Four

Shelly moaned in her sleep--she hugged her pillow tightly as if she was clinging unto life itself.

Grrrringgg! Grinnnngggg!! 

Something was shrieking like an alarm clock. Tossing and turning, she located the little devil interrupting her sleep and threw it away. 

The ear-splitting noise it made, had her sitting up in bed. Frowning, she rubbed her eyes and yawned before seeing a blurred shape of an alarm clock on the ground. 

Rubbing her eyes again, she looked around and saw nothing but blurry shapes.

"Uhm, guys. I didn't kill you all right so why do I feel blind?" She asked no one in particular. 

Swinging her legs down from the bed, her barefoot touched the cold ground and she screamed. 

"Who the bloody hell took away my slippers and why is this floor so damn cold!" 

Her scream attracted people because she heard shuffling of feet and her door swung open. She was barely able to make out the blurry shape of two people in front of her. 

"What's the matter, my dear?" 

That voice. It was a woman and the voice was not familiar at all. 

"Daddy, did you employ a nanny?" She asked the other shape ignoring the woman's voice. 

"What nanny?" An unfamiliar male voice chuckled. "You left your glasses on the desk again."

"What glasses?" Shelly was confused and scared. 

"Here, darling." She saw the blurry shape place something on her face, it rested on the bridge of her nose. Then she could see well. 

Looking around, she saw the walls were painted in plain white with a single creaky ceiling fan and a freaking bunk bed. There was no designer's bedspread on it, but instead, it was a plain white bedspread with a single pillow. 

She dreaded to look up at the people standing in front of her but finally, she looked up and regretted it. A horrified scream tore from her throat as she saw two middle-aged couples dressed in shabby clothes standing in front of her. 

"Help! I've been kidnapped!!" She yelled. 

"Honey, what's wrong with you?" The unfamiliar man asked. 

"Who are you guys?" She asked picking up a book by her bedside and shoved it in front of them. Why she had a book nearby was a question for another day. 

"We're your parents, I'm your mom and this is your dad," the woman said as she came close to her. 

"Don't." Shelly shoved the book in front of the woman and she backed away. 

"Honey, did you hit your head somewhere?" The man asked concerned. 

"How do I leave here?" She asked. 

"This is your home, but you can leave to go to work." The man grinned. 

"It's not funny." She cried. 

"Of course darling, Lucas stop frightening our daughter." The woman frowned at the man. 

"I'm not your daughter!" She shrieked. "I don't have a mom. You left me eleven years ago remember!"

"What are you talking about, I'd never leave you, baby." The woman smiled. 

"Leave." She ordered. 

"Let's give her a moment she had a long day yesterday." The man pulled the woman out. 

Immediately she dropped the book and saw the title, it looked like something Cindy would read. 

So there has got to be a rational explanation for this. She plunged into the ditch, got rescued by strangers, lost her eyesight, and had to depend on glasses so what about her friends. How long had she been out? 

Groaning and standing up to leave the room, she caught her reflection in the mirror. Backtracking, she faced the full-length mirror and saw a stranger. 

The stranger was wearing baggy trousers and a long singlet, she had freckles, pimples, and bangs. She looked like the typical example of a nerd girl. No, she looked like the heroine in the nerdy glasses movie. 

"Alright, you can come out now." She called to the reflection in the mirror. "I know you're hiding behind me."

Nothing happened. 

Shelly stared hard at the reflection and realized it was staring right back at her. She touched her face and the reflection did the same, she touched her hair and the same thing happened. 

She shook her head stepping away from the mirror scared and had her back against a door. Eager to escape from the reflection, she pulled the door open and realized it was a closet filled with bland and plain clothes. 

She screamed her lungs out, causing the same people to enter her room again. 

"What did you do to me?" She yelled angrily. 

"Honey we're going to have to call the doctor." The man said to the woman.

Picking up the book she flung it at them screaming. The poor couples fled in horror. 

Just then a phone was beeping on the nightstand. It didn't look like hers' but the name looked familiar. "Kiara" was displayed in bold letters with a heart emoji on the screen. 

Hurriedly she picked up the phone and answered the call. 

"Shelly!" It still sounded like Kiara's voice. 

"Thank God!" She heaved a sigh of relief, "Kiara you're fine, right because I'm not."

"What! Why?" Kiara sounded alarm over the phone. 

"I've been kidnapped," she whispered. 

"Kidnapped?" Kiara chuckled. "That's the best thing you could come up with? You've been kidnapped, but you still have your phone."

"Um, I think they forgot to take it away." She replied. 

"Ok, I'm coming right away," Kiara said. 

"Do you know where I am?"

"Duh! In your house." The line went dead. 

Shelly paced up and down on the cold room floor, still unable to find her slippers. None of this made any sense at all. She had an accident and crashed and now she's waking up in the bedroom of nerdy glasses looking exactly like her. 

Ok, deep breaths. She tried to calm herself down. Maybe it was a prank and Kiara would explain it in no time and everything would be back to normal. 

Just then the phone rang again and "boss" was displayed on the screen. Picking up the call she heard a grumpy voice from the other side of the phone.

"I didn't give you a holiday, today Shelly."

"Excuse me!" Shelly looked surprised. 

"I'm not paying you to excuse yourself, no one is waiting on these tables today," the grumpy voice replied. 

"You don't know who you're talking to." Shelly snapped. 

"Fine, fail to come to work today and you can kiss it goodbye." She heard a click and the line went dead. The nerve of these people to be hanging up on her, that was her 'thing.'

Swearing under her breath, she glanced at the phone and saw the date. November 1st, 2020.

The phone fell to the ground with a clatter and she fainted.