Chapter Four
The next morning, I slept in. I hadn’t intended to- I planned on going to see Tim again- but that didn’t happen, obviously.
When I finally did wake, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Karen bustled into my room from across the hall a few minutes later.
“Oh, you’re up now,” she stated. She passed me my breakfast before she ducked back across the hall and said something to someone who could only be Tim. Not long after, Tim limped in on crutches.
“Morning, Sleeping Beauty. I’ve been waiting forever for you to wake up so I could come see you,” he chuckled.
I grinned. He’d missed my morning visit and he’d come to me instead. I liked that.
“Morning, Tim. Did you miss me?”
He flipped his hand jokingly. “Yeah, like I’d miss a bad smell.” The sparkling of his eyes made my body tingle. “‘Course I did. It got lonely in there, all by myself. And you make good company.”
The compliment was sweet. He looked uncomfortable, standing there in the middle of the room, especially on crutches.
“You can come closer, you know. I won’t bite,” I teased, using the same joke he had on the second day. I patted the edge of my bed for him, which he seemed grateful for. He limped over and perched himself on the end, balancing his crutches beside him.
We talked about our families and hobbies and what we remembered about them. We didn’t remember anything new yet; we hadn’t actually touched. We spent maybe an hour like that, sharing memories that we hadn’t yet. Karen brought our lunch in and we ate in companionable silence.
Afterward we just sat there, studying each other. Tim was as striking as he had been that first day. As I noticed this, I became aware of his proximity and blushed.
“So, what did you dream of last night?” he asked. My blush began spreading and deepening at this question. I looked down at my lap, not wanting to answer.
“I dreamt the most amazing dream. It was of the most beautiful girl, and I dreamt she thought I was flawless.”
No shortage of those, I thought.
“I thought, and still think, that she and I were meant to be together; like soul mates. Do you know who she is?” I shook my head.
“Maybe this will help you think,” he said softly. He slid sidewards toward me and brushed my hair off my face. With one look into my eyes, he gave me an answer.
“You.”
He leaned over and held me to him, pressing his parted lips to mine. My heart faltered with the perfection of it. Well, it wasn’t perfect or anything like you’d see in a movie- we were in a hospital, I was in a bed, he was on crutches- but it had its own kind of beauty. The way he kissed me, it felt like we were made for each other; that he’d been waiting for me his whole life.
By the time it ended, I felt dizzy and faint. I thought it may just be from happiness and that it would pass, but it didn’t. It mounted and, when he pulled away from me, looking at me with nothing but bliss in his beautiful eyes, I fainted.
***
I lay face down on a stone floor, gasping for fresh air. The oxygen in the room was stale and poisonous. Every inch of my body was weak with pain. I was blinded by some foreign, viscous liquid that tasted of salt. Blood. My blood, oozing out of what had to be a deep gash on my forehead.
I heard footsteps, growing louder and louder as their owner drew near. I went to swipe the blood out of my eyes and I gave a sharp cry of pain. My arm was broken.
The sound of the footsteps ceased, and a shadow was cast over my face. I looked up timidly. I couldn’t see the face of the hooded figure before me, but I knew it wasn’t friendly.
I attempted to scramble to my feet, but it was in vain. My limbs were too weak, I had lost too much blood, and the man was too quick. He delivered a swift kick to my chest, leaving me winded on the ground.
“Leaving so soon?” purred the man.
A chill swept through my fifteen year old bones. His voice was hard to describe. I’d never heard anything quite like it. To human ears, it was the most beautiful sound- a gentle melody, a lilting lullaby, like wind through the trees on a cold night. But to me, it was painful to hear, like nails on a chalkboard.
“Feel free to stay as long as you wish,” he went on. “Pain is the only price you have to pay.”
With a flick of his wrist, he snapped both my legs, as though they were nothing more than mere twigs. I cried out in a mixture of pain and terror. Evil laughter surrounded me, filling my mind with sickening images before I blacked out again.
***
I woke with a jolt, screaming for Tim. I was covered head to toe in sweat, and I couldn’t shake the fear of the man in the dream watching me. I didn’t know what was happening. Well, I remembered everything as clear as day now, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to.
‘Tim!! TIM!!” I heaved myself awkwardly into the wheelchair. I knew it was against the rules to leave my room at this hour, but I didn’t care. I had to see Tim; I had to find out what was going on. He was the only one who could possibly understand; the only chance I had to understand it myself.
I winced a little as I settled myself into the chair, and then pushed myself out of the room and down the hall to Tim’s. He was already sitting up in bed, wide awake, as though he’d been expecting me.
He held out his hand to me and I took it. If I could’ve, I would’ve lifted myself up to hold him, but I couldn’t find the strength. He looked just as scared as I did, but he didn’t say anything, just rubbed the back of my hand, pressing it to his lips.
“Horrible nightmare,” I sighed, my heart still beating full speed ahead.
“Yeah, except I’m not sure that it was just a dream. In fact, I don’t think any of this is. I don’t know what’s real and what’s fiction. Something’s not right about this whole situation- look; I can pretty much guarantee that my dream was the same as yours. The guy in the hood attacking you in that smashed up room? That’s what I saw. It wasn’t just a dream- I mean, the visions; the fact that our amnesia went away when we--”
I cut off his rant by kissing him as deeply as I could. “It just doesn’t make sense,” he finished in a whisper.
“I know. I think the same. There’s something very real about this, even though it seems it couldn’t possibly be. We need to figure out what it is, and soon. But not tonight, we need to wrap our heads around it.” I leaned my head against his chest.
“I know,” he breathed heavily.
We sat in silence like that for a while more, him tracing circles on the back on my neck. “You know what?” he asked curiously. “Something good did come out of this.”
I sat up to look at him in disbelief. How could he possibly find anything good in a situation in which he lost his brother? “What?”
“This,” he whispered and kissed me.
I pulled him closer to me and kept kissing him. Man, I could get used to this!!
