Wake

Chapter 1

The ski mask upon his face hid most of his expression, but I heard the sorrow in his tone. "But...they said you could get it back. Your vision. It's possible."

"Sure," I replied, turning back towards the hospital. The doors were clear. "But tell me when I've ever been that lucky."

Vinny fell off into silence as I swept closer, taking a right turn and touring around the hospital's side. I eyed each one of the windows as I passed; most of them were black squares, lightless at this time of night. I tried to tune out the chirruping crickets, the cawing birds. The quieter it was, the less I was distracted.

Lucky for us, Lucie was on the top floor, according to her friend, Jiya. She'd been reluctant to tell me anything at all, really, as she blamed me for what happened to Lucie. She had every right to. Nick had only shot her to reach me, to break me, so when it came down to it, it was my fault. I'd lost nights and nights of sleep over it, but in the end, it didn't matter. She was going to wake up. If she didn't for herself, I was going to make her.

She wasn't allowed to leave me. Not like this.

We weren't allowed to see her, as only her family could. I'd told myself I would adhere to that at first, that I didn't deserve to see her after everything I'd done. And it was okay, for a while, until I realized it was killing me. It didn't matter if she couldn't respond; I just needed to lay eyes on her, to hold her hand, to talk to her for a while. I wasn't waiting any longer.

Vinny, of course, had tried to talk me out of it, because he saw rules as more like rules and less like suggestions.

But I...I didn't have a choice. I had to see her before I couldn't anymore.

We stayed low, near the fence that marked the hospital's edge off from the forest beside it. I kept watching, eyeing each window, and then I stopped.

Behind me, Vinny nearly crashed right into my back. I heard him curse under his breath as I said, "There. That one."

I pointed to distinguish a window at the top floor, as Jiya had said. There was one lamp on within it, not bright enough to turn the whole window yellow, yet enough to lend a corner of it a hazy glow. It was as Jiya had described it: a lamp, the shadow of a flower vase, top floor at the far right.

The question was how we were getting up there.

"That one?" gasped Vinny. "Alright, alright—what's your genius plan for this one, mister?"

I glanced at him over my shoulder. "I don't have one."


My little brother stared at me. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and then narrowed his eyes into a sort of leer. Vinny wasn't the type to leer at all, at anyone—so in a sense, the reaction was kind of rewarding. "You dragged me out here, made me wear this dumb mask, and you don't even have a plan?" he yelped. "Do I need to remind you that you don't have wings anymore? And I don't have abra-cadabra abilities, because, you know, I'm actually alive?"

"Abra-cadabra abilities?" I taunted. "You're just adopting that term now?"

"Shut up, Cian," he replied. "Seriously. That's the top floor. There's no way we're getting up there."

I sized it up. The hospital was more wide than it was tall, only going about five stories up, which wasn't a terribly unreasonable climb. I would be able to make it if I had both my eyes and some muscle—neither of which, I realized, I had anymore. I ran a tongue over the scar at my lips, turning and heading back for the hospital's entrance. "Change of plans," I announced, removing my ski mask.

Vinny fell into step beside me, pulling his own mask off and jamming it in the back pocket of his jeans. "We're going home?"

"Ha. No," I answered. "You're right: we can't get up there. Not from outside, anyway."