Wizardness

Emily woke with a start. She shouldn’t have been sleeping. She glanced about. No one was looking her way. Though, none of the other students looked familiar. She scratched her neck. There was an odd bump there.
The professor wasn’t in class yet. She glanced at the time. 3:45. She pulled out her phone. It was still 3:45. She tapped in her passcode and pulled up her calendar. It was Thursday. She didn’t have any afternoon classes.
“Hey, was I here when you came in?” the girl in front of her jumped.
“Where the fuck did you come from?” She cried. She held her chest as she started to panic. “You weren’t here when I came in. I didn’t hear you sit behind me.”
“Yo. What the fuck? Who are you?” came an androgynous voice behind her.
Emily spun, “Hi, I’m Emily. I have no idea how long I’ve been sleeping here. Do you?”
“No. You, uh, literally appeared in front of me when you spoke with Sally. I was watching Sally play with her hair when you asked her your question.” They blushed when they said that.
Sally blushed in response. Emily stood, loudly pushing her desk to the side. A guy three rows over shrieked. She staggered back, running into another chair, knocking into another student.
“What are you doing throwing your desk into me? Wait. Emily? Emily Robiniski? You were in my Calc 1 class like 2 years ago. You disappeared in the middle of a final.”
Emily shuddered, pulling her jacket tighter on herself. She looked at her phone again, “Wait, it’s 2021?” She dropped her phone and quickly followed it to the floor. She stuttered, “No, no, it can’t be.” She looked at the guy she pushed her desk into. “You, we were going to study abroad in Paris together, weren’t we?”
“I did, well, it was cut short in 2020, because of the pandemic, but you didn’t go. You were missing. Your family freaked out. Where did you come from?”
Emily looked down at herself, “I, I,” she cleared her throat, “I dozed during the Calc final and woke up here.” She grabbed her coat from the back of her chair, but there was no coat to grab.
She sprinted out of the class room. She ran into someone as she rounded the corner. She fell to the ground sobbing. She felt a huge weight fall on her shoulders.
“Miss, are you alright?” A familiar voice asked.
“I’m, I’m alright. I don’t know what’s happening.” She looked up at the person she ran into. She gasped, “Jeremy? I’m so glad to see you.” She threw herself onto him. Giving him a tight hug.
“Miss, I don’t know who you are.” He said politely. He gently pulled her off of him. He gasped as he got a good look at her face. “Emily? My god? Where have you been? I missed you so much. Your parents were a mess.”
He staggered back. “Your parents.” He could look at her. He wiped at tears in his eyes.
“What about my parents? One minute I was in a Calc final the next I’m waking up in a classroom with no idea what’d happened. Jimmy, mentioned a pandemic, that it’s 2021. What’s going on Jeremy?” Emily cried.
“We better get you to a hospital. Hold on a second. I’ll text your sister. She needs to meet us there. Do have a mask?”
“A mask? Like a costume mask?” She asked confused.
He stared back, “You’ve no idea what I’m talking about, do you? Covid? the Pandemic. 600,000 dead in the US. Ring a bell?”
“You’re joking right? I remember watching some movies about a plague. That’d never happen here though. Sweetheart, just tell me what’s going on.”
He broke down into tears. “Emily, we thought you ran off somewhere. You’ve been gone since mid December 2019, it’s May of 2021. Everyone assumed you were gone. Then with Covid, we just assumed you were dead. There was so much pain and loss. Then your parents.” He trailed off. Before he continued, “After they passed away, I moved in with your sister. We’ve been a couple for six months now. We thought you were gone. Oh god. How are you back?”
“Sarah, you and Sarah? You hated her. She couldn’t stand you. What are you going on about? Mom and Dad can’t be dead. I just talked with them.” Emily’s eyes were wide, she was shaking her head. She was hoping this was all a dream.
Jeremy gave her a pained look. “Come on. Let’s go.” He glanced at his phone. “Your sister’s outside.”
The pair staggered outside, both in a daze. A relatively new BMW stood waiting outside for them. Sarah popped out and ran to Jeremy.
After a quick kiss she asked, “What’s this madness about Emmy?”
Jeremy’s eyes were mostly unfocused as he gestured towards Emily. Sarah looked at the woman next to him. Emily’s mouth hung open. Her eyes were filling with tears. Her face began to shatter into heart break.
“Emmy? Emmy! EMILY?! Is that really you?” Sarah cried. She wrapped her older sister in a firm hug. A rib creaking hug. Emily didn’t return the hug.
As soon as Sarah broke the hug, Emily collapsed into herself. She sat down on the curb, she began to sob. “You and Jeremy, how long?”
Sarah gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth, “Oh my god. We thought you were dead. It’s been about, November or so. We were just so alone. First his dad, then our parents. It was just, just too much to bear.”
Emily moaned, she started to cry hard. Her full body started to shake. “What” gasp, “year” sniff, “is it?” Emily finished with a terrified look.
Sarah looked at Jeremy. He looked exhausted, he responded to Sarah, “You need to tell her the truth.”
She looked back at her sister, “It’s May of 2021. You’ve been missing almost a year and a half. With all the other loss of the year. We were some of the first to grieve. 2020 was a brutal year.”
Sarah sank to her knees, “Where were you?” her voice was harder and angrier than she meant.
Emily shook her head, “Nowhere. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” She broke down sobbing.
Jeremy rubbed his face, “Let’s get her to the E.R. and go from there. We can at least get her a vaccine while we’re there, if nothing else.”
The Emergency Department was full of sick and injured people. Many wore paper masks, one or two angry people left the hospital before really entering. They had been refused for endangering others.
Emily stared about, her mask sitting on her face as if she’d never worn a mask. Her eyes were large and owl like. Taking in everything, rarely blinking, and with dilated pupils.
Sarah went with Emily as she was taken back by the nurse.
“So, tell me about what’s going on with your memory?” the nurse politely asked.
“No, it’s not a memory thing. I was literally in a Calc final. I felt myself start awake and I was in a strange class room. The students were terrified when I showed up.” Emily said, repeating exactly what she’d said to the admitting clerk.
Sarah quickly interjected, “She’s been missing for a year and a half. She disappeared from that final. We thought she was kidnapped. Or maybe died by suicide. She has a ‘cold’ missing persons case. We wanted to get her checked to make sure she was alright given what’s happening out in the world.”
The nurse nodded, “I’ll take her vitals and get some blood drawn. We’ll see if you’ve been drugged or anything. Ok?”
Emily nodded, doubtfully.
The nurse professionally wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Emily’s left arm and turned on the automatic pressure measurement machine. The nurse was typing in a chart when she heard one of the women gasp. She quickly turned her head when the cuff suddenly hit the floor.
The nurse turned to find the chair empty. Sarah was staring in horror at the chair. Sarah began to scream.