My best friend has been replaced, and I’m next.
It happened on a Friday night. We had gone shopping downtown and were making our way back to the train station with gelato cups in our hands and bags around our arms. I recounted a story we both found so hilarious we were stumbling around and nearly falling over with laughter.
“I can’t believe that shit just happens,” Anna gasped with tears in her eyes.
“I know, right?!”
Anna was so distracted she didn’t see the truck barreling through the stop sign. I did. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t get the words out. I just dropped my bags and jumped out of the way. The last thing I saw was Anna’s face plastered with confusion and concern as the vehicle smashed through her and my head cracked into the sidewalk.
I woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by my family. My mom burst into tears and hugged me with more strength than I ever knew her to have. “Anna, where’s Anna,” I managed to choke out. My mom pulled away. Everyone just stared at me, unsure of what I meant. “Is she ok,” I asked, feeling my throat sting and eyes water over. I felt a hand squeeze my own. “I’m right here,” she said, standing over me and smiling. No bandages, no crutches, no cuts, no scrapes, no broken bones, nothing. “B-but, the truck,” I exclaimed, “I saw you get hit!” Anna’s face twisted with confusion: “what?”
My dad butted in and started shooing my extended relatives out of the room. “Give her some space, give her some space.”
“What’s going on,” I asked.
My mom piped up: “you passed out on the side of the road, sweetie. Anna found you and called for an ambulance. We’re so glad you’re okay.”
I didn’t know what was going on. Was I dreaming? Did I somehow hit my head when I fell? All I knew was that Anna was right there, at my bedside, staring at me.
I was discharged from the hospital after a day. The doctors monitored my condition but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Of course, I was not mentally okay, but no hospital bed could fix that. I was entirely disoriented. Anna didn’t feel real to me, even though she talked and acted the same as ever. It took me a while, but I adjusted. I accepted the fact that something had happened to my head that had caused this confusion. Anna didn’t die, and there was living, breathing proof of that standing in front of me.
Or so I thought.
A month later, Anna asked me if I wanted to go to a coffee shop with her. Everything was normal at first; I got my usual and she tried a seasonal drink. We sat, we talked, we laughed. It was fine– until Anna said something odd: “want to get gelato after this? I know it’s been a couple months.” It had been a couple months . . . since the accident. But that didn’t actually happen, right?
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I was just in a gelato-y sort of mood.” She laughed.
“No, no, no. What do you mean it’s been a couple months?”
Anna paused. “You know, when we went on that shopping trip?” I was stunned. My parents said I’d randomly passed out and Anna just happened to be in the area and find me. There was never any shopping trip. No gelato. Nothing.
Anna saw the look on my face and quickly tried to change the subject. “I need to go,” I said, grabbing my bag and racing out the door.
The incident at the coffee shop soon slipped my mind. I made up excuses and life moved on. Then Anna invited me to stay over at her apartment.
“Hey, welcome!”
“Hi! It’s been a while, huh? Nice place!”
Anna smiled at this, she seemed proud of her decoration skills. She led me to the guest room and gave me time to get settled. When I finished, I came out to the living room and sat down to watch some tv with her. We surfed through channels, eventually settling on some dumb reality tv show about people with excessive lifestyles. The screen flicked to a scene of two women crossing a street, arms weighed down with their shopping bags. Anna turned to me.
“Why did you leave me?”
“What?” I was completely taken aback.
“You left me. You left me to die.”
She grabbed my arm. Hard. I tried to pull away but she only dug her nails deeper into my skin.
“You left me.”
“Anna, what the fuck is wrong with you?! Let go!”
Her nails pierced my skin and I watched droplets of blood form at the surface. Something came cracking down on my skull and I passed out.
I woke up in Anna’s bedroom. Or at least, the room behind the door she pointed to and told me was her bedroom when I first came in. At the time, the door was closed. But now, it was open and I was on the other side. I was tied to a steel bed frame with a metal cord. I tried to get up but I couldn’t. Fuck.
Anna walked in. Well, “walked.” Her body bent in unfamiliar ways, as though she suddenly had a thousand different joints. Every time she moved, I heard crunching from under her skin. Her body was entirely broken and her torso and head were caved in on the right side of her body. She was a bloody, mangled mess.
“You left me.”
I tried to plead with her but I could only groan. It was then I realized I couldn’t feel my tongue in my mouth. It wasn’t there.
“You ruined me.”
Anna came closer and she raised what was left of her right arm. She had no hand, only a sharpened tip of bone with shredded skin hanging above it.
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
She stabbed into my stomach with her arm and sliced downward. I cried out in pain and vomited as she began ripping my intestines out.
“Why didn’t you save me?”
The burning I’d felt dulled down as I lost all sensation in my limbs. She finished emptying my stomach.
“You don’t deserve this body.”
She crawled into the hole as I blacked out.
It’s been a few days since then and I’ve begun to notice changes. I’ll wake up in odd places and find things out of place. I’m not hungry anymore, but constantly exhausted. My family avoids me– they accuse me of things I don’t remember doing. They say they’re scared of me. I don’t know what to do. I’m losing control of my life. Please help me.