The feeling of being clueless was the worst thing I had ever experienced, second to the sense of being trapped. I always woke with that familiar dread, but this time it was different; I wasn't lost. I knew what I needed to know. Warm tears slid down my face as the memories I thought I had forgotten came back in bits and pieces.
"Don't trust him."
"He's not who you think he is."
"He doesn't love you."
Those were my words, to my mother. But she was gone. After falling with the faceless people into the water, I floated into the darkness again. My feet were cold and I couldn't move, not because I was tired but because something held me in place. I lay there drifting in the darkness, trying to organize my thoughts and memories. They floated like bubbles in my mind up until the last moment, and then I slowly opened my eyes.
The fresh smell of hyacinths hit me in waves as I took a deep breath. The first thing I saw was the ceiling. I tried moving my limbs, but as I suspected, they were tied to my bed. My eyes drifted around the hospital room, and it felt all too familiar. The room was covered in blue and purple hyacinths—my favorite. They were also everywhere, the faceless. Ever still, not even breathing. The one that seemed to be my mother stood directly at the foot of my bed, staring in my direction.
I struggled with the bindings, but I was too weak, and they were too tight. The restraints had cut off circulation, and I had lost sensation in my hands. My feet were sticking out from under the blanket, freezing cold.
Someone burst through the doors on the left side of the room. When she saw I was awake, her eyes widened in fear and shock. The woman whose voice had tormented me. The splitting image of my mother. She had kept saying, Wake up, but she had never expected that I would. She turned on her heels and sped out of the room, screaming his name—the reason I was here, the reason I was in the forest.
The faceless man who had run after me when I was speaking to my mother. The one who had chased me when I hadn't crossed the tree stump. Except this time he wasn't faceless. He walked in confidently and stood right next to his faceless clone. He couldn't seem to see them. He stood by the side of my bed, looking at me with displeasure.
"Why won't you just die?"
The first words he spoke sank into me, but I couldn't say or do anything, so I just turned away.
In that forest, three faceless had chased after me while my mother tried to speak to me. Nolan, Dahlia, and Seth—three names I would never forget.
"I gave you enough propofol to kill a horse. You weren't supposed to wake up. Go back to sleep—before I lose my patience."
He pushed the syringe into my arm and released the drug. I slowly closed my eyes as a wave of calm washed over me—heavy, welcome, suffocating.
I woke up in the darkness with the faceless all around me. I could feel the weight of their stares. I sat in the fetal position for what felt like an hour or more. When I finally opened my eyes again, I was back in the hospital.
A nurse was by my side. I didn't know if I could trust her or not, but I knew for sure that I had to get out of there. I stared at her intensely until she noticed me, then she walked over and removed the ventilator and nasogastric tube. I was too tired to stay awake and drifted off again. I was relieved that I didn't fall unconscious but simply slept.
The next few weeks passed in a blur, with the medical staff coming in and out constantly. After I woke up, the faceless never left. They just stood there, watching and waiting. I didn't know what they wanted. No one saw them but me.
When I started to regain my strength and organize my thoughts, I asked a nurse where Nolan was, because I hadn't seen him in a while. I knew he wouldn't want me awake.
"He hasn't been around because of the lawsuit. You remember? The one for you and your mum?"
Then it hit me. I remembered—the reason he and my aunt were doing all this in the first place. They wanted her money. Enough to kill her for it.
I had to leave before he came back. I had to get to the forest again. And this time, I didn't plan on going in a trance.