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God, I do not want to get up is my first thought as I begin to wake, knowing I don’t have work I hit the snooze but for some reason the beeping sound does not stop. Realizing the sound is not the alarm I decided to investigate thinking it might be my phone but after checking I realized the sound isn’t familiar like any alarms that I usually set. Deciding to ignore it for now I went to find James as he wasn’t in bed.
“Morning” I call out finding James in the kitchen.
“Morning Babe” James replied a little distracted as he hadn’t even looked up to reply.
“Watcha doing?” I asked as he continued to look down, but before he could reply I looked over his shoulder to see him drawing a familiar looking symbol.
“What’s that?” I asked as I couldn’t remember the name even though it was on the tip of my tongue.
“It’s a caduceus” James said so matter of fact it left me confused, deciding to ignore it I asked if the beeping noise is one of his alarms. James looks over to me confused with a face that makes me feel as if I am losing my mind.
“What noise?” he asked.
For some reason, a fiery rage takes over me as I yell “You know what noise don’t look at me like I’m crazy!” For some reason he doesn’t even acknowledge the yell, instead James goes back to his little drawing. Suddenly, it felt as if a freezing wave went over me, Somethings wrong kept repeating in my head, but I decided to push it back to the recess of my mind and read a book.
I sighed annoyed. All I wanted was to read a book and relax all day, but the annoying beeping sound just continued to bother me.
“What’s wrong?” James asked.
“I can’t concentrate on the book with the beeping sound continuously going off.,” I answered even more annoyed as the sound continued.
“Well then, why don’t you go and stop it?” My fiancé asked jokingly.
I then got up and went to the key rack to grab my keys where I noticed they were not there.
“What’s are you doing?” James asked, confused.
“Looking for my keys.,” I replied.
“You know I was just joking about stopping the sound right.,” James replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I know but I won’t be able to relax if I can’t stop this sound, so I am once I find my keys.,” I answered while scouring the house.
“You left them on the nightstand last night.” James answered.
I then went to their bedroom remembering that last night I threw the keys there after a rough shift and, on my way out the door I yelled out “Thank you and see you later” and closed the door before waiting let alone hearing a reply. While I drove, I realized that the sound was louder as I headed outside of town towards the old mine. As I drove through the town, I recognized on all the decorations for Black Cat Day held the symbol James drew but for some reason the name was once more only on the tip of my tongue. Feeling as if the walls were closing in on me, I decided to ignore it.
While I am driving down the old dirt road something weird starts happening with my car, so I decide to pull over to the side of the road just to be safe. When I exit my car, I realize that the hood is smoking badly. I decided to pop the hood to see what is going on but the smoke cloud that is released is huge, so I decided to allow it to cool off before checking again. Finally, when most of the smoke is gone, I look and realize that the coolant hose is no longer connected. Knowing that I do not have the tools to fix it in my car I call a towing company and ask for a tow truck at my current location.
Call Lady said, “The tow truck will be there in about 30 minutes.”
“Thank you,” I said. I decided to wait in my car for the tow truck to arrive but as 40 minutes passed from the original call, I began to get annoyed from waiting. Another 10 minutes pass when I see the tow truck finally arrive and realize it’s an old friend from high school but before I can greet him, I notice the same symbol as before hangs around Jimmy’s neck. The second I noticed it I felt sick to my stomach, I wanted to scream at him to tell me what it was but once more I went against my instinct and decided to ignore it.
“Hey Jimmy,” I called out.
“What’s up Samantha, how you been?” Jimmy asked once he recognized me.
“I’m good, how are you?” I replied continuing with the small talk.
“Good, so what’s up?” Jimmy asked.
“My car’s coolant hose popped off; can you tow it to the shop?” I asked.
“No problem, do you need a ride back?” Jimmy asked confused as I didn’t ask for a ride.
“No thanks I am going to go for a run down my usual path I’ll see you later.,” I replied.
“Okay see you later.,” Jimmy called as I watched him tow my car away that same sickening symbol on the side of his truck. I continued down the road recognizing the sound got louder the closer I got to the mine. Why is it so quiet and when did it get so dark? I thought as I realized that it was almost completely pitch black and the only sound I could hear was my own breathing, I turned the flashlight on my phone and decided to ignore the lack of noise I would be the first one dead in a horror movie recognizing my actions as stupidity but the want, no the need to identify the noise made me continue. As I continued walking, I realized that the sound was getting louder as it began to ring in my mind making me feel dizzy and sluggish as if I were walking in water. I also recognized there was a familiar red light towards the direction the sound was coming from. What is that and why is it so familiar? I asked myself, confused as I decided to head towards the light but as I got closer, I started to feel wrong. What’s wrong? What’s going on? What’s going on with me? Rang through my head over and over and over again as I began to feel sluggish.
Barely being able to lift my legs I finally was able to reach the light as the sound felt as if it was blaring next to me, but before I could figure out was going on the red light came speeding towards me and suddenly everything went black but in the back of my mind I felt as if the sound was still ringing in my head.
I woke confused as I was in a room with a red light above me and as I looked around, I noticed the caduceus was on the door and before I noticed I asked aloud “What is going on?” and heard an immediate reply.
“Your awake” I immediately recognized as James.
“James what’s going on?” I asked impatiently.
“You don’t remember?” James asked.
“No, I don’t that’s why I asked you.” I replied with snark, beyond annoyed he wasn’t being straight with me.
“You were on your normal run when a car hit you, you have been in a comma for two months drunk driver.” James answered, giving me all the facts.
“Let me guess, it’s Black Cat Day.” I replied but before I could continue a splitting headache hit me.
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I awoke normally to my five o’clock alarms for my daily job. The morning was chiller than normal as the seasons began to change from spring to fall resulting in more fog than normal. I decided to cut the jog earlier than normal because it was really difficult to see. As I turned around to begin my jog home, I didn’t make it far as I suddenly went flying. I didn’t feel the pain immediately, it was till what felt like centuries after I finished rolling to my body lit on fire, then sirens and people talking then nothing.
**********
Was I semi-conscious? I thought as I began to realize all the things that did not make sense now do. First, the caduceus was the symbol of the hospital which I now was. Second, the red light could have been the ambulance light or the red light hanging above. Finally, that annoying beeping sound is the heart monitor. My train of thought stopped as I felt something had grabbed my hand.
I turn to and realize its James with a small smile as he asked, “How’d you guess?”
I decided to respond with a shrug of my shoulder, a smirk, and one of my normal snarky comments of “A little black cat told me.”