Chapter 2: Date Unknown
It started out as a typical dream.
One that made no sense, had no actual logic.
The scene could change in a minute, and I couldn't comprehend faces.
It's like when you're dreaming, that you can't fully open your eyes.
In the dream at least, I'm completely knowledgeable that you usually sleep with your eyes closed.
At one point, I opened my eyes.
I could see all of my surroundings.
It felt too genuine.
I noticed that I didn't have the cut on my arm, that I had gotten a week ago.
That's when I realized I was invisible to everyone else.
All of the abrupt, no one could see me.
Most people would think that it's just a part of dreaming, but it was too realistic.
I was in my school, eating lunch with all of my closest friends like we did before quarantine started.
I stood there, looking at my friend in front of me.
Her name was Libby. She was one of my best friends.
She was a sweet bubbly girl, that I had met in second grade.
She and I were on the same swim team and had been like two peas in a pod.
She and I hung out at school, had our little jokes, and looked out for each other.
Neither of us really fit in with the other kids. Of course, we were still friends with them, we just didn't click with them as we did with each other.
She had type 1 diabetes, so I always tried to look out for her at school and swim practice. Sometimes she wouldn't be able to swim in her event because her sugar would be too low. Sometimes she'd have to skip some of the class because her sugar is too high. There were some stereotypes that made her cry, and sometimes it was evident that she wasn't normal.
But in a good way, and not because she had diabetes, but because she was the cheerful girl that she was.
Libby sat next to my other friend, Olive, at our usual lunch table. She had her long curly brown hair, pulled into a bun, that was so messy that it looked like a ponytail. I sat right in front of her, yet her brown eyes only looked at Olive.
I tried speaking to her, I even said her name a few times.
But she couldn't hear me.
So I turned my attention to Olive.
Olive had come in 5th Grade and was the only other girl who had ever been super close with us.
She was a clever bookworm, who loved to read and was obsessed with musicals. She and I were in Y Club together, where we behaved as basically Student Council, went to events, and held fundraisers. Everyone in Y Club was in love with Hamilton. We always sang the lyrics of the songs we love in unison while we worked on posters for Craft Sale. Olive and I bonded over KUNA and KYA, two events where we all travel to Louisville to spend 3 nights there at a hotel, while the rest of the day we debate over issues with other schools. But most of the time, my favorite part is residing with Olive and our 5th Grade, now 6th Grade, friends. Olive is a bit more intense with thought, and strongly supports the LGBTQ community and women's rights.
But she didn't even gaze look at me either.
She glared and talked with Libby like I wasn't even there. It'd been a while since I'd seen her, because she didn't have messages, and we couldn't call as frequently.
She still had the same shoulder-length black hair, piercing blue eyes, a line of freckles, and her glasses.
Libby told a joke, and I laughed at it too.
And for that one time, they looked in my direction, almost disturbed. They had obviously heard me, because Libby said, "Where did that laugh come from?"
"It's Lauren!" I said confusedly, swiping my hand in front of her face.
"I don't know," Olive responded.
So they went back to talking.
And entirely ignored me.
I stood up from the table and tried to see if anyone else could see me.
I guessed this was some kind of joke, but no one really could see me.
I darted to my classroom, wondering if my teachers, in some world, might be able to. That it might be that the kids just hate me or something.
I was in the middle of running, and I swiveled the corner, and practically ran into somebody.
I stood there, in shock, as they passed right through me.
I started hyperventilating, "What's happening?! What's happening?! What's happening?!" I mumbled to myself.
I sprinted the rest of the way and glided through the door.
I could walk through the walls here...
I ran directly through the walls, all the way to the classroom.
I looked for my desk, but someone else's stuff was there...
The lights were off, and someone walked into the room with a flashlight, and I looked at them in panic.
"Hello? Is anyone in here?" I heard the janitor say.
He couldn't see me either...
"I heard footsteps, I know you're in here. You're not allowed to be out of the lunchroom during lunch, and certainly not allowed to be here if you're a youngin." he said walking around the room.
I was in trauma, not because he couldn't see me, but because when I turned around and away from him, my shadow wasn't there.
I literally wasn't there!
I began to gasp and almost began weeping.
This was my worst fear. Being forgotten.
It seems bizarre, I know because I should probably be afraid of death or something. But I'm not. Of course, I'm careful, and get scared in haunted houses, and get butterflies when I'm on a rollercoaster. But no, my worst fear is being forgotten.
I ran to the bathroom upstairs.
Glided through the door, and skidded in the mirror.
Only a faint reflection appeared. Only my glossy green eyes.
I reached for the switch and flicked it off.
I could see my green eyes glow in the mirror, too neon and poppy to be true.
But it was.
"I just want to be somewhere else..." I mumbled to myself.
And just like that, I appeared at the swimming pool.
I kept going from place to place, seeing moments from my past.
At some point, I had been through many moments that it had made me miserable.
"Somewhere else," I mumbled dejectedly.
BANG
"Don't misuse..." I heard a loud and booming voice say.
I breathed heavy and hyperventilated.
I swiveled and turned, to try and see where the voice was coming from.
Suddenly, the raven black floor dropped out from beneath me, and I flew through the air.
I screamed, and flipped, unable to control where I went. I slammed hard onto a structure, that was made of bronze metal, and had a spire at the top.
I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower. I looked around me quickly and tensed up.
I was pretty afraid of heights, and I backed up against the wall behind me.
The wind blew in my face, causing my hair to go crazy.
I looked around.
I saw my parents!
But not me?
They looked happy and were sitting down at a dinner table on the floor below.
I ran down the steps to them.
Did they look... younger?
Not in a bad way obviously, but...
My parents looked like college students.
Then it dawned on me; my parents met on a trip abroad in Europe when they were college students.
My parents had met at Montparnasse Station in Paris, France, in the middle of their trip. They had started hanging out, and by the end of the trip, my dad asked my mom to be his girlfriend.
Then, one day, a couple of years later, my dad proposed at a train station in Paris, Kentucky.
Then me.
What?
The scene changed without me saying the words, and suddenly I was back at a different moment.
But with my grandparents?
I could recognize them, they were speaking with a German woman. My grandpa was holding an English To German dictionary and attempted to speak to the woman.
My grandma stood next to him and smiled.
I remembered! My grandpa was in the army back in the 70s and was almost drafted to Vietnam, but he luckily got sent to Germany, where he and my grandma happily lived for a few years.
Moments like these kept happening, and I kept going farther and farther back.
I couldn't recognize anyone anymore and didn't know what importance they had in my life. I couldn't remember the last time I saw myself.
And it felt like this had lasted for months.
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