1: Darkest Hour

Chiara Moretti

My eyes fluttered open, or at least, I thought they did. I was enveloped in darkness that pressed down on me and made every breath a lot of effort. Every nerve ending in my body screamed in protest, I felt sharp pains around my body that made me question if I was even alive. My skin felt alien, stretched and taut, as if encased in a shell. I tried to move, to shift just an inch, but it was impossible.

Panic began to prickle at my consciousness, I tried to focus, to pierce through the internal blackness, but all I could feel was the strange, rough texture against my skin, from my fingertips to my toes was all bandaged. Every inch of me was wrapped like a mummy in a tomb. Why? What had happened? A desperate, choked sound escaped my throat, more a gasp than a cry.

The last thing... the last thing I remembered was leaving the mansion angrily, getting into my car, and holding the steering wheel under my trembling hands. My vision had been blurred from stinging tears that streamed down my face. I remembered the trunk... I gasped, a sudden pain shooting through my chest as I realized what had happened.

I was involved in an accident!

Just as the memory flooded me, the beeping sound of the monitor pierced through the empty room and my heart, already pounding against my ribs, lurched into an even more desperate pounding. I heard muffled voices swirling around me. "Her heart rate!" one voice exclaimed with concern. "Can you hear us? Try to calm down, deep breaths." The words were a jumble, disconnected from the reality of my pain and terror. My struggle for air intensified, my chest heaving, but the oxygen just wouldn't reach my lungs. The beeping became a dizzying, continuous shriek and then... everything went silent.

The next time I opened my eyes, the world was no longer filled with darkness, but filled with a nauseating yellowish glow, as if seen through old, dusty glass. It took a long, disorienting moment for my vision to right itself, the ceiling slowly rotating back into its proper place above me. I could feel the sheets against my legs, the mattress beneath my back, and my completely bandaged body.

But my face... my face still felt strange and restricted. I tried to lift a hand, to touch it, but my arm felt impossibly heavy, and I could tell I was still connected to various tubes and wires. The soft murmur of voices reached me, drawing my gaze towards the door and it opened.

A woman in a white dress stepped in, She was obviously a nurse, she had a kind, tired face, and as she looked at me, a soft smile touched her lips. "Oh, you are awake, finally," she murmured, She turned her head slightly, speaking to someone behind her, someone I couldn't see. "She's awake, Mr. Bianchi."

Mr. Bianchi? The name felt foreign and at the same time familiar. The nurse stepped aside then, I couldn't see her again but I heard her footsteps as she stepped out of the room and then a man moved towards me, he was tall, with dark hair and a serious, unreadable expression. His gaze felt like it was piercing through my soul and I couldn't remember knowing him from anywhere.

I tried to speak but the dryness in my throat made speech difficult, my voice was a raw, rasping whisper, barely audible even to my own ears. "Who... who are you?" I croaked, the words feeling alien on my tongue. "And... why am I here?"

The man looked at me, his gaze steady, devoid of pity, "You shouldn't waste your breath, Ms. Moretti. You are in the hospital and barely recovered."

"How...how did I get here?" I pressed even though he warned me not to speak anymore.

"You were involved in a... a very ghastly accident." He paused, his eyes drifting briefly to the tubes connected to me, then back to my face. "You sustained a third-degree burn over a significant portion of your body. An emergency surgery was performed to begin the process of restoring you. You have been in a coma for three months."

Three months!

Three months? I couldn't believe I had laid here unconscious for the past three months, A choked sound escaped me, a mix of disbelief and fear clutching my soul. "No... no, that can't be right."

"I'm sorry, that is what happened. It's already a miracle you survived."

"My sister?" I rasped, my voice becoming desperate despite its weakness. "Alesia? Where is she? My family? Are they... are they here?" I tried to push myself up, but a dull ache in my chest and the tightness of my bandaged face reminded me of my helplessness.

The man's expression didn't change, but his eyes seemed to probe. "Do you... have any memory loss, Ms. Moretti?" he asked, his voice softer now, almost cautious.

Memory loss? The question was like a trigger, "what... what do you..." the question slurred as I remembered everything that happened, slowly and painfully, the pieces began to click into place, not the accident itself, but what had led up to it. The reason I had been driving so fast, so recklessly, tears blinding my eyes.

The mansion that had once felt like home!

The sound of muffled laughter, a woman's gasp, coming from my bedroom!

My heart had hammered in my chest then, just as it was doing now. Remembering the slow, dread that filled me with the sight that had greeted me when I opened the door.

Marco, my husband, his back to the door, his skin glistening with sweat and beneath him, tangled in the silk sheets of my bed, her hair fanned out against my pillow, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and perverse pleasure was ... Alesia.

My sister! My own sister!

I remembered what had let to everything, what had led to make me know they betrayed me all along, I went to the hospital for my prenatal for our unborn child. "My child?!"I croaked out, fear gripping me immediately.

I gently glanced down at my stomach and noticed it was flat, my pregnancy was gone! I had spent years! Years trying to have a baby and now it's gone. "Where...where is my pregnancy?"I cried as tears blurred my eyes, and the man took a step closer to me.

"You lost the pregnancy, Ms. Moretti," he replied and for the first time I saw something like pity in his eyes.

I wanted to scream so bad, but I couldn't, I couldn't even find my own voice, everything felt painful both physical and mental "No...no...no," I struggled to say, hoping I was only dreaming and I would wake up from it soon.

The machine beside my bed began to shriek again, my breathing became shallow, ragged, mirroring the chaotic rhythm of my heart as I tried to grasp everything that had happened to me, it was too much to take. The betrayal, the pain, the horror of that memory, of everything I had lost, my home, my unborn child, my wealth, everything! Crashed over me stealing the little air I had.

What was I alive for? I was better off dead!

"Doctor!" I heard Mr. Bianchi's voice, "You need to attend to her right now! Her vitals are spiking!"

"Oh no! No! What happened? We are losing her again," I heard different voices, they all sounded distant.

My gaze was still on Mr. Bianchi, his face swam before my eyes, then blurred, distorted by the fresh tears that brimmed and then streamed down my temples, pooling uselessly against the bandages. The world began to spin once more, the yellowish glow fading, swallowed by an encroaching darkness. And then, once again, everything went silent.