Awoken

Inhale. Breath stirred my long sleeping lungs, and with it, my eyes opened. I held the air in for too long, scared to let it go in case I could not will it to return. Eventually, my body forced me to release it, and I waited for a breathless moment, terrified that my lungs would never expand again. I took another deep breath, tears springing to my eyes as I filled my chest with life once more, at once new and familiar.

The tears slipped down my face, and the sensation of them filled me with joy. I could feel my heart pumping the blood through my body, awakening my limbs for me. I stretched, running my hands over the warm curves of my arms and legs. How good it felt to live! Did I appreciate it this much when it was all I did?

My overwhelming exhilaration faltered for a moment as my brain warmed up, stretching and probing like a waking cat. I suddenly had the sense to wonder where I was. I looked around, taking in my surroundings. Dark, but not completely. Faint light illuminated the smooth walls of a cave, pewter grey and unnaturally even. Unnatural… man-made?

I was laying on my back on what seemed to be a bed of stone. A dress draped loosely over my legs. It was a thin and gauzy thing, doing little to keep me warm. A dress intended for the dead. Fortunately, the cave was not cold, and even my gradually warming body was comfortable.

The dress was a very particular color. I knew there was a name for it, and I knew that name meant something to me. I lifted the fabric, bringing it closer to my eyes. Lavender. That was the color. An image flitted before me, of a morning sky, just before the sun has risen. The dress matched that delicate greyish purple precisely. The color, the memory, made my heart swell.

Suddenly, another thought, a single word, barged into my mind: Eli. And again and again and again. Eli Eli Eli Eli. I have to get to Eli. Dark hair, a kind smile, dark grey eyes that say to me, “I love you.” Eli.

I bolt upright and push myself to the floor. My legs protest only for a moment before I’m moving, turning, searching for a way out. A door behind me, I hurtle through it.

Eli.

A maze of corridors, dark but with smooth floors and that ever present ambiguous light.

Eli.

My bare feet slapping stone, me having no time to savor the pain that means life as I run to him.

Eli.

I have to get out. I run and run, letting my instincts guide me.

Eli.

Sunlight, pausing me for only a second as I squint. I slow my pace, urging my eyes to hurry up and adjust. I lift my gaze and see a group of people. Recognition flickers in the back of my mind, but I ignore it.

“Eli?” I shout, ask, plead.

A few of them point, some say, “that way!” I run in the direction they pointed me in, trusting them.

Eli.

I race down a path of packed Earth, between hills decorated with wildflowers. The mountain at my back, from which I emerged, is ignored. I have to get to him. To Eli.

And then he is there. Just ahead of me. I sprint to him desperately. I shout his name, “Eli!” He looks up and freezes.

My steps slow, and I stop a few paces from him. His eyes do not say, “I love you,” rather, “is it you?”

“Eli,” I whisper. “It’s me.”

Something in those eyes changes, opening, and I rush to him, enfolding myself into his arms. Eli. My Eli. My grey-eyed, straight-nosed, smiling-mouthed Eli.

“I waited,” he says into my hair, and his arms gather me closer.

I hold back tears as best as I can. “I love you. I know little else, but I know that. I love you, Eli.”

His breath, his voice against my ear. “I love you. You will remember.”

But right then I did not care about remembering. I had Eli. That was all that mattered.