In life, you are never really sure what will happen next. For those who realize this unavoidable fact, the thought can be both maddening and confusing. But like most, it had never even crossed the mind of Hallie Smith. She was young and full of life, never stopping to think that a moment may be her last. Especially a moment like going to Walmart to buy a poster board for her science project at eleven o'clock at night. As she left her house and jumped in her 2010 Toyota Camry, the car she begged her parents for even though they wanted her to have better safety features, Hal never expected it to be the last time she left her house. She was ten minutes from Walmart when a car ran a red light and swerved in front of her car. The driver, a recently divorced man on his way home from the bars, didn't even notice that he had changed directions and was facing oncoming traffic. Hal didn't have time to react.

The odd thing was there was no pain. Even with her eyes shut, she still saw the light shining down on her. In the background she could still hear her favorite song playing as if she was still singing along. Suddenly there was silence. The light above her grew brighter and brighter until she realized it was moving back and forth. She relaxes her eyelids and opens up just enough to see that the light was coming from the flashlight of a police officer trying to help her regain consciousness. Hal gasps as the cold winter air enters her lungs, a feeling she thought would never happen again. The officer looked at her shocked, unable to comprehend how she was alive. Tears poured out Hal's eyes as she glanced at her car, or mainly what was left of it. After that everything became a blur and she passed out from the pain medicine the paramedics gave her.

It felt like years since she had opened her eyes when she woke up in the hospital the next day. Her mom and dad were holding her hands, both had tears on their faces. Even her brother James was sitting in the chair next to her bed. Something felt wrong. Hal couldn't put her finger on it, but for her something felt off.

Doctors revealed that from the accident, Hal had little injuries other than a fractured arm and bruised ribs. Hallie couldn't believe that she was alive. Her mind seemed to be going one thousand miles per hour with her thoughts bouncing around her head like a tether ball without a string.

Her family and friends soon adjusted to the fact she wasn't the same as before the accident, but for Hal, something just didn't seem right. Her dyslexia got worse and she could barely write her own name. She constantly felt like she was in a fog and not fully able to comprehend what was going on in the world around her.

"Mom, have you ever had a feeling that you can't explain. Like almost a feeling that you aren't in control?" Hal asked.

"Hallie Marie Smith, you need to stop questioning yourself. You're alive and that's all that matters. You need to stop coming up with things wrong with you," her mom retorted.

After that conversation, Hal didn't bring up the issue again. She wouldn't leave her room for days because it was the only place she felt safe. Her parents were worried but they just figured she was having a setback and the trauma was setting in again. They kept there distance to try and let her cope. That's when it began.

At first, it seemed like her vision was just messed up and the shadows would just go away. Then Hal would see them in places without anything that would cast a shadow. Even at night with all the lights off it seemed like there were still shadows. They would follow her wherever she went and she could sometimes hear hem whispering. Hal knew if she told anyone they would send her back to the hospital, so she kept it a secret. The paranoia set in and she could no longer function at school or with friends because she was constantly watching of shadows. She went back into isolation, and fell into a state of depression mixed with paranoia. Soon she even locked her parents out and her brother only heard from her when he brought her food.

"Hal, I know you don't want company but do you want to watch a movie with me?"James begged.

"No, go away."

"But Hal, you haven't left your room in weeks and I'm worried. Mom and dad think they need to give you space, but I..."

"No James. Now go away and leave me alone."

As James left the room crushed he didn't realize that she had almost completely lost her mind and was convinced that it was not her brother she was talking to, but a shadow impersonating him. Everything was the shadows now. She could see full body outlines and watched how they paced around her room and sat staring at her. Oh how she hated their stares. She felt like she was lost and she was begging to question a lot of things.

One thought she could not shake was the memory of the accident. That night haunted her more than anything, even more than the shadows. She kept trying to recall that night but her mind was a fog, that night in particular it seemed. She realized that she never even had closer with the man who hit her. After the accident it seemed like he disappeared. Then it clicked. She couldn't remember how she even got home from the hospital. Or how she got to school. Or even how she had gotten to her room that night. As her mind was spinning, she realized the shadows were all crowded around her. This time they were much bigger, much closer, and she could hear them clearly.

"How is she?"

"What should we do now?"

With every word her heart broke. The voices were so loud this time that she couldn't take it and suddenly it seemed like she had no other choice. She turned, sprinted, and jumped out of her second story window. As she was falling she saw it again. It was the light. This time it was much brighter and almost fluorescent. Then she realized she could feel herself falling almost infinitely. When she finally hit, she realized she actually felt more alive.

At her first breath, she realized there was a tube in her mouth and a needle in her arm. The hospital lights were blinding and she almost didn't see her family sitting around her hospital bed. Nothing made sense. She couldn't remember what had happened in her dream but all she knew was that she woke up scared. Her family held her and assured her everything as okay. When the doctor came in the room he smiled at her with one of those awkward distant relative smiles waiting for her to smile back.

"Well, welcome back sleepy head!" said the doctor.

"Back? Where have I been?" Hal responded almost sarcastically
"Hallie, do you remember being in an accident?"
"Unfortunately"
"So during the crash you hit your head to the steering wheel, where you hit shut down your physical functions and you went into a coma. You've been comatose for two weeks now."

The ground seemed to slip from under her. Coma? In her dream, she had been awake for months. Through all the confusion, all Hal could do was smile because she was finally back with her family. She could not remember much of her dream while in a coma, but there was still a trace of a memory in the far shadows in her mind.