Chapter 1: Visions

 Chapter 1

I awoke the next morning to the smell of bacon. Bacon? Huh? Berry forbid, is Dad… Cooking? In that moment, I had the intense desire to stand up and prevent dad from cooking whatever monstrosity I knew he would.

“Whooooooooooo wants some eeeeeeeeeeegs?” My strange and beloved father stormed into my room carrying a spatula,  a plate full of sunny-side-up eggs, bacon, and hash browns, and wearing a large pink cooking apron. I busted out laughing. 

“Dad! What has gotten into you?!” I was laughing so hard tears began to roll down my face, and Dad just kept on going. 

“Heeeeeeeeeeey, Don’t cryyyyyy, I know you’re hungry! Here ya go!” He handed me the suspicious looking plate of food, and I was shocked to see that everything seemed to be edible.

“Dad… where did you learn to cook like this? It’s…” I took a bite, and had to chew for a few moments. “Fantastic!”

He smiled. “Rachel Ray, of course.” At that, I nearly choked on the piece of bacon I was chewing. “Well,” He began, trying to backtrack. “The lady in the next cubicle over at work used to watch it at lunchtime, and so I started taking notes..” 

We sat and ate for a long time, laughing and talking. It was amazing, it almost felt like the mornings we all used to have before… Soon enough, we had both finished eating and Dad stood, picking up our used dishes in the process. He set them into our dishwasher and returned to my room.

“Alright, O! Time to get on the road!” He easily picked me up and gently set me down into my wheelchair.

I smiled and inhaled as we passed through the front door of our house. The warm air hit me, followed by the wondrous smell of freshly cut grass and flowers. I simply could not stop smiling.

After and hour or so on the road, I began to see the outline of skyscrapers on the horizon. For the second day in a row, I was feeling very well, and I couldn't keep myself  from fidgeting around. As we drove over the Golden Berry Bridge, I was in total awe. I had never seen anything so enormous. It was beautiful, awe-inspiring. My dearest wish…

Dad had scheduled an appointment at Briocheport General that day, so we promptly made our way there.

Briocheport General was huge on the outside. It’s front façade was comforting, as it was decorated with tiny handprints of children, in bright primary colors.

We entered the front doors of the hospital’s waiting room, and a small bell sounded. Immediately, the kind-faced nurse working the check-in desk smiled warmly at me. 

Then, I saw her.

I froze. The smile drained off my face, and I felt my heart stop beating. It’s impossible… It can’t be… It’s her… It’s her! 

“Mom?”

“Mom!? Mom! It’s me! Can you hear me? MOM!” I lost any  form of control as I started to run for my Mom. She was there. She really was… I made it a few steps, until…

The ground flies at me, fast. I hear someone screaming. “Mom! Mom!” It is my voice, but it is not me. The screams turn into moans and sobs of agony. I slam into the ground, and hit my head, hard. I fade in and out of consciousness… Blackness. Nothing.

* Author's note*

     You may or may not have noticed the fact that this post was, instead of a week after, posted only 2 days after the prologue. That's because I'm impatient, and since I already had this all typed up and ready, I couldn't wait to release it. Chapters should start to come pretty regularly once the blog gets caught up to my writing. (Which won't take long, believe me.) 

      Thank you so much for reading! Hope you liked it. :)