Strangeland

Chapter 17 - Question Everything

"Shh! She's sleeping!"

"Did she just faint?"

"She's just stressed. She's worried about this whole thing."

"Do we need to take her to the hospital?"

"No. She only needs rest."

That's what I heard when I came to. Wait, did I faint? I've never fainted before! I didn't even fall asleep or anything like that. I just started to yell then fall then... Poof.

I felt myself being lifted off the ground. "I'm gonna take her upstairs. It will be better if she doesn't sleep on the couch." I heard Billie say. Thank God.

He brushed my hair out of my face with a swift move of his fingers, then started to walk up the stairs. He turned on the light as he entered my room, and pulled the covers down. He set me down on my bed and pulled the covers back over me. Billie kissed me on the forehead then started to walk away. He turned off the light and I heard him stop. Before he could close the door, I thought it was the perfect time for an apology. I opened my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Billie," I whispered.

He turned around and kept the door ajar. "What for?" Billie asked as he walked to my bed. He sat down next to me, and grabbed my hand, rubbing circles with his thumb.

"Just shouting and causing you guys all of this pain,"

"Hey, no Eli you haven't caused us any pain. It's just Joey's really worried that you'll get taken again, and the rest of us are so happy for you to be here,"

"But Joey keeps saying-"

"It's etched into his mind that he was the blame for everything and for your disappearance. He keeps thinking that you actually died and that you'll never come back. Joey's missed you so, so much, and he's just got to try and figure out how he'll overcome what has happened."

There was silence. I didn't say anything, I just decided to take it all in.

"What happened when you told Adie, Jakob, and Joey that I was alive?" I asked in a small voice.

Billie breathed out. "Well," he started, "Adie and I were in denial, not so much Adie though, but she was in bigger hysterics than me. She was scared that it wasn't true. She was so sad that she couldn't be there with me to see you, since it was the last day of tour and that I would have literally come home the day after.

"Then Jakob was thrilled but same as your mother, he was worried if it was fake, and if he was getting excited and anxious for nothing. And Joey, well, he apparently left the house and went for a walk, by what Adie told me. He then came back home and didn't sleep that night. Jakob could hear him mumbling when he did eventually get to sleep one hour before he had to wake up. He kept saying: 'it's not true, she not real. She's fake!'"

I breathed out and looked at the ceiling. "I'm so, so sorry!" I cried. "I didn't mean to do this! I should just go back home and-"

"Your real family is here, Eliana, in Oakland, California. You just have to remember us for who we were, not some people on a computer screen," Billie told me softly. "I know you're not comfortable with calling Adie and I your "Mum and Dad" and Joey and Jakob your "brothers", but I know in time you'll call us that. There's no rush, at all. You can talk to us about it, and if you really need it, we will get you a psychologist."