The Deathless Trilogy

2.19. Nightmare

Celia and I step away from the grate and pull ourselves back up the elevator. We slide the board back into place in the closet and sneak out. Celia stops in front of the mirror long enough to fix her hair, but gets distracted by her lipstick. She wipes the smudged colors on the back of her hand, and turns to me. "It'll be awhile before Daniel and Mitchell get back. Do you want to hang out?"

I think about it, and even though I'd actually enjoy that now, I yawn. My sleep schedule, or lack thereof, must have finally caught up to me.

"I'd like to," I say, "but I didn't get any sleep last night, and I am really tired."

"Oh, it's okay. I should probably wait for Mitchell to get back, anyway, you know so I can check on Nate's files." She shrugs, and starts for the door.

"You know what, though?" I ask, and she stops. "You could come back to my room and take a nap with me. Would that be too boring?"

She smiles and shakes her head. "No, it wouldn't be boring. We could do that."

I cross the room and grab her hand in mine. "C'mon, Celia, let's go take a nap. Like old ladies."

She laughs, and follows me out of the bathroom and back to room 6.

When I open the door, I find Jane on all fours, viciously scrubbing the floor. I look to Celia who shrugs, and we close the door behind us. I rush to Jane's side, and Celia perches on the bed.

"Jane, please, stop."

She coughs, and a few specks of blood spray the rug. Jane bursts into tears.

I pull her up to face me. "Jane, calm down. What's going on?"

"I'm dying," she cries, "I started cleaning the rug, but then I coughed, and blood went everywhere, so I tried to clean that up, but I coughed again, and it just kept happening, and now I'm sure I'm dying. It's over, Isla, there's no time left. This was my life. I was cheated. I was cheated out of a real life. I should be married by now, with kids, and a nice picket fence, and a job, I wanted to be a lawyer, I would have been so rich." She falls into her hands on the floor. "And now I'm dying."

"No, no you're not, we're getting medicine for you."

She smears the tears from her cheeks. "Thank you for trying to help, Isla." She takes a deep breath to calm herself down. "I'd rather busy myself. When I'm busy, I can't think about how much I hate my life. Is there anything else you'll need today?"

I look up at Celia, whose eyes are wide with worry. "Celia and I are going to take a nap while the boys are still out. Want to stay with us? We've had a terrible morning, but maybe if you were here, you could help us calm down."

She nods, and gestures to the bed. Celia and I lie down and she pulls the covers over us, before crawling between us and sitting against the headboard. I roll onto my side, and curl up on the edge of the bed. Jane's hand moves down my back to calm me to sleep.

I shut my eyes, and almost immediately drift away, but my mind greets me with screams and exploding bodies. "Jane?" I ask, coming back to reality.

"Yes?"

"Could you talk us to sleep?"

"You want to hear a story?"

"Friends share stories," Celia adds from the other side of the bed, and I smile. Jane starts to rub our backs, and I close my eyes.

"Once upon a time," she starts, "there was a girl named Jane Rosen. She lived in a beautiful blue house in Arlington with her adopted parents," and as she speaks, her life plays in my head, like a puppet show, "They lived a very happy life together. After she came home from school each day, Jane liked to play in the yard with her dog, Bruno. She liked to dance ballet, and read mystery books. As she grew up, she learned more and more about what she wanted from her life, until finally she made a plan: She graduated from high school and went to a nearby college for Law. She spent weekends with her parents, and they liked to take her to the ballet. After her freshmen year of college, Jane spent the summer teaching ballet classes at a children's school in DC. She had the most perfect life, and didn't focus on boys or drinking or partying, because she knew she'd have time for that later. But one day, when she was at work, the sirens started blaring, and everyone had to evacuate. Once Jane was outside, she saw the cloud of fire and smoke rising above her. She ran, her and the other teachers and all of their students, a bunch of ballerinas escaping into the metro tunnels, racing against the bomb."