Akari woke later than usual. 12:00 PM Her chest ached softly, a there's that pressure that had been lingering since yesterday. She pressed her palm against it, still feeling the familiar thorn like sensation. Her eyes drifted to the piles of flowers scattered across her room, bouquets lined up like trash on tables, on the floor, even hanging from small hooks.

  Today, she decided to prune them. Routine. Routine meant control.

  She moved slowly, snipping dead leaves and trimming stems, arranging each flower just as she liked, Putting them in multiple vases, some are getting hanged dry, some are getting pressed. The scent of roses, lilies, and many more flowers filled the room, stronger than usual. Normally, it calmed her. Today, it felt heavier like it was pressing against her lungs.

  She paused over one of the newer bouquets including the one from last night. A small white flower she hadn’t noticed before she picked it up wanting to prune it next but the longer she hold it the worse she started feeling. Something about its fragile petals made her stomach tighten. As her fingers touched it, a sharp, memory passed by her mind like a photograph in a dream, half-formed and blurred.

  A hand. A heavy, rough yet gentle, warm hand brushing against hers. Then in a second in a second it changes to quickly, that gentle hands are now gripping her wrist and strongly pulling her close. Akari tried to resist and escape but somehow she didn't have the guts to fully brush him off, so she stood there as the man before her, in her memory kneels and hugs her motionless body. The details slipped away almost immediately, leaving only a strange, hollow ache in her chest.

  Akari pulled back, as her heart starts pounding. She stared at the flower, tracing its thin stem lined with tiny thorns. It was almost as if the flower itself were alive, leaning toward her as if trying to speak. Her fingers trembled slightly.

  “Hah, how could a pretty flower like you feel so sad?” she whispered to herself.

  She moved to the next bouquet, and the same feeling returned. Each flower she touched seemed to tug at something deep inside her familiar, yet unknown. She remembered nothing. But the sensation continue to linger, in the back of her mind.

  The small card attached to the newest bouquet caught her attention. The handwriting was the same as always: “18-5-14.” But today, the words beneath it were different.

  > “How are you today?”

  A shiver ran through her as her mind refused to form answers. She pressed her hand against her chest again. The sharpness of the thorns in her lungs slowly gets worse, almost as if reacting to her fear.

  Her gaze wandered over the flowers, the ones she had grown so accustomed to keeping. Slowly, uneasily, a thought crept into her mind: these flowers mean something. Not just gifts. Not just reminders. Something more. Something tied to her… to the person she had been before the accident. She swallowed hard. The room was quiet, too quiet. Every flower seemed to lean slightly toward her, faintly alive in their stillness.

  “…help me,” she once again whispered without thinking, somehow these words keeps spilling once she stars getting overwhelmed

  The words were her own, and yet they didn’t feel like hers. Her chest tightened, but the sensation was different now..

  Akari looked down at the bouquets. Despite the fear she hopes they mean something and maybe her life without tomorrow can have something she looks forward to seeing.

  ------

  Akari stepped out of her apartment for a moment to beath. The moment she touched the handle of her door she heard a loud bang outside, like someone ran down the stairs and accidently hit it. After hearing the loud sound she dashed outside and tried her best to see what happened. While on the top of the stair she saw a man in a white hoodie running fast down to the 4th floor of the building. Despite the pain in her chest she ran as fast as she could but by the time they arrive at the 1st floor of the building the pain started being unbearable. Her legs gave out, she hold the staircase tightly to prevent her from falling. As she sat on the last step of the stair the man stopped. He turned to look at Akari and started talking.

  "Is the pain really bad?"

  With his hand together, the man started scratching his fist, like a stress response to seeing Akari on the floor.

  "If i say its bad will you help me?"

  "As long as you don't see or realize who I am, then i would love to help you. May I get closer?"

  Akari looked up and saw the man standing so closely to her. Instead of fear, the pain in her chest stopped completely. She smiled at the man, still not seeing his face. Instead of interrogating him, Akari asked him to

  "I wont peak to see your face, don't say anything I might recognize your voice, carry me back to my apartment."

  The man effortlessly picked her up and laid her down to her bed. The man didn't leave after that. He sat on the bed facing away from her, he holds her hand so tightly she wouldn't even be able to shake him off. After a few minutes he finally stood up, walked towards the door, as he goes out he looked at Akari and says

  "I love you, don't give up yet."

  **To be continued**