Chapter 1: 'Wake up'

The last thing I remembered before I went unconscious was a car coming straight at me. I didn't have time to avoid it. I crashed straight into it. And then passed out. That's all I remembered. And then I woke up in a hospital bed.

The first weird thing I noticed was that I had no bruises, no blood. I was completely clean. Not even one single cut. That was the first time I noticed something was off. The second was when I was talking to the nurse. She had just come in to check on me.

"Oh! You woke up!" she said. I smiled.

"Just now. How long have I been asleep?"

"About 2 days. Don't worry, you're ok now!" she sat down on the bed and looked at me straight in the eyes. She looked...sad.

"Just," she paused, "Try and wake up"

I stared at her. What?

"What do you mean wake up? I am awa-" Just then, a man came in. The doctor.

"Ah! You're awake! That's great!" He smiled at me and then looked at the nurse with a disapproving look. She looked at the floor appologentically.

"Please come with me" the doctor told her. They hurried out of the room and I never saw her again. I had another nurse come and make sure I was ok for a few days and then I was dismissed. Nothing weird happened during that time. But I didn't really think much of it. I was probably just overreacting.

I walked out of the hospital and breathed in the crisp air. Finally, I was outside.

"Esme!" I heard a voice call out from behind me. I turned around.

"Arlo!"

Arlo was my best friend ever since I was a little girl. We met in kindergarden. Such a long time ago. We were both 19 now.

He ran up to me and hugged me.

"You're ok! I was so worried!" he said.

"Yes! I'm fine!" I laughed.

"You sure look fine. Not even a bruise on you! What happened?" he asked.

"I don't actually know... I woke up fine. It didn't even hurt. I didn't break any bones! I didn't even have a scratch!"

Arlo thought for a second, and then he smiled.

"You must be dreaming!" He laughed, nudging me. I stood there, looking at him. He looked back at me.

"What?"

I shook my head.

"It's nothing" I said.

Two people had said something about me being in a dream. But I just kept on telling myself that it was all in my head and that I was just overreacting. Until I heard it for the third time.

I was scrolling through my social media as I layed in bed. It was an extremely boring day, a few days after I got discharged from the hospital. I was looking at random video when I came across a video of a girl sitting down and looking into the camera. The girl was a very famous video maker, I came across her videos every day. All her videos were happy and cheerful. But this one looked... eerie. So I kept watching. After a few seconds, she said two words,

"Wake up"

I sat up. She didn't just say that- did she? This was the third person who had told me to wake up. What was going on? Was I in a dream? I pinched myself. Hard. Nothing happened. I slapped my face. Nothing. I closed my eyes tightly and opened them again. I was exactly where I was before. Was I imagining all of this? Was it the aftermath of the crash? Was I going crazy? Surely this couldn't be a coincidence?

I never saw her again. I used to see her videos every day but from that day on, her videos didn't appear anywhere. I even searched up her page to see what happened. I couldn't find it. It was deleted. This didn't make sense.

I had to talk to someone about this. I got my phone and dialed a number.

"Hello? Arlo? Can I talk to you?"