"Is she waking up?"
"Yes she is. And she can hear you. Laura, I know you can hear us. Can you open your eyes?"
I recognize these voices. But they seemed so far away...
"No, no. Stay with me Laura, concentrate on my voice alright? Arden do it now. Help her with the transition."
Alex? Arden? Help me with? What is he going to do?
"Yes! We're here! Open your eyes Laura, you can do it." Alex coaxed. I could feel his hand on mine.
I can't.. I'm tired Alex..
My mind was lethargically answering Alex when I felt another presence. Warmth enveloped my hands and I felt slightly less tired.
"Laura, I need you to listen to my voice okay? Follow what I say, now you need to relax your body." Arden started, as soon as I heard the words my body was relaxed. Like wow, I didn't realize how tense my body was.
"Now I want you to slowly open your eyes. Can you do that for me?" Arden began again.
I concentrated on my eyes, trying to crack open just one eyelid. But the moment I did, the bright light that hit my vision made me groan in response. I physically tried to turn over and away from whatever that was emitting the bright light. I just want to sleep.
"Laura don't go to sleep. Stay with me okay. Annalise turn off the lights!" Alex shouted, a click echoed in the room and the brightness was dimmed. There was a shuffle, and I felt a presence next to me despite my fading senses.
"Laura, you need to open your eyes sweetheart." Arden encouraged.
I tried opening my eyes again. This time the darkness was comforting to my eyes but it was blurry.
"Where am I?" I tried to say but my tongue felt like a rock in my mouth and as dry as sandpaper.
"Now isn't the time for questions. How are you feeling?" Alex said seriously.
What is he going on about? I've never seen him being so serious.
"Sorry for being too serious." He cracked a smile. And all I could do was stare at him. How did he know what I'm thinking? My head pounded with questions as I felt the rush of blood flow and I closed my eyes to get rid of the dizziness.
"You're fine now. Look, we're even holding hands." He grinned, holding up our connected hands.
That doesn't make any sense.
"Laura dear. There's.." she walked over to me, "going to be a lot to take in. I know you have questions. But I need you to rest. W have lots of time to talk." She smiled and patted my hand then turned on her heels and was out the door, I looked over at Alex who nodded in agreement.
Where's Arden?
"Oh don't worry about him. He was the most worried about you. We barely managed to convince him to take a rest. He will be back later."
"Rest Laura, I'm serious. You lost a lot of blood and stop thinking. You're going to give us all a heart attack." He scolded when I was about to think about what had happened.
I shrugged and made myself as comfortable I could. Which wasn't all that hard given that the bed felt like a big fluffy cloud.
"Wa-water." I said hoarsely and it was as though a light bulb lit up above his head. His face turned to one of horror before he started apologizing and was out the door. My head was starting to pound again yet I couldn't remember much.
Kara came over to our table during lunch today...
Oh my gosh
Arden and Alex and the heirs of Castel.
I just asked the heir of Castel to fetch me a glass of water.
"Why do you look green? Oh no, are you feeling unwell?" Alex's face turned to one of worry. "Do you need Annalise? I can go get her." He was about to turn and leave but I grabbed his hand effectively stopping him.
"Hmmm..." His face turned thoughtful then he let out a chuckle. "So you do remember some stuff?" I nodded as he sat down and handed me the glass. The cool water was a blessing to my parched throat. I quickly gulped it down and was almost immediately sleepy.
"Sleep, we'll talk later." He kissed the top of my head and I yawned, swatting him away making him chuckle.
Sleeping was easy, the dreams that came hit hard.
"Daddy, what are those? Why does mummy have them?" A young me asked, my father was carrying me on his shoulders. It was as though I was viewing a memory in third person. I knew what I was asking about, the numbers of death. Dad didn't have any numbers, but mum did. My dad was shocked at what I asked and made me promise never to tell anyone about it, especially to my mum. But how would a five-year-old know, when her mother was supposed to be her world?
The scene changed, in front of me was the dead body that Arden and I saw. He was not so dead right now, his neck turned abruptly a sharp crack resounding in my ears. He sniffed at the air and turned to look at me, giving out a shrill scream and started crawling towards me at a high speed despite his arms and legs being contorted. His eyes were no longer that of a human. There was no pupil, two milky white spaces replaced them. He opened his mouth and I lifted up my arms to shield myself.
"Laura, wake up!" My eyes burst open scanning the area frantically for the dead body before landing on the brothers. Alex had his hand on me again and his face was grim, Arden's was a face full of worry before he pulled me into a hug.
"It's okay, you're safe, you're safe." He rubbed my bag as I grabbed him needing to feel some form of warmth, I couldn't stop my body from shaking. It was all too real, the dream was too real.
It must have been a good hour before I calmed down, Arden still had his arms around me while Alex had left the room. Annalise was nowhere in sight either.
"Laura, can you remember what happened?" He asked and I nodded.
"Okay, I'm letting you go now alright? I'll go get Annalise and Alex, you stay awake and don't fall asleep again. You have slept more than enough." I stuck my tongue out at him and he chuckled.
Once Alex and Annalise came into the room, Arden took his place next to me pulling me into his arms. I have never been this close to another guy, aside from Soren but Soren is like a brother I never had and even then, I never had goosebumps.
"You cold?" Arden whispered into my ear making me shiver but I nodded. He looked around until he saw the blanket and reached out for it and wrapped us in the warm cocoon.
********
"I remember that I was glowing like fairy lights when you touched me while I had an attack. And usually, when people touch me while I have an attack I get overwhelmed and start having nosebleeds. But the opposite happened when you touched me. All the pain went away but when I looked into your eyes, it felt like a rubber band snapping and I felt the pain ten-fold." I looked at Arden while I spoke, all their faces were grim.
"Laura, do you believe in immortals?" Alex asked, breaking the silence that wore on. Annalise turned to him, eyebrow slightly raised, Arden made a move to go over to him but Annalise held him down with a stare.
"Uhm, I guess it's kind of ridiculous to have immortals running around on Earth? I mean if they're real why haven't we seen any immortals? Right?" I laughed nervously.
"No need to be afraid child," Annalise placed her hand on mine, "relax." She smiled at me, her smile was on a fine line between creepy and comforting and I didn't know what to do. I stared at her hand and back at her.
"What do you mean? I don't understand. What is going on?" I could feel myself unravelling, the hint of panic that comes just before an attack. Arden's hand came up to my eyes gently putting my head on his shoulder while the coldness calmed me down.
"Relax." He ordered softly, and the panic started to subside. He uncovered my eyes and I stared up at the ceiling.
"What did you do? I'm still worried but.." I murmured, "it feels as though they were shoved into a box." I finished and Alex let out a bark of laughter, causing me to jump in my seat.
"I like her brother." He winked at Arden, then turning to me, "Laura, I need you to listen to what I have to say with not just an open mind, but an open heart as well. Can you do that for me?" Alex begins, I nodded and he continued with two words that very nearly stopped my breathing.
"We're Immortals."