Allen stirred and slowly tried to open his eyes. His head was hurt and he had a nasty headache. He groaned, touching his head. His lids felt heavy. The light was too bright and it hurt his eyes more. He looked around slowly to avoid the bright light. His head and neck was like being stabbed just by small movement.
Suddenly he heard a familiar voice repeating something to him a second time. As his eyes tried to adjust to the light, his ears tried to adjust to the sound.
“Allen? ” called the voice, struggling with tears. "Allen-honey."
Allen heard the soft voice again and it sounded like the voice of his mother. He slowly blinked and saw a small rough hand waving in front of him before the familiar face appeared in front of him. “M-mom?” Allen responded weakly. He could not believe his mother was here. He thought he would never see her again. He began crying and his mother held him tight.
“It’s ok. It’s ok,” Mrs Delun, Allen's mother, said soothingly. “You are safe now.”
“Mom,” Allen cried more and hugged his mother, ignoring the pain he felt in his entire body. “I miss you, mom.”

“I miss you too, Allen-honey,” said Mrs Delun, touching a hand to her son’s cheek. She touched his face, then his hair, her cool power soothing him. Tears started to fill her eyes. She took a handkerchief from her pocket and held it to her eyes. Her face was tearful. “It’s alright now, honey. You are back. You are back.”
“Y-yes, I’m back.” Allen closed his eyes and felt his muscles relax at the soothing gesture from his mother. Slowly, he pulled away from his mother and quickly wiped his tears. “Where am I? How did I get here?”
“Dom found you,” answered Mrs Delun. She put an arm around Allen's shoulders and spoke in a soothing, completely calm voice. “We are in hospital.”
“Dom?” asked Allen, thinking about what happened to him. He shook his head a few times. “No. Not Dom,” said Allen, which made his mother look so confused. He tried to explain but he could not remember anything. Nothing. Nothing came to his mind. He remembered he got lost in the woods but then everything went dark and he did not remember anything anymore.
Deep down, he felt like he was missing something. Forgot something important but could not tell what it is. “There’s. . .” Allen was trying hard. “There’s something. . . No, I think. . . There’s someone there.”
Mrs Delun nodded a few times. “Yes. Yes. There’s someone else there.”
Allen was surprised with the answer and somehow he was hoping for something. He felt nervous all of sudden. His mother looked at him and said, “I think his name is Kris. He works there.”
“No, no, no,” Allen mumbled with disappointment. Something was not right.
Mrs Delun put her hand on Allen's back and kept rubbing in circles. She tried to soothe him and said, “He and Dom found you in the woods.”
“No mom!” Allen insisted, still hoping to get a different answer. “There’s someone else there!”
“No honey,” Mrs Delun started to feel more worried about Allen. She did not know what to do or how she could help her child. “They found you alone in the woods, honey. If they didn’t find you, I don’t know what will happen now.”
After turning his head from right to left for some time, Allen sighed and looked down. “You don’t believe me,” said Allen before lying down and staring at the window.
“I know you must be tired. I’ll let you rest first.” Mrs Delun felt sad looking at his son looking away from her. She was obviously still unsure about the situation. She assumed he needed time to rest and recover. She checked her watch before covering Allen with the blanket. She placed a kiss on his forehead and said, “I’ll go get your dad. I’ll see if Dom is still here and could keep you company for a while.”
Allen nodded without looking at his mother as she left the room and lapsed into silence. Maybe his mother was right. He was so tired that he could hardly keep his eyes open.
The last thing he heard was the door opened again after his mother left and did not see who entered the room.