If I Lie : Book 2

81. The Morning After

A/N: We're in the 80's of the book now. I'm hoping for 8 more chapters before the end. Or less than that. 85 chapters would be great. We have come so far, it has been almost 5 years working on this book, or maybe six. Fuck, that is too long! You guys have been with me through it all, holy shit.  Also long chapter ahead! Without further ado--

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8 Hours Previously. . .

Eliza POV

They say laughter is the best medicine. Usually, they mean that when it is coming from yourself, my case proves to be different. Way different. There is no greater joy than hearing your partner's laugh, that is the stuff of life. That is medicine. There are all sorts of cures in these modern times we live in but none quite like Ashley. There won't be another cure again, not one so rare to come by. Her laugh wakes people up. It woke me. I had heard everything as she has been by my side in bed from start to finish and never did I hear a laugh. Not even a fake one. 

Call me greedy and selfish but I wanted more. One such as myself never denies themself the pleasure of taking what they want, even if it means fighting out of a coma tooth and nail. I won like I always do. There were things I wanted more, like not to be excluded from the conversation, from the talks about the baby on the way-- How could I miss out on our daughter being born? She would need one mother who wasn't completely mentally impaired by grief. She would learn to heal after she saw me wake up which is why it was all the more important that I tried to get out of this. 

Some may argue but being in a coma this entire time with no sense of what really happened in and out of human consciousness I was left with a few memories. Fanciful ones that seemed deluded, heavenly. One could call me crazy so I kept them to myself. This whole entire time lying dormant in my body I had only been able to compare the experience to sleep paralysis. I heard, felt, and even saw things vividly. I could argue that I'd gone to some place called "The Upper" but I was not entirely sure of it now, everything is a blur. 

So you could imagine when I dropped back down into a pinhole of darkness, leaving the shimmering starlights that once I dropped back down into my body I fell. I fell hard. Possibly even harder than I fell for Ashley and fuck me, did it hurt, coming back into consciousness almost immediately that my eyes opened from the impact and I could only reach out for her. My sense of abandonment and betrayal had come quickly when I realized there were cords down my throat, my first thoughts back beside my wife were that I was dying again, some strange alien had their fingers down my throat but I was certainly wrong about everything. 

I had sleep paralysis before. I remember the numbness and heaviness of a strange demon lying atop my chest and laughing, remembering the steps it took to shake free from the crossing mid-realm prison. When I was a child I'd wiggle one finger, a pinky. Wiggle a toe. Squeeze my eyes shut tight so they'd open and I'd done it now only to tremble a pointer finger, a middle finger and very slowly my thumb. My lips may well have never existed now, they were useless. The only good things about the choking cords were that my knowledge of the sensation of them gave way for me to use my voice, I became very much aware of my esophagus and screamed or moaned. I wasn't completely sure. 

I had been smacked by the blight of gleaming faux luminescence, my very weak eyes once open couldn't shy away from them, nor could they slant back down, only punished by more light. Every crystal of comatose slumber could be felt around the waterline of my eyes, the glare through my eyelashes was the only kindness to diffuse that blasted light.