the well- trixya

ten

Katya was pulled from her slumber by the sound of panicked voices and beeping machines. The sounds were not coming from around her, they were coming from the room beside hers. Trixie's room.

Katya had been told to stay overnight by the doctors, and her mother had headed home sometime around ten. She had a job to attend to, after all. Katya didn't mind. She was seventeen; old enough to care for herself for a night. But as she heard the continuous noise of the machine in Trixie's room, she was pulled to a very vulnerable state, and she would've given anything to have had her mother stroking her hair and distracting her.

Trixie was crashing. The doctors tried to revive her for the second time that night. She has crashed once before, and the doctors were not sure what to do. Her mother had been waiting in the room, watching as Trixie slipped between semi-consciousness and nearly comatose. Her heart had stopped beating for the second time now.

After what felt like a lifetime, but was only maybe a minute, the doctors were able to bring Trixie back to life. They then dove into a deep conversation with her mother about what to do next.

Katya was crashing herself. Not physically, but emotionally and mentally. Trixie was dying. Her injuries weren't that severe, but something about the way the universe had folded its cards lead to her barely surviving. Katya couldn't fathom it. She could not fathom the possibility of losing another lover. Another girlfriend, basically. She vowed, laying on that bed, that if Trixie didn't make it, she wouldn't either. Too much of her heart was attached her to the girl who was grasping to life in the room next door. If Trixie left, she would take all of Katya's love with her. And Katya was okay with that.

☆彡

Katya was woken up the next morning by her mother and therapist entering the room.

"Good morning, sweetheart," her mother cooed. She leaned down to kiss Katya's forehead. "I've brought you a guest."

"Hey, Kat. Long time no see," her therapist, Fame, said.

"I'll leave you two to chat for a while so I can talk to the doctors," Mrs. Zamolodchikova said. And with that, Katya was left with her therapist.

They talked about how things were before the crash. Katya recounted the moments of bliss with Trixie. When they were tangled up in laughter, when they were in the car together, when they kissed. When Katya thought she was falling in love.

"And then?" Her therapist asked.

"And then everything stopped. It's like time froze and hasn't unfrozen."

That was true. Trixie's life had brutally been put on pause, and Katya wasn't sure how to go on living her own. She told Trixie everything. They relied on one another for support and counseling and happiness. They had grown to be apart of one inseparable organism. They worked together like a well-oiled machine. And now they weren't. Now half of Katya's parts didn't work anymore and half of her couldn't function. She felt like half a girl.

Fame frowned. "Does this feel like Dela?"

Katya paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "Yes and no," she said. "Yes because it's like I've lost someone so dear to me. It's like my best friend was ripped away again. But no because with Dela, you never knew what to expect. I never knew when she would be kind and amicable or when she would be evil and manipulative. I never knew what was coming. With Trixie, I always know what's coming. I know that she'll always make me laugh and that she makes me feel like the prettiest girl in the world. I know she'll be kind, because all she has wanted for so long has been kindness, too. I love her. I loved Dela, but Trixie is different."

"How is she different?"

"Because," Katya began, "I think she's my soulmate."

A moment of silence hung in the air like a thin sheet of glass. Both of them too nervous to speak in fear of it shattering everywhere. Katya tried to think and collect herself, but there wasn't a thought left in her brain. Instead of the normal racing of her constant anxiety, there was nothing. Peace. Tranquility. Silence.

"Have you seen her?" Fame asked.

Katya shook her head. Trixie's mother hadn't wanted Katya to be able to see her, but she wasn't here now. And god knows Katya had been dying to see her.

Fame pushed Katya's wheelchair into Trixie's room. Katya's heart fell into her stomach at the sight of her pink-haired girl.

Simply put, Trixie looked awful. Her skin was bruised in different locations and she was hooked up to about a thousand different machines. She looked awfully peaceful, though. Katya didn't expect that. She wasn't sure what she did expect, but it certainly wasn't this.

As Fame pushed her right beside the bed, Katya let a few tears fall from her eyes. She reached out to grab Trixie's hand and was shocked by the cool surface. Juxtaposed to her normal warmth, it took Katya by surprise.

"She's beautiful, Kat," Fame whispered. Katya then realized that, although she had described the girl fervidly, her therapist had never actually seen her before.

"She's usually even prettier," Katya said, choking on the last word. Sobs fell from her lips brokenly as she heard her tears fall against the sheets on Trixie's bed. She couldn't hold it together anymore. She wanted her love, but Trixie was nowhere to be found. All that was left was an outline. An allusion to what Katya used to have.

Fame pulled Katya back to her room and helped her into bed. Once she was seated, she began sobbing even harder. Her mother came inside and held her daughter, who had been through more pain and heartbreak than she could ever imagine.

Katya eventually calmed down, her body too weak to produce more tears. Her mother sat beside her, stroking her hand and hair.

"You can go home tonight if you're up to it, but you can stay here for another night if you're having doubts."

"I can't leave here without Trixie," Katya blurted.

Her mother pulled her into a tight hug. Too tight. It was nearly suffocating.

"I know," she whispered into Katya's messy black hair. "I know. But you might need to."