Awakened (Saturday Flash Fiction)

A chill swept through her and her eyes shot open.

The dark ceiling loomed above her. She stared at the dingy whiteness for a moment, trying to find her bearings.

She lay still, not stirring the sheets on her bed, her mind racing. What had awakened her with such a jolt?

Finally, she noticed she wasn’t breathing and exhaled as she tried to relax.

There had been a voice. A man. Saying her name.

Had she dreamed that?

A dog barked down the street, and she jumped at the noise, then rolled her eyes at herself. Forcing a calm she did not feel, she pulled the sheets to her chin and willed herself to close her eyes.

She had been so jumpy since it happened. Almost three months had passed since the accident. Most of the time, she was just so grateful that she was still alive. Paralyzed, but not deceased.

A better fate than some of the others on the bus that day.

For the millionth time, she replayed the events in her head. The gentle rumble of the bus suddenly changing to screeching tires. People screaming. Pain shooting through her head.

And she’d seen a man.

Her eyes opened again with urgency. She hadn’t recalled that before. There had been a man, standing on the sidewalk. Ice blue eyes.

Watching her.

By the time the bus had come to a stop, she was strewn far from her seat. She never saw the man again.

What did it mean?

Nothing, she chided herself.

Yet the cold steel of his gaze sent more chills through her. She closed her eyes, but still saw his steady gaze. There hadn’t been an expression of alarm or fear at the sight of a bus careening into traffic.

But rather, there had been something malevolent in his stare.

The sound of breaking glass shattered through the quiet night.

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Since it's a day late, you get fourteen bonus words! What a deal!