The first thing Luna was able to feel was a dull, sore pain emanating from most of her body. Her eyes slowly started to pry themselves open and her vision focused more and more with each blink. The white lights were bright, illuminating a perfectly well kept room with a variety of medical equipment. As soon as her brain was able to form thoughts, it started screaming at her again to run. Despite the pain and exhaustion, Luna bolted up and started trying to get out of the bed. Her heart rate started climbing again, accompanied with an incessant beeping blaring in her right ear. As she pushed herself up to her feet, she started ripping off everything that was connected to her body, which caused the beeping to be replaced by one loud, consistent tone.

  Before Luna could fully untangle herself, two nurses followed by a law enforcement officer ran into the room. “Ma’am! What are you doing?” One of the nurses called out as she started to near Luna. The moment the nurse got close, Luna whipped around and pushed her away with an exasperated grunt.

  The law enforcement officer sprung into action next. He ran behind Luna as she was distracted with the nurse. Luna started to react to his advance, but she was too slow. He grabbed her, keeping her arms pressed against her side. “Luna, calm down!”

  Luna struggled against him, letting out hoarse screams of panic as it felt like she was losing.

  “Stop! Luna!” The officer gritted his teeth, trying to keep his hold on her as she flailed in his arms. “You're safe! Listen to me! You’re safe!”

  Something about the officer’s voice was familiar to Luna. Hearing him was enough to distract her just long enough for her mind to stop screaming for her to run. Finally, she looked around. The room was completely unfamiliar, like nothing she had ever seen before. Even with its unfamiliarity, the familiar voice in her ear continued to urge her to calm down. Before long, she wasn’t thrashing around anymore. She merely panted and listened to his voice. As Luna’s heart rate started to slow, she suddenly became aware of the intense pain radiating all over her body. Finally, she collapsed in the officer’s arms, unable to move any longer. Once she had collapsed, the officer carried her back over to the bed and laid her down.

  “Christ, Luna. The hell happened to you?” The officer looked down at her once she was back on the bed. He then looked over to the nurse that Luna had pushed. “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”

  The nurse nodded in response before stepping forward with the other nurse to fix everything that Luna had ripped off and displaced in her escape attempt.

  The officer looked back at Luna. “Listen, they need to hook you back up. You’re extremely dehydrated, and probably in a lot of pain right now. You just need to relax and rest, okay?”

  “Where…” Luna’s throat felt like it was on fire the moment she started to speak. “Where am I?”

  “You’re in a hospital. You were hit by a car. And…” the officer looked down at her broken, bloodied feet. “Who knows what happened before that….” He looked back up at her. “You’re safe here though, okay?”

  Luna mustered what energy she could to nod at him before finally letting her body relax. The pain and exhaustion that she had pushed through earlier now felt like it was about to swallow her up. It wasn’t long before she fell asleep again.

  When Luna awoke again, she could hear talking in the room.

  “...going … okay right?”

  “She … live but…”

  “But what?” Luna could hear a woman’s voice more clearly first, though it was still muffled like it was on the other side of a wall.

  “You need to be prepared.” The voice of a man followed. “She may not be the same Luna that you lost…”

  “Nonsense. What does that even mean?”

  “Ma’am, she has been missing for over five years now. There is no telling what could have happened-”

  “Just let me see my daughter!” The woman was starting to yell now.

  There was a moment of silence before Luna heard the man’s voice again. “Yes, of course, Mrs. Vance.”

  Luna heard the door open before she heard the woman’s voice again. “Come on, Stella.” Luna could hear the sound of two sets of footsteps entering the room before the door closed behind them.

  Luna was staring at the ceiling as she listened to the conversation. Finally, she mustered what energy she could to move her head so that she could see the two who had entered. She saw an older looking woman wearing expensive clothes with perfectly styled black hair and heavy makeup. Next to her stood a smaller and more modestly dressed girl. Her hair was long and straight with far less time put into it. Her eyes were big and expressive, revealing far more about who she was than anything that the woman next to her displayed on her body. She looked worried and tired, but most of all, she looked confused. When her eyes met Luna, they clearly harbored disbelief.

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  “Luna! My dear!” The older woman quickly rushed over to Luna’s side. “You’re awake! Oh, what perfect timing!” She rested her hand on Luna’s. “I can’t believe you’re alive! When I heard… well, I thought it must be some sort of prank! But here you are! My beautiful baby girl.”

  Luna just blinked at her as she spoke. She looked over at the girl behind her before looking back at the woman invading her space. “Who… are you?”

  “Who…?” The woman looked at Luna with utter bewilderment. “Luna, I’m your mother! Surely you’re joking?”

  Luna continued to stare at her with clear unfamiliarity. Before the conversation could continue, the door opened again and two law enforcement officers walked into the room, one of which was the one that had calmed Luna before. Luna finally got a good look at him now that she was calm. He was smaller than she had expected, probably an inch or two shorter than her. He was clean shaven with messy brown hair that somehow seemed to rest perfectly on his head like it was purposeful.

  “You’re awake.” The familiar one spoke. He looked over to Luna’s mother and smiled. “Sorry to interrupt, but we need to ask her a few questions.”

  “This cannot wait until after my reunion with my own daughter?” Mrs. Vance scoffed at them. “I see the HLE still hasn’t learned any manners.”

  The familiar one gave the other girl a brief glance before sighing. “It will be just a moment.” He turned to look at Luna. “We just want to know what happened to you. It’s been five years, and you were clearly running from something.” He grabbed a stool and pulled it up next to Luna, motioning for his partner to take notes. “Just tell us what you can and then we’ll leave you to rest.”

  Luna stared at him in silence for a long time. She knew that he was familiar, but as she looked at him, there was not a single memory that swam to the forefront of her mind. In fact, there wasn’t a single memory of anything that came up. As she dug through her mind and was met with nothing, she started to get more and more frustrated. Eventually, she just scoffed at him and looked away.

  “Luna… we’re trying to help. You can trust us,” he spoke as he leaned forward.

  “Right, just like I trusted you to find her?” Mrs. Vance snapped back at him.

  “Mom, can you please just calm down?” The girl that came in with Mrs. Vance finally spoke.

  “Tell us what you can remember, Luna.” He ignored Mrs. Vance for the time being.

  “Is Luna supposed to be my name?” Luna turned back at him, furrowing her brow in annoyance. “You all keep saying it like I should know that. You all keep looking at me like I should know where I am. Like I should know who any of you are. I fucking don’t, okay?”

  He raised his eyebrow and looked at his partner who was taking notes for a moment before looking back at her. “You don’t remember your name even?”

  “I don’t remember shit,” she huffed.

  “...What is the first thing that you remember?”

  Luna pursed her lips as she looked around the room. Her gaze wandered over to where her mother was now standing. It was where she had attacked the nurse. “I remember waking up here.”

  “You don’t remember… anything else? Where you came from? Anything?”

  “No! I just told you I don’t remember shit, so stop fucking asking!”

  The familiar officer nodded at her a few times slowly as he pursed his lips. “Alright. Got it.” He stood up and turned to the one who had been taking notes. “Get a psych eval in here.” He turned to Mrs. Vance. “Mind if I speak with you outside?”

  Mrs. Vance mumbled a few frustrated responses before following the two officers out of the room. As they walked out, the girl with big eyes slowly walked over to Luna.

  “I’m Stella, by the way.” She offered Luna a brief smile. “I’m your sister.”

  Luna raised her eyebrows at her. “Stella?”

  “Yeah. And that officer was Arden. You two went to school together.”

  Luna nodded at Stella a few times. The frustration that had been bubbling up in her slowly started to calm. “And I’m Luna.”

  “Yep. Luna Vance.” Stella rested her hands on the railing of the bed. “You went missing five years ago. Everyone thought you were dead.”

  Luna sighed, letting her head fall back against the pillow. “Feels like I was.”

  “Well, you’re not now. Hopefully we can get you home soon.” Stella looked Luna over for a moment, paying close attention to the areas where Luna should have been injured. “I mean, you seem like you are doing fine now.”

  Luna followed her gaze. All of the areas that had once housed such intense pain now seemed to be fine. There might have been a bruise here and there under her gown, but every wound she once had was gone. She looked down at her feet, remembering the look that Arden had given them. They looked like they had never been hurt at all. The blinding pain that she had once felt in her body was replaced now with stiffness and soreness. She turned to Stella. “How long was I asleep?”

  “A few days maybe. They didn’t even call us at first. I guess they didn’t know that it was you until Arden got here.”

  “Right…” Luna nodded almost imperceptibly as she stared at the door. “Fuck it.” She grabbed her IV and ripped it out again, twisting her body around to get off the bed.

  “What are you doing?” Stella took a step back as she watched Luna with wide eyes.

  “Fuck their psych eval. I am done being here.” She started ripping off everything else that was connected to her.

  “Shouldn’t you rest for a little while longer?”

  “You said it yourself.” Luna turned to look at her sister. “I’m fine.” She winced from the sore pain in her ribs. “Tired, but fine.”

  The door opened and a nurse came rushing inside, followed closely by Arden and Mrs. Vance. “Ma’am, if you w-”

  “I’m leaving.” Luna pushed past the nurse toward the door. She turned to look at her mother. “Take me wherever home is.”

  Mrs. Vance raised her eyebrows at Luna. After a moment of consideration, she smiled at her and nodded. “Of course, dear.” She then glared at Arden. “If you’ll excuse us.”

  “We still have more ques-” Arden started, only to be interrupted by Luna as she stomped past him.

  “Shove your questions.” She turned to look at him one last time. “I’m sure you’ll know where to find me.”