Sidelines

Chapter Forty: The Beginning of A New Life

Darkness.

That's all I could see. Opening my eyes felt exactly like closing them. There was darkness everywhere. Panic started to bubble up inside me when I realized I was actually dead. I thought I was just overexaggerating. I thought Nisha would really have been able to save me.

So that meant . . . Nisha was also dead? No, I didn't want someone else to die because of me. Great, now I was going to feel guility even in my afterlife or whatever this was.

Are you supposed to be able to think this much when you're dead?

And then I felt this pressure in my chest that started to hurt. It started to grow more and more uncomfortable until I took a deep breath to make it go away.

I breathed.

So I wasn't dead? Because I was pretty sure the dead couldn't breathe. Unless Nisha let me die and the brought me back to life using her freaky healing powers so now I was a zombie.

"Dr. Kumar! She took a breath on her own!"

Voices? What was going on? I was so freaking confused and scared because I still couldn't see.

"And she opened her eyes! Oh my God, Kaya, it's about time! I was starting to wonder if you ever would."

I tried to say that I couldn't see but my voice wouldn't work. I lifted a heavy hand to my throat, massaging it as if that bring my voice back. What happened to me?

"Kaya?" There was confusion in the girl's voice. Was that Bree? "Where are you looking? I'm right here."

Then a guy's voice joined in. "She's awake?" Someone rushed to where ever I was sleeping or lying down. "Oh my God, I thought you died!" It was Trey.

I forced my lips into a smile. I literally had to force it because it was so hard to move those muscles. I tried to say 'I can't see' again but my voice still wasn't working. So instead, I pointed to my throat and shook my hand as if saying, 'no.'

"Dr. Kumar!" Bree yelled again. "She said she can't speak."

Then I pointed to my eyes and shook my hand again, like I did before.

"And she said she can't see," Trey said slowly. And then he whispered, "You're blind?"

The realization hit me and I wanted to scream. I was blind? I was blind? But I wanted to see. I wanted to see my family and my friends again - well at least the ones that were still alive. Yes, it was a morbid thought but it was the truth.

I felt someone else come next to me. "Kaya, this is Dr. Kumar. Can you hear me?"

I nodded.

"Move your hands for me please."

I lifted my arms which felt like dead weights.

"Now your legs?"

I lifted my legs. They were more of a struggle to lift than my arms. I also noticed my sprained ankle didn't hurt anymore. Did Nisha heal that along the way? Was Nisha even alive? Dr. Kumar had said she could die doing this.

"Can you swallow for me?"

I swallowed, pushing away my previous thoughts. It was also hard to do.

"I can see you're struggling with these tasks. And your friends have said that you cannot see or talk?"

I nodded.

I heard Dr. Kumar sigh. "Here's what we'll do. I am going to send you back to sleep and try healing you again. I'm sure this is only temporary blindness so you might be back to normal the next time you wake up."