The city lights twinkled like shattered glass reflecting light.  Mystery lay in the darkness between the illuminations.  Gazing out my hospital window, I got lost in the potential of the city and all of its transformed promises that only night can produce. Oh, how I would rather be there than confined within these cold walls; walls that spur the memories I wish to never remember.  Sadly they are the haunting result of that late night two weeks ago; a night my whole life changed.

Pulling back from my daze, I noticed my unrecognizable reflection.  Skin stretched taught over my swollen left eye.  A railroad of stitches ran from the corner my mouth down to the middle of my throat.  “At least your alive” I whispered into the silence, but even as I said that I wondered if my face would ever look the same.