Retirement Restart - Part Three

For a moment I wonder if it had all been some strange nightmare, a stress dream born from my own anxieties about where my life was heading and my unemployment. However, those hopeful thoughts are vanquished as my eyes flutter open and I find my vision obscured by long blonde hair.

Weakly I begin to shift my hand to my face, hoping to shift some of the light-colored mass from my vision. However, as I try to lift my arms I find they simply continue to stay splayed out where they rest. Hissing under my breath I try to do something a little more manageable, inhaling deeply and huffing out the air straight into my face. While mostly ineffectual I manage to open up my vision a little more, revealing more of the room I found myself in.

The room itself appears to be rather small, though that may be due to the large number of boxes stacked around the space and making it feel far more cramped. Squinting at the cardboard I begin to make out some of the writing on each of them, immediately recognizing it as my own.

"These are some of mom's boxes" I think to myself, slowly twisting my head from side to side. As I struggle to move again I feel my fingers begin to twitch, soon followed by my hand and more and more feeling returns to my extremities.

Glancing around further I begin to take note of the style of the room, the light-colored wooden skirting which accents the beige to eggshell white walls. A small window sits just out of eyesight somewhere behind me as my feet point towards the only door I can see into the room.

As I begin to feel control of my body returning to me I rock a little against the hardwood floorboards, a shiver running down my spine as I feel just how cold it was beneath me.

"I'm...naked?" I think to myself, my eyes darting do to look at my new body for the first time.

However, rather than the nude form, I was expecting I'm met with the sight of numerous blankets piled on top of me and weighing me down. With a grunt I try to shift them off to little effect, whatever strength I had been left with not having fully returned. All I manage to get for my efforts is a loud creaking noise coming from the floorboards.

"Did you hear that?" a melodic voice calls out from somewhere beyond the door.

"What?" another responds, the sound of footsteps slowly drawing closer.

"I think he...I mean I think mom's awake" the first voice replies, sounding a little closer than before.

"Are you going to..." the second voice begins to ask before trailing off, obviously getting their answer as the footfalls grow closer and louder by the second.

Suddenly, the sound of a rattling door handle fills the room as the large varnished wooden door is pushed inwards and towards me. Light from outside begins to stream into the room, causing me to squint a little as my eyes begin to adjust to the new light source.

"Well...How do I look sweetie?" the melodic voice coos "though I suppose I shouldn't call you that anymore, that's more a name for me now...isn't it"

I'm forced to stare up at her from my position on the floor, my eyes darting over the young woman in the doorway. She couldn't be older than nineteen or twenty, her features a mixture of familiar and all-new traits. She is...