11. Bad Dream
"Cam?" I waved my hand in front of his face, but there was no response. I tried to unfreeze time.
Nothing.
I tried to freeze time, just in case that wasn't the problem. But even then there was no change. I then tried to shake Cam, but he just fell down backwards, frozen stiff. His eyes stared out blankly.
"What is going on?" I cried.
I looked around me, but everything was frozen. Except me. No cars were moving; people were stopped halfway in step. Everything was just...quiet, and...frozen. Not normal.
"Hello!" I shouted. "Can anyone hear me? What is happening?"
Oh no. Time couldn't have permanently frozen, could it? I couldn't be stuck in a frozen world for the rest of my life. That just wasn't physically possible. Was it? No. No way.
No. Freaking. Way.
I knelt down beside Cam's stiff form, taking comfort just in his body being there. I looked around me again, just to be sure I wasn't the only one mobile-I wasn't in the mood for someone to pop out of nowhere and say that it was all a joke. I knew it wasn't. During my check, I noticed a woman that seemed very familiar. I stroked Cam's still hand once before standing up and approaching the woman.
She was identical to me, except the eyes. I noticed a man standing beside her. He didn't look at all like me, except his eyes were identical to mine.
"What's happened to me?" I asked him desperately.
I woke with a start, bolting up so I was sitting up. I was covered in sweat, and so were the sheets.
Sheets: I was at a motel. I was starting to remember everything and focus. Cam and I had decided to sleep comfortably since we were so close to Carnell Laboratories. We went to the first motel we had seen and got a room. It had been pretty late when we got there, because it had taken us a while to find an exit that actually had a motel. We had shared the bed, no hesitation from either of us.
Now that everything was back in focus, so was my headache. The pounding was now way worse than it had been the day we had left-or any other day to be exact. I couldn't stand it. I hit my forehead with the heels of my hands. Obviously, that didn't do anything, good or bad. I flipped over onto my stomach and buried my face in the damp pillow. I screamed as loud as I could-beating up the other pillow with my fist. I desperately wished it was Carnell's head and I was giving him massive brain damage. That was the least he deserved-but the pillow didn't do much for sound absorption, from what I could tell.
"Lexie!" I heard beneath my screaming.
I didn't understand what was happening as my body turned over-against my own accord-and my face was suddenly pressed against something much harder. But that wasn't any more helpful. I could still hear a noise, a heartbeat-and not even a steady one at that.
I roughly shoved Cam away, not even giving a thought to what I was doing, squeezing my eyes closed tight against the excruciating pain. I doubled over, pressing my knuckles hard against my forehead and in turn pressing my knees against my hands with even more strength.
I could feel the pain of my knuckles pushing harder into my head and skull, but I preferred that pain to the migraine-headache-whatever.
"Lexie, it's okay," Cam said shakily, pushing my hair behind my ears and taking my face away from my hands. "Sssh, it'll be alright." He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned his forehead against mine. He stroked my hair and kissed my forehead. "Oh, Lexie."
I broke down into unstoppable tears and pressed my face to his chest. I didn't want him to look at me. One of his arms hugged me and the other continued to stroke my hair. He kept kissing my hair too.
I didn't know how he could stand me.
"It's alright..." he assured. "This'll be over soon...I promise.... Sssh.... Oh, Lexie."
I gripped his shirt so tight I knew my knuckles had to be white. It felt like my fingers would break each other. But I was just thankful to have anything to distract me from the real pain.
"Where were you?" I whispered. "You weren't here."
"I'm sorry," Cam apologized. "I was getting food."
He was mistaken. I wasn't talking to him. I was talking to the couple in my dream.
I didn't remember much of what happened after that. It was all very blurry due to the noises and voices-my own-in my head crowding any sense of knowing. But I knew that Cam and I were in our same positions for a while. And once my breakdown was over, I was still against Cam's chest, keeping my ear pressed against his right shoulder.
"I'm so sorry," Cam whispered again.
I slipped my arms around his waist and hugged him. He hugged me back even tighter, which felt very comforting at the time.
"Maybe you...should take...a shower.... I know it...will freeze...and unfreeze...but you could...use-"
"Soap?" I interrupted, knowing that he just wanted me to get rid of my disgusting body odor.
He chuckled. "No, I...don't care...about that.... I just think...it might...kind of be...soothing for you."
I nodded. "Uh huh." I pulled away from him and sat up on my own.
Worry was spread across Cam's eyes. "No, seriously...that's what...I mean."
I shrugged and started to stand up from the bed, but wound up stumbling from weakness. But Cam caught me, grabbing my arms as he quickly leaped off the bed.
He brought me to his chest and wrapped one arm around my shoulders. Then he helped me stand up straight and led me to the bathroom. When he got the door open and I stepped inside, I reminded him that I needed my toiletry and shower stuff. He just nodded and ran out to the truck to get my backpack. When he got it to me I shooed him away and locked him out of the bathroom.
I already knew what taking a shower in my condition was like, given I had been going through that madness for a little over a week. It wasn't fun; that was for sure. The water would pause, then all of a sudden it would start hitting me again. It was...well, like it was turning on and off, just like everything else.
The only good thing was that this was the one sound I could deal with. The shower always blocked out any other noises around me, and I was okay with just hearing the sound of water. It still brought on my headache, but it wasn't nearly as bad as listening to a million different sounds at once turning on and off.
As I showered, I rested my forehead against the cold tile, holding back the strong urge to bang my head against it. All I needed was for Cam to hear and bust down the door, getting full view of my nude body.
Yeesh.
After I had cleaned myself off from head to toe, I got changed into a fresh pair of clothes and towel-dried my hair as best I could. Then I walked back out to the main room, which was also the bedroom.
Cam looked away from the television set and smiled cautiously, possibly worried about another breakdown. "Any better?"
I shrugged halfheartedly.
He opened his arms and I entered them, confused as to why he was doing this, but pushing any bad thoughts away with the hope that he just wanted to help and not objecting. I closed my eyes as I leaned my head on his shoulder. Then Cam lifted the blanket up to our necks.
"Um, Lex?" Cam said hesitantly. "I think...maybe we should..." he paused even longer, "give going...to the lab...another day."
I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "What?"
"Don't get mad," he said carefully, studying my face as he spoke. "But I think...you need...another day's rest."
I sighed. "I really...want to get...back to normal," I fought weakly.
"I know...and I want...you to, too.... But you're overwhelmed."
He was right-I didn't want to admit it-but he was right. My brain was ready to pop out of my head and the only way I was going to be in any condition to talk to a mad scientist was to be relaxed.
And to do that I had to rest.
I sighed again, in defeat. "Okay...but how...am I going to...get rid of my...headache?"
Cam held up one finger for me to give him a minute, and I waited patiently as he slid out of the bed. He went over to a small bag next to the door, I assumed where he had dropped it when he had heard my screaming, and rifled through it before finally taking out a small package.
"Here," Cam handed me the package. It was a bottle of Advil PM.
I smiled gratefully and took the box. I opened it and the actual bottle, tapping two pills into my hand.
"Careful," Cam warned.
I nodded. "I won't...take anymore...for a long time...if ever."
He nodded once, and I slid the pills down my throat.
"I can't believe...I'm taking sleep pills...after sleeping...the entire night...." I closed my eyes as the pills began to make their effect.
I felt a hand brush my hair out of my face as I slid farther beneath the covers. "We can continue...on the road...when you wake up.... Just rest for ...now as traffic...really roars."
I groaned happily in reply as I felt my conscious lose the fight against the pills.