Chapter 13: Open your eyes

A blinding brightness jerked Yingyue's eyes open - a round circle of light was shining down on her... Wait... ceiling lights?? She was back to her world?

The unreal memories started coming back to her... Her wide eyes took in the surroundings, bed, IV drip, flowers... She was lying in a hospital!

Yingyue remembered those two brights lights before the darkness had hit her... Was she in a car crash...?

All those odd memories, and being in a child's body... that couldn't have all been real, could it...? She shook her head. However real it felt, there was no way that it was possible anyways...

Working night and day in a hospital for the last few years of her life, she was so familiar with this environment that it was like the back of her hand. She immediately found it odd that all the curtains were tightly drawn, and there was simply... an odd silence...

She quickly removed the IV drip, flung off the blanket and started pacing towards the door. Apart from a sharp pain at her temples, she realised that her body actually had no problem moving at all. If she had just been a car crash, there was no sign of any such thing.

Reaching for the round door handle, her heart started racing... just exactly what was going on??

She twisted it open and was again hit by a bright ray of light - this time, from the sun. Not able to make out what was in front of her, she blinked a few times to clear up her vision.

Yingyue's mouth dropped... She had never felt such a sense of utter shock...

Before her was a field of luscious green grass. It fell flattened like waves with each gust of wind and quickly sprung up again as it subsided. Besides the soft hushing sound of the moving grass, there were no other sounds at all.

Still in a state of disbelief, she clutched her painful head. She strode into the sea of grass. Something must be wrong with her... She must be hallucinating again! First that weird dream of the child, and now this field of grass... Was she having some sort of coma dream perhaps??

Wild thoughts ran through her mind, but as she stepped into the long grass, nothing had felt so real before... The tussles of grass tickled her legs and her bare feet could feel every grain of soil beneath it. The breeze flicked small strands of her hair about, caressing her cheeks... The fresh air filled her lungs.

As if remembering something, she turned to go back to the hospital room, but the door had simply disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place.

Frozen in shock, Yingyue started to take small steps backwards, still not understanding what was happening, but only to trip on something hard and tumble backwards.

The expected thump of the ground didn't happen... instead, she was falling deeper and deeper into a large hole. Darkness instantly surrounded her and that luscious green sight was now nowhere to be seen...

She looked down and could see the ground quickly approaching. Her stomach lurched, and again she felt an unfamiliar feeling bubbling inside. She shut her eyes firmly and braced herself for impact...

... only that none came... Yingyue slowly opened her eyes... She could see that she was a few meters off from the ground... suspended in the air!

Thump.. thump.. thump.. Her heart pounded.

This all felt so real to her. Every single breath she was taking, she could feel the rise and fall of her chest...

She slowly released her tightly clenched arms, afraid that any moment now, she would hit the ground. Her stiff arms stretched out by her sides, opening up inch by inch until they were fully extended...

Working in a hospital, she had gotten used to emergency situations and thinking on her feet... However, at this current moment, her mind could not possibly take in what had been happening within the span of only a few minutes since she 'woke up'.

By this time, the pain in her temples had increased immensely. It was like there was something building up quickly, unable to find a release. All of a sudden, a blinding light emerged from her forehead, and with it, the pain was gone.

The brilliant lights before Yingyue forced her to cover her eyes... until she heard a gentle voice...

"Yingyue... Yingyue... Open your eyes."