Crumbling Time

Crumbling Time (Chap. 11)

11. Bad Dream

"Cam?" I waved my hand in front of his face, but there was no response. I tried to unfreeze time.

Nothing.

I tried to freeze time, just in case that wasn't the problem. But even then there was no change. I then tried to shake Cam, but he just fell down backwards, frozen stiff. His eyes stared out blankly.

"What is going on?" I cried.

I looked around me, but everything was frozen. Except me. No cars were moving; people were stopped halfway in step. Everything was just...quiet, and...frozen. Not normal.

"Hello!" I shouted. "Can anyone hear me? What is happening?"

Oh no. Time couldn't have permanently frozen, could it? I couldn't be stuck in a frozen world for the rest of my life. That just wasn't physically possible. Was it? No. No way.

No. Freaking. Way.

I knelt down beside Cam's stiff form, taking comfort just in his body being there. I looked around me again, just to be sure I wasn't the only one mobile-I wasn't in the mood for someone to pop out of nowhere and say that it was all a joke. I knew it wasn't. During my check, I noticed a woman that seemed very familiar. I stroked Cam's still hand once before standing up and approaching the woman.

She was identical to me, except the eyes. I noticed a man standing beside her. He didn't look at all like me, except his eyes were identical to mine.

"What's happened to me?" I asked him desperately.

I woke with a start, bolting up so I was sitting up. I was covered in sweat, and so were the sheets.

Sheets: I was at a motel. I was starting to remember everything and focus. Cam and I had decided to sleep comfortably since we were so close to Carnell Laboratories. We went to the first motel we had seen and got a room. It had been pretty late when we got there, because it had taken us a while to find an exit that actually had a motel. We had shared the bed, no hesitation from either of us.

Now that everything was back in focus, so was my headache. The pounding was now way worse than it had been the day we had left-or any other day to be exact. I couldn't stand it. I hit my forehead with the heels of my hands. Obviously, that didn't do anything, good or bad. I flipped over onto my stomach and buried my face in the damp pillow. I screamed as loud as I could-beating up the other pillow with my fist. I desperately wished it was Carnell's head and I was giving him massive brain damage. That was the least he deserved-but the pillow didn't do much for sound absorption, from what I could tell.

"Lexie!" I heard beneath my screaming.

I didn't understand what was happening as my body turned over-against my own accord-and my face was suddenly pressed against something much harder. But that wasn't any more helpful. I could still hear a noise, a heartbeat-and not even a steady one at that.

I roughly shoved Cam away, not even giving a thought to what I was doing, squeezing my eyes closed tight against the excruciating pain. I doubled over, pressing my knuckles hard against my forehead and in turn pressing my knees against my hands with even more strength.

I could feel the pain of my knuckles pushing harder into my head and skull, but I preferred that pain to the migraine-headache-whatever.

"Lexie, it's okay," Cam said shakily, pushing my hair behind my ears and taking my face away from my hands. "Sssh, it'll be alright." He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned his forehead against mine. He stroked my hair and kissed my forehead. "Oh, Lexie."