Visual Writing Prompt 1

Being in a coma was the best thing that happened to me, and the most heartbreaking. Some scientists believe the subconscious world that long term coma patients, the few that make it back whole, describe is just a deeper dream-state designed to help the body heal. For me, it was my heaven.

When that bus failed to stop and knocked my car off the bridge, it felt like my life had started. The last thing I remembered from my old life was the gasping shock of icy water filling my lungs. Then I woke up, in my new world. At first I didn't realise what had happened. Everything was mostly the same - I still had my crumbly little flat and worked the same low-paying job. It still rained, I felt hunger and pain; life continued. What was different was the people. I didn't know these people. My friends and family were absent, though it took a while for me to notice. Almost like when you see a glimpse of something behind you in a mirror - something feels off but you can't quite put your finger on it. Maybe it was my mind's way of coping with what had happened.

In this average world of strangers, I met Dylan. He came into my shop one day and I was struck dumb with a shyness I hadn't felt in years. The schoolgirl in me, long assumed dead, flourished. Months passed and we were impossibly happy. But even his love, which was always real, could not mask the cracks that were appearing in my world. Memories from my old life would haunt my daydreams and I would have nightmares about a cold lake. Eventually, I realised what had happened, that this wasn't my world, and as much as I loved Dylan I knew my time was limited.

I don't remember if we properly said goodbye. One afternoon I felt thick with drowsiness and settled on a nap in the sun. When I woke up I was in a hospital room, the smell of antiseptic stinging my nose.

I don't know if I'll ever see Dylan again. Even though it has been two years since I returned to reality, my heart holds on to the theory that the others in my sleeping world were coma patients too, and that if I search for long enough I will find him, one day.