was finally felt too. So was the incredible pain coursing through my body. It resonated from my jaw, then neck, and down every fiber of my body.

I was pulled and held up against the man's chest again. I managed to hang my chin over his shoulder and lay my cheek down on it. It was a parking lot I was looking at. Kinda empty, but there were other vehicles in their designated spaces.

Both of the women came around to take a look at me. I saw the older one give me a smile and felt her hand on my brow while she followed us. The younger nearly tripped and stood, being left behind in the rain with her hand fisted against her breast. The last image I had of her having a clearly overpowering anxiety attack in the worst emotional pain I’d ever seen anyone in.

But we didn’t stop.

We were running out of this storm to a shelter. I was going to take a guess at it being a hospital. Something was definitely wrong with me and everyone I saw showed it on their faces.

More noise was coming back. It was the rain I could hear and a few vehicles driving around at night. Then the whooshing sound of the hospital's automatic doors. A second of the air conditioner’s cool breeze blowing down on us was both heard and felt before we were all inside the lobby.

Voices. I couldn't understand them, but the muffled sound were certainly the sound of the man and women speaking with each other or someone else. If I were to judge, they sounded apprehensive. ’What happened to me? Did I get struck by lightning? How am I still alive? I thought that would cause my heart to burst or fry my brains or something?’

A noise alerted me that something impacted or banged violently against a very solid object. Then I heard a shout. Again, I couldn't grasp what was being spoken. For a few minutes, I was simply being held and watched over by these people. Then I felt myself being lowered and laid down onto something. It felt like a flat, sorta soft, bed. It moved. Rolled, to be more precise, through double doors and down a bright hallway.

I couldn't see those people anymore, but I heard footsteps. ’Maybe they are following close by?’ My mind was still working out what had occurred tonight. The more I thought about what happened, a greater confusion fell over me about my situation rather than condition. ’What was I doing in that room and who are these people?’

"Ouch," I felt something shock and prick me in the same instance. At least I could speak. It sounded like I was in an enclosure, like my ears were held shut, but I still heard my voice. I took at look down to see what poked me. It was around my hand, ’I think?’

Lifting up my hand, I saw an object stuck in my forehand. ’Maybe an IV drip? Where was the hanging bag at?’ Turning to the side, I followed the thin tube up to the rack and saw a lady adjusting a heavy-bottomed clear bag of what looked like water. It dripped down onto the opening of the tube. A moment later, I felt the chill in my hand and laid my palm back down.

Something else pricked me, but I didn't say anything about it this time because my head was lifted up and something wrapped around to mask my mouth and nose. Something blew on my lips and I breathed it in. For a few seconds longer, I stared up at the ceiling and took note that we came to a stop someplace inside of a room. ’I wonder when we left the hallway?’

For only one second, I blinked. It was enough for me to pass out...