Running • Iggy

Awoken

I would've thrown up my entire stomach and its lining if I had any food left in my stomach.

When I woke up, I shot upright, coughing and dry heaving for no reason in particular. I didn't feel sick, or even particularly feel the need to cough. My stomach ached at the feeling of trying to throw up something that wasn't there, and my vision was still clouded. I felt uncontrollably dizzy, like I was on a spinning boat. I thought I heard something, but over my own coughing and retching, I didn't hear it exactly until it was repeated a few minutes later.

"Hey, it's okay." Someone murmured, but it wasn't to me. "She's alive now, that's all that matters." It sounded like a female voice, and the soft crying sounded vaguely male. I groaned inwardly at my clouded vision. I wasn't the best at relying on my ears, especially when it sounded like someone was shaking a bottle inside my ears. "Max, her heart literally stopped!" The voice cried. Iggy? Wait, who's heart? I tried to blink the haze and black spots from my eyes with no success. Someone's hand was rubbing my back firmly but softly, shaking in the process. Fang?

"She's alive now. There's nothing else we can do, we're not bringing her to a hospital, she'll be fine." Max said sternly. "See? She's awake and she's sitting up. Disoriented, maybe, but fine." I blinked slowly. Did... my heart stop? I wondered, running a hand over my eyes. "Fang?" I murmured, shocked at how weak and small my voice sounded. "I-I'm here." Fang confirmed, his voice unusually shaky.

"I... don't know what's going on. I also can't... see much." I mumbled, rubbing at my eyes again. "We're at your mom's house, in the bedroom you and Iggy stayed at." Fang explained. "You.. you were fine one moment, the next you started basically bleeding out from your nose. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but I swear I have never seen a nose bleed that bad in my life, and I watched Iggy break his nose playing with Nudge." Fang shuddered.

"Then... You fell over. We thought great, she's passed out from hunger or exhaustion, so we carried you here. You were out for about half an hour when I jokingly checked your pulse, and..." His voice trailed off. "There was none. For about 40 seconds from what I counted. Possibly more, I... I thought you were gone. That was the longest 40 seconds of my life. Then... You gasped and your heart started speeding, and you sat up straight." During his explanation, my vision had finally cleared. I could see Iggy sitting on the floor, leaning against Max and crying softly. Max had been crying too, actually, they all had been from the looks of things.

"I died?" I asked quietly, shuddering slightly. Was that what the other reality was? Because I had entered it momentarily... was it that? Or was that just what I saw? Were the two even connected? I wasn't even sure I had the dream in the first place at this rate. I slowly turned my eyes to Fang. "I was in... an abyss. I couldn't speak, or move, or do anything but.. sit there. It wasn't cold, wasn't warm either. It was... just nothing. " I didn't know how far I wanted to go with telling him.

"I saw me as a kid, I guess. I... It's weird to say this, but I don't remember much." Something was pushing me to tell the truth, but I didn't allow myself. I refused... At least, not in front of the others. Maybe I would tell Fang. He was the one who knew about Iggy. He was the only one I had fully vented to. "Hey... Can we play ball later?" I muttered quietly. His expression hardened. We had come up with code phrases when we were younger, all of us had different ones for each other. The others forget them after a few days, but I remembered them all. I hoped maybe it would jog his memory, and it seemed to work.

"Sure, when the others are asleep." He nodded shortly. I found the strength to swing my legs over the side of the bed, so I was sitting next to Fang. When I stood up, everything in my body felt weak. I slowly walked over to Iggy and Max, dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around Iggy. He began to sob, hugging me tighter than I thought he could possibly do. "I'm sorry." I murmured, running my hand up and down his back soothingly. He shook his head, pressing his face into my hair. "D...Don't do it again you hear me?" He said through shaking sobs. I let out a small laugh and nodded. "I'll try not to, Igs."