Chapter two: do these chapter subtitles even matter?

You ever get a sense of déjà vu? It happened to me as I opened my eyes for what seemed like the second time in a row of similar experiences. The thought occurred to me ‘could this be a dream too?’ but if I questioned it here, I probably would never be able to get it out of my head, so I decided to just roll with it. That didn’t stop me from pinching myself a couple of time just to be a little surer. If there was one positive aspect to any of this, it would be that my nausea had disappeared since leaving that darkened room.

“Corentin?! Have you finally awoken?!” following that sentiment, I was suddenly embraced from the side by an adult woman. The sweet aroma of a grown woman was strangely tantalizing; her shampoo smelt of fresh flowers and honey and her skin rubbing against mine was as smooth as a baby’s bottom. The word ‘motherly’ instantly came to mind. “My poor baby, thank goodness you’re woken up.”

“Ah… eh?” I was taken aback, thought thinking about it calmly I could understand the gist of the situation. Following the sequence of events, this was most likely the outcome of my death in my previous world and subsequent reintroduction in a new life; right, I… ‘died’. ‘Small hands’, I couldn’t help but let out a silent chuckle at seeing my own limbs. They definitely weren’t the same ones I had used for almost thirty years, yet for some reason I felt I could really get used to this. It was as though a huge burden had been lifted from my chest. What was that expression again? ‘To cut one’s coat according to the cloth’ or something along those lines.

In any case the person who had been clinging onto me for a while was most likely… nah, I didn’t even need to think about it. The answer immediately popped into my head, “mother you’re making it a little hard to breathe,” I lightly tapped on her back to surrender. ‘Marie de Helvetius’, or so told me the memories inside my head. Sounded French, though I wasn’t sure if that country existed in this world too.

“Oh! Sorry, sorry. I was just relieved that you finally regained consciousness,” she apologized while wiping the tear from the corner of her eyes. She pat me gently on my head, “thank goodness.” It felt a little odd being on the receiving end of this trope, but it felt kind of good. “Your fever also seems to have come down, but just to be sure you should rest up a little more.”

“Mama, has Corentin woken up yet?” a mischievous young girl barged into the room without so much as a knock. She appeared around seven or eight years old, straight black hair and a playful demeanour. She made a straight line to the side of my bed and greeted me with a cheerful but also concerned smile. “Corentin, you’re better now! I was so worried,” she grabbed onto my hand tightly and rubbed it against her face.

“Ah,” I instantly recognized this warm and soft sensation. She was the girl from my dream… I mean, my dream inside of a dream… I, err… Digging through the memories of this body identified this girl as my ‘older sister’: ‘Maybelle de Helvetius’. “I’m doing a lot better now. I’m sorry to have worried you, sis.”

“Geez, seriously. You suddenly just fell over with an intense fever. I was worried what would happen if you died like that… I’d never forgive you, you know?” she pouted.

“That bad, huh? How… exactly how long was I out for?”

“Hmm,” she pondered to herself while putting her hand over her chin. “About three days?” she glanced over to mother who nodded in agreement.

Three days? I was astonished myself. I had been under the impression it was just for a few hours or something. That’s a heck of a long time; am I actually going to be okay? “Oh, that’s… what did the doctor say?” I kind of figured a doctor oversaw me since this room looked like a modern hospital room.

“They couldn’t find anything wrong with you aside from the sudden fever. There were no signs of a flu or any other viruses,” my mother began to explain. “The hospital ran some more in-depth tests, but nothing ever came out. Luckily it doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with you now, but we’ll have to run a few more tests just to be safe.”

“Okay,” I agreed. That being said, it’s very likely my sudden onset of a high fever was caused by the massive influx of memories of my previous life. This young body most likely couldn’t handle all the information being jammed in so quickly and passed out. I let out a sigh and decided to do as mother suggested earlier and lied down. “Then, I’ll do as you said, mother, and rest for a little longer.”

“Of course, that’s a good idea. Since you’re fine now I’ll go have a talk with the doctors.”

“Mama, I’ll stay with Corentin a little longer,” Maybelle interjected.

“Then make sure you don’t bother your brother to much, okay?” she said and silently left the room.

Honestly, I had no interests in actually sleeping and really just wanted some time to myself to consolidate the memories of these two lives. “Umm, sis, it’s a bit hard to sleep if you’re staring at me so intently.” Her big blue eyes looking at me like that was a little… creepy. It reminded me of those old Japanese horror movies with the child or female ghosts. I got the shivers just thinking about it.

“Oh, is that so? Okay,” she turned her head to the side but continued to steal glances at me awkwardly.

“Sis, actually, I’d feel a lot better if you just found some way to occupy yourself while you sit near me.”

“That’s a good idea. Be right back!” she rushed out the room and came back almost instantly with a book. “Then, I’ll read this while you go to sleep.”

“Okay, you do that. Enjoy,” I told her and let out a sigh of relief.