Waking up

I move and groan at the feeling. At my soreness, at the pain that lingers in nearly every inch of my battered body. I must have picked a terrible place to lay my tent down, because I am so stiff I can hardly move. I have had bad nights of sleep before from hard floors, but last night takes the cake. 

My eyes are still closed, because although I am no longer sleeping, I kinda wish I was. At least then I won't be in so much pain. 

I shift again, and the pain takes my breathe away. My eyes are still squeezed closed as I start to move my arms and my legs so I can roll over and get up, but it feels like my clothes are sticking to me. When I hear the clothes cracking, I slowly open my eyes and look down towards my leg. 

Im wide awake now, and I'm trying to hold back the tears at the sight of blood that is caked all over my body. But the tears flow as the memories come pouring back in. Once the sleepiness cleared from my head, it made room for my consciousness to return with a bang. 

A choked cry is caught behind my lips as I picture the beast that stood before me with its teeth bared. I can't believe I was attacked….attacked by whatever that thing was. 

It was no normal creature. A creature like that is one that only exists in books, myths…

But I can't deny that my wounds are much more real than any myth could be. So how is this possible?

Between this creature and the troll, my world is quickly turning upside down. I know it's a new year, but apparently I missed the memo when this became a new world too. 

I really need someone to talk to, because if I can't find anyone else who is seeing these things...then I just might believe that I am going crazy.

My eyes finally lift from my battered body and my eyes take a minute to adjust before I can look around me. I am happy to see that I am in my own tent, but it is so dark in here...too dark. When I came back night had just fallen, and that feels like it happened hours ago. 

I feel like I got a full night of sleep, but for it to be this dark still it must only be the middle of the night. Maybe I didn't sleep as long as I had thought. 

The moonlight is providing enough light for my eyes to adjust and see what I am doing. So I slowly crawl over to the tent flap and open it to go outside. I see the outline of one of my lanterns, so after swallowing a cry from my movements, I walk towards it and pick it off the ground. 

It flickers once before turning on, and I brush the dirt off of it so the light can shine brightly. I raise the light so it beams across my campsite and start my search for my cell phone. It takes me twenty minutes, but I finally see a little blue blinking light coming from somewhere on the ground and hobble over to it. 

I sigh in relief when my hand feels the hard plastic of my cell phone that is partially buried under some dried leaves. I hit the button on the side to unlock it and am blinded for a moment from its brightness. Once I fix that I look at my notifications and see that I have texts and missed calls from Mike, and one voicemail from my mother. 

I open the texts from Mike first:

'Hey! Just checking in to see how your adventures are going.'

'Send me pics!'

'Hey, are you alright?'

'Anyone home?'

'Meridian, I'm worried. Call me back.'

'Where are you?!?!'

'I need to know if you are okay!'

'MERIDIAN, PLEASE PICK UP THE PHONE'

"Fuck…" I groan. The first text says it came in three days ago, but there's no way I would have missed it when I was looking at my phone just this morning. There's plenty of service here, I'm not camping in that remote of an area.

I pull down the menu on my cell phone and gasp. That...that can't be right. Oh god. The date is showing three days later than I expected it to be. 

How did I miss three days?!

I listen to his voicemails next:

'Hi Meridian, been thinking about you today so I wanted to say hello and hear about all the fun you are having. Call me back? Okay, bye!'

"Hi it's Mike again, I haven't heard from you and am starting to worry. You are probably just off on some cool adventure in the woods somewhere off-grid and don't have service - but, if you get this, please let me know you are safe.'

 'Meridian I haven't heard from you and I have been freaking out for days. Please call me back.'

I swipe my finger across the screen but hover over the button to call him back. It's the middle of the night, so I don't want to scare him awake with a phone call. So I change my mind and start writing him a text. 

'Hey Mike, I'm so sorry that I have been MIA. I didn't mean to worry you. I am still over by Seattle, but I caught some kind of flu and have been in bed for the last three days. I was too tired to even use my phone. So I am really sorry that you worried, but I wanted to tell you that everything is fine now. Call me when you can, and I promise I'll pick up!'

I chew my bottom lip as I hit the send button and pray that my excuse seemed reasonable enough. Ialmost expect him to call me as soon as I sent the text, so I turn on the volume of my ringtone to be sure I won't miss it. 

My mother's voicemail was her wanting to check in as well, and it was funny because she said the same thing - that she was 'thinking of me' and wanted to know how I was doing. 

SInce she is in Florida she is three hours ahead, but it would still only be 5am if I was to call now. So I tuck my phone in my pocket and make a mental note to remember to call her later. 

I also find my keys and am relieved to find my belongings in my 4runner untouched, so I am easily able to find fresh clothes to change into. Although the changing part was more difficult than I expected. 

The temperature is too low tonight to use my outdoor shower, so I wash up what I can on myself without risking becoming too cold. 

I eat granola bars and drink some water, having to pace myself since it has been three days. It really worries me that I was able to sleep for days and did not wake up. I feel bruised, but not injured to the point where I would need to go to the hospital. The wound on my leg has already started to heal and isn't showing any signs of infection, which is what I am most relieved about. 

When my head is less dizzy and I can stand a little straighter, I feel ready to make a trip into town, where an ugly stone troll might be able to give me some answers. Dugr said he didn't want to see me again, but lucky for me it's not like he can run away from me.