Set in Ink

Chapter 16

I wake with a gasp as I realize that I'm falling. It's pitch black, and I can't see anything. I look around and throw my arms out to try to grab hold of something to stop myself from falling. I grab a hand, and I stop. I look up to see golden eyes and the outline of a person who appears to be kneeling over the edge of a large hole.

I would recognize those eyes anywhere. They belong to Vander. I'm thankful for him grabbing me. Where am I? I think. I look for something familiar, but all I am able to make out of the darkness are Vander and the hole that I'm in.

I try to think where I might be. The last thing I remember is taking some pain medicine after my speech therapy. Then I walked to my room and Vander was there. He left so I could sleep. I fell asleep right away. So how did we get here? Did he bring me here?

I'm about to ask Vander where we are, when suddenly begins to glow. I can see all of him now, I'm not quite sure why, but he looks like an angel. However, he has no halo or wings.

The light that shines off of him looks heavenly. His hair no longer portrays sadness, instead it seems to give off its own light, despite it's black color. It looks weightless, as if it defies gravity. Even though his hair is dark, I realize that it always looks very light. It ends in the slightest of curls, but they can't be considered curls, they're more or less waves. It appears to be as weightless as feathers. Now his eyes also seem to give off their own glow, the gold is more intense.

He is wearing a white loose v-neck t-shirt and loose jeans. I can see with the light that he gives off, that he isn't kneeling over the edge of the cliff, but standing in the middle of the hole. He isn't standing on anything, he's just floating there.

Why's he floating? I think, but before I have time to think of an answer he speaks.

"Addilyn needs to be saved again, how pathetic."

"Vander," I say his name as if it is a question. "I save you over and over again and you just keep getting into trouble don't you," he spat at me, his voice is venom. "Maybe it's time that I stop saving you," now he sounds like the words are painful. It sounds like there is love in his voice, but if there is he doesn't let it show in his expression. Then he lets go of my hand.

"Vander," I say, crying.

I see him turn away and walk onto solid ground. Then his light goes away, and I am left plummeting through the air. I hit the ground.

I sit up gasping for air. I am in the hospital again, there is a note on my bedside table that says "Therapist is ready for you." I get up and change into new clothes. Today I wear white skinny jeans and a black v-neck t-shirt, then I make my way to the speech therapy room.

I keep thinking about the dream. I know it wasn't important and it was just a dream. I have weird dreams all the time. There is nothing to be afraid of or worried about, but I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong.

I reach the door to the therapy room and I try to forget about the dream. I walk in and push it to the back of my mind, but I think about it periodically during the session.

By the time I leave the therapist today my throat is throbbing. I think it has been about three hours. I am able to recite the entire alphabet now. I'm very proud of myself. I didn't think recovery would be this hard, but now that I know it will be, I know I'm making a lot of progress. Everyone keeps telling me that I'm "recovering very quickly considering the severity of my injury, especially for a girl like me."

What is that supposed to mean? I think when people say that. Especially for a girl like me? Am I different from other girls? Do they think I'm weak. They don't know the first thing about me. They've never met me before. They can't judge what kind of girl I am. I always just smile and say "thank you" though. There isn't much I can do about it. I think it is meant to be more of a compliment than an insult anyway. I just find it a little hurtful, but I shouldn't.

After therapy the next day I can say any words that begin with an A. We didn't go through the entire A section of the dictionary, of course, but it's not like I lost all of my talking skills from before, I just had to ease back into it. The next twenty six days go by very quickly. We spend each day focusing on a different letter to start words with. Each day I can have a more and more normal conversation with Vander or Gramps. I have to write less and less words down.

By the end of the twenty sixth day it seems like it took no time at all to recover. Gramps says we are staying at the hospital for three more days, then we will go home. I'm surprised to hear that we are actually going back to our house, but apparently we are. We're bringing Vander with us. Gramps says that the government will forget about everything if we just go back to a regular life. I'm excited to go home and start living normally again.