Mysterious Me

The lovely and beguiling RayNotBradbury has a new challenge out this week. I found ‘Mysterious Me’ to be the most compelling.

You woke up on the street with the lost memory (amnesia). What would you do?

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MY HEAD HURTS. It’s a dull, pounding kind of pain. I touch it and wince. I feel a bump. Jeez. It’s a big one, too. I feel around it. It’s wet. I look at my hand. It’s bloody.

I’m bleeding.

I touch it again. More blood. I wipe some sweat off my forehead with my other hand. It comes back bloody.

Not sweat. Blood.

I’m bleeding.

Maybe I should go to the hospital.

I dig for my phone. I think I should go to the hospital. I pull it out of my purse, swipe it open.

There’s a code.

I stare at the numbers.

Well, shit.

I pull myself up off the cold sidewalk, using the brick wall behind me for balance. I know this wall. I know this sidewalk. I know this street. It’ll all come back to me in a minute. Gotta give it some time.

My vision blurs. I lean on the wall and squeeze my eyes shut. One… Two… Three…

I open my eyes. Better.  I take a few tentative steps. I’m not falling, so yay, me. I take a few more steps. So far so good.

There’s got to be a street sign around here somewhere. I try to look around, but a lightening bolt goes off in my head. Okay then. No looking around.

God, it’s quiet. No cars, no people, no stores. My stomach starts to twist.  Where am I? I squelch the urge to run.

I’m walking.  I’m moving. I’ll end up somewhere. I wipe a trickle of blood out of my eye. I turn a corner.

There’s a man standing in the middle of the sidewalk. He’s tall and thin. He sees me and smiles, but it’s not a nice smile. “There she is.” He starts walking towards me, a pair of handcuffs dangling from his hand. “Lizzie. You’re being naughty.”

I run.

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