Page 22 of One of Those Amnesia Stories

Fuck him.

When I looked back at the road, a blinding white light flooded the windshield. A car had swerved into my lane, its headlights bearing down on me before my mind could fully comprehend what I was seeing. Instinct took over as I wrenched the wheel to the side.

The next thing I knew, metal slammed into the pole with a violent force that jolted through my entire body. Glass exploded around me, fragments striking my skin as the windshield shattered beneath the impact. The sound was deafening, followed by a vicious wave of pain that tore through every part of me at once.

My vision flashed white.

The world spun.

I tried to breathe, tried to move, tried to understand what had happened, but the pain swallowed every thought before it could form. Somewhere beyond the wreckage, I could hear shouting, distant and distorted, but I couldn’t make out the words.

My eyelids grew heavier.

I fought to keep them open, clinging to the fading sounds around me, but everything was slipping farther away. The headlights smeared into pale streaks. The shouting became a distant murmur. Even the pain began to fade beneath a growing numbness.

The last thing I saw was a shadow rushing toward the wreckage.

Then the world slipped away.

Chapter 3

Present day

“Who are you?”

The man stared at me in horror, his expression shifting so rapidly that I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. His eyes searched my face, darting over every feature with desperate intensity. His lips parted, a word already forming—

The door behind him swung open.

Another man strode into the room carrying a ridiculously vibrant bouquet of flowers, his cheerful blue eyes sweeping across the space before landing on me.

“Alessia!” He shouted my name with enough enthusiasm to make me question whether he understood the concept of indoor volume.

I winced and squeezed my eyes shut, the sound sending another vicious pulse through my already pounding head. My whole body felt heavy and sore, my thoughts sluggish and scrambled, and now a complete stranger was yelling loud enough to fill a football stadium.

I had no idea who he was.

And judging by the volume he’d chosen, I wasn’t particularly interested in finding out.

He hurried toward the bed, nearly knocking the first man aside in his excitement. “You’re awake!”

For fuck’s sake, was this his normal volume?

The first man’s earlier shock was replaced by an expression that suggested he was equally overwhelmed by the sudden arrival.

The newcomer leaned so close that I could see every bit of concern written across his face. “Do you have any idea what happened to me when I found out you were in the hospital?” He demanded, his expression cycling rapidly between horror, guilt, and relief. “And then I found out I’d missed your party. I’m so sorry. You know how I am with dates. My brain sees a calendar and immediately gives up.” He shook his head with such dramatic despair that the bouquet bobbed in his hand. “Forget it. You’re awake now!”

He practically shouted the last sentence directly into my face.

My head throbbed harder. Each word seemed to hammer against my skull, and I had to resist the urge to cover my ears. Whatever pain medication the hospital had given me clearly had no chance against this man’s enthusiasm.

Felicity was safe for now.

This man, however, was rapidly becoming my first murder candidate.

I opened my mouth, fully prepared to tell him to back away before I decided the hospital could deal with one more patient.

Before I could get the words out, the first man finally moved.