If You Knew What I Knew by Claudia ([email protected]) Chapter 1 - Lost "Hello!? Can anybody hear me?! Anybody? HELP!" I couldn't move my leg anymore, and even worse; I couldn't even feel it! There was something heavy on my knee and that was probably blocking the nerves... or maybe it was even worse... maybe it wasn't even there anymore... but I shouldn't be thinking about that now... Maybe it was good that I couldn't feel it anyway, who knows what pain I could be in... My ribs were hurting a great deal though, they were probably broken, or perhaps just bruised, but my God it was hurting like hell! And you know what, I had no idea what had happened to me, I was just lying here in this dark place that used to be a shopping mall. Something exploded when I was in the bargain basement looking for some last minute Christmas gifts when my world had quite literally collapsed right on top of me. I started to cry when that dawned on me...: I am in the basement... they'll never find me here! "Hey... can anybody hear me?! What the hell happened here?!" Suddenly this voice cried out really close to where I was. "Hello?! Thank God... I thought that I was the only survivor!" I let out a sigh in relief. "So did I... how are you? Are you okay?" He sounded worried. I almost cried in relief, I was not going to die alone! "I think my leg is broken, it's stuck under this giant beam and in I think my ribs aren't too healthy either... and you?" I yelled back at him. "My arm is stuck... probably under the same beam your leg is caught under... and something fell on my head so I've got this huge headache... Are you coughing up blood?" I frowned at that weird question. "No... why?!" "Than your ribs aren�t' broken I think... or they are but they haven't penetrated your lungs..." He said and I asked him if he was some kind of doctor. "No... I jus' take good care of my body, so ya sometimes pick up on things... oh 'n the occasional episode of ER..." He answered back, it made me laugh which hurt pretty damn much but it also gave me a feeling of hope which I thought I had lost forever the moment I woke up after the explosion. He realized that it was his fault now that I was in pain and he apologized for it sounding very concerned. "That's alright... it's good to have something positive like that in a moment like this... right?" I said and felt that I was slowly getting nauseous from the pain, I had to relax 'n try to keep my mind off the pain... So I tried to find my distraction at the strangers address: "What's your name?" I asked and there was a short silence after that "I... I don't know... I can't remember... I think it's because of the thing that fell on my head... shit... I've got amnesia... damn... I hope shit'll come back to me again soon 'cuz... I'm pretty curious what I'm called..." He said and I could help but laugh. "Oh shit... now I'm doing it again... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make you laugh again..." He said softly and I in the meantime thought that I was going to faint. "It's okay... really..." I replied and felt a tear running down my cheek. "So... what's your name?" He asked after a little while and I told him that my name was Claudia. "Hmmm... Claudia... nice name... describe yourself..." I didn't have to think about that one long; "In pain, probably pretty bloody, no feeling in my leg... scared..." He laughed softly and said:" No... I meant what do you look like in your normal everyday outfit...?" "I got black hair, I dyed it like that a while ago 'n now I recently dyed the outgrow ruby red, green eyes, Caucasian, I'm Dutch by the way, about 5'8" ahm, 23 years old..., got a pierced eyebrow... ahm... what else do you want to know?" I asked. "Do you still go to school or do you have a job? What were you doing here before the bomb went off?" I told him that I had been out Christmas shopping and looking for a tattoo parlor that needed an apprentice. As long as I can remember I always wanted to become a tattoo artist. "I finished school a year ago and after that I decided to immigrate to the states to look for my fortune here... 'n you? Can you still remember what you do and what you look like?" He had to think about this for a minute "W...well... no not really... I do remember that I was also here for Christmas... oh God... I hope I'm not one of those guys in elf costumes... you know... one of Santa�s little helpers that walk around in the mall pickin' up innocent little kids and dropping 'em on Santa�s lap giving them another childhood trauma... Oh shit I'm probably making you laugh again... I'm sorry..." He said when he realized what he was saying and stopped talking.. "No, don't stop talking... please... I felt so alone in this darkness..." I said and he promised me he'd see to it that I wouldn't feel that lonely anymore. "Wanna do something distracting? Like a mind game or wanna hear a story?" I said, I didn't really care 'cuz as long as he'd keep talking I felt I'd be fine. "Okay... I'm gonna tell you a story..." He started this truly sick and weird story, about three little pigs, one made of wood, one made of stone and one made of straw and a girl called Claudia who was going to visit her grandmother who came across this little house made of candy. She was tired from the long walk and wanted to go to sleep, so she broke in and entered and tried to find the right spot for the nap, the bed was too hot, so she tried the chair in the middle of the room but it was too sweet for her taste. Then she saw this big bowl of porridge which was just right! I listened quietly, this was one weird guy! "You remember if anyone ever said to you that you are a sick human being?" I asked him when he had finished. "Ah, no but after this story I'm pretty shocked of myself as well..." He answered and sighed deeply. "I wonder when they're gonna find us... I mean if we'll survive this or not..." I said after a long silence and he told me not to look at it like that; I could hear some noise in the distance that came from the rescue workers that finally had started to look for survivors, so we only had to make a lot of noise now. They didn't hear us; At around nine o' clock that night they stopped looking so it looked like we had to spend the night here. "Tomorrow they'll find us... I'm sure of that..." I wasn't so sure anymore, but he seemed very secure about it. "I think that you should try to sleep now... the day was very hectic and you must be tired..." I didn't want to go to sleep, so I told him I wasn't sleepy yet. "You have to try... really it's good for you... pain can be very exhausting... Claudia... please... I don't want you to give up hope... I need you... or else I'll go crazy here alone..." He sounded so scared now. "I... You're right... we need to stick together huh? I'll try to sleep okay? Goodnight... uh... dude..." "Goodnight Claudia..." He replied and sounded a bit hoarse... after a while we both finally fell asleep... Next: Chapter 2 -FanFics -Home