Devon slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times. It was blurry and there was a faint beeping sound in the background.

“Devon? Honey, I’m here,” a woman said softly.

Devon tried to remember who the voice belonged to. He couldn’t remember the people in his life. All of the sudden he could see little moments in his life, but they seemed outdated.

He’d been to Australia and visited the Kangaroos. He saw the rodeo at stampede in Alberta. He graduated high school, no one was there for him.

“Devon, wake up, please,” he heard. Devon’s vision cleared up, and he saw the woman. She was a tall brunette with layers throughout her hair. Her eyes were a blue-green colour that he’d never seen before. Or had he?

“Who are you? Where am I? What happened to me?”

Devon, I’m your girlfriend, Amara. You’re at the hospital, there was an accident…” she trailed off.

“What kind of accident?” He asked. His eyebrows lifted, and he couldn’t believe this was happening to him.

“I don’t know if I should say,” Amara told him softly.

“Amara, I need to know what’s going on!” Devon said loudly. He was growing impatient.

“Well,” she started. “This whole thing began when you got into a professional bowling league…”

“You we’re so excited about finally being apart of a team. Plus you’d found a hobby that wasn’t so dangerous, and wasn’t far from home. You like travelling a lot, but it gets hard to be away. Anyway, in your first tournament of the season, you blew everyone away with your incredible skills. Everyone was really proud of you Devon. So they made you their bowling team captain. You were up to the challenge, of course. As captain, you wanted to make sure that everyone was bonded as a group. Connections are important to you. So, you took the group on a ski trip, to Motherlode Chair at the Red Mountain Resort in Rossland, BC. It’s one of the most intense and steep places to ski in all of Canada. The others were a bit skeptical, but you were so excited for a thrilling new adventure. If only we new what was about to happen.”

“I don’t remember any of this,” Devon mumbled. “How long have I been here, in the hospital?”

“A year. You were in a coma.”

A year?” Devon exclaimed. “What about my family? The last thing I remember was going up the ski lift on that trip. I need to know what happened.”

“Okay Devon, I’ll tell you. So you and your team headed up the ski lift. Everyone was a bit on edge, but Andy was especially nervous. You kept telling him that it would be fine. It took a lot of persuasion to get Andy up on that lift. By the time the group was up top, you practically had to push him down. Anyway, everyone was having a good time. After the first few runs, nobody was too nervous anymore. Andy was the only one who was too scared to enjoy himself. You told him that bonding as a group was important. You told him that he couldn’t quit, no matter how bad he wanted to. You said that quitters and scaredy-cats weren’t allowed on the team, so he kept going.”

“Amara, this doesn’t explain how I ended up in a coma. How do I even know you. You said your my girlfriend, but I don’t have one,” Devon told her, clearly confused.

“Trust me, I’ll get to it. The last run of the day, you encouraged everyone to go as fast as possible, and try cool tricks. Andy wanted to prove himself to you, so he was the first to go. He was whipping down the hill, when he went off a bump and slid to the side. He hit a tree and landed face first in the snow. Everyone else was too busy heading down to notice he was gone. Luckily, you were behind and saw him out of the corner of your eye. He had suffocated and died in the snow before you could get to him.”

Devon closed his eyes tightly. He felt afraid, he felt sad.

“I can’t - I can’t believe that happened. H-h-how did this - it’s just unbelievable,” Devon stuttered, speechless.

“That’s what I said when the police told me he was dead. And I knew exactly who’s fault it was!” Amara yelled angrily. “If it wasn’t for you, my husband wouldn’t have died!”

“Amara, I thought you were my girlfriend,” Devon trembled.

“Please. That was just a cover. You want to know the reason you’ve been in the hospital this long? It’s because I put you in the hospital. I waited every day for you to wake up, just so I could make you feel horrible about what you did, before I ended you once and for all. You are fully responsible for what happened to him out there, and I needed you to feel that guilt before I could avenge him.”

“Amara, please. It was an accident. I would never want to hurt Andy,” Begged Devon.

“It doesn’t matter how sorry you are, you still killed him. Now I’m going to kill you. Then Andy and I will laugh at you up from heaven. We’ll laugh while you burn in hell!”