Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 11 Dreams pt.3

Ava ran out of there, this time like she knew exactly how to get out, went straight home and swallowed her pills without thinking and sat there on the bed. She didn't really think about anything at all. She fell into a sort of trance. She didn't have it in her to think about if she was crazy this time, or to worry about what she'd seen, or contemplate what had happened with him, if it was even real. She could only feel it in her chest, and her mind was gone.

When she opened them again, only the light of the moon shone. And a voice again. This time it was singing. A little girl singing. Ava rose out of bed, her hearing adjusting to it. She went out of the room to follow it. She followed it through the house quietly, attentively, until it was gone, and went back to lie down.

Ava had heard the girl's voice singing before when she was a child. It had woken her from sleep. She tried to find her. Fearful, she'd jumped in her mom's bed to wake her. Eyes half-closed, her mother had hushed her. "It's okay, honey. It's only your soul trying to communicate with you. Come on. Get in bed with me. Get back to sleep." She moved over and lowered her head back in the pillow, like she'd never woken up at all. Ava had curled up next to her, too terrified to fall back asleep and too curious to forget. When Ava asked about it the next day, her mother said that she hadn't said a thing like that; it was only a dream. Of course.

***

There was water dripping somewhere.

Ava opened her eyes and sweat dripped down into them, the bed moist beneath her where she lay. "You have a fever, baby doll," her mother said as she set the ice-cold cloth on Ava's forehead. "You're delirious."

"Ma?" Water touched behind Ava's eyes — her lashes hadn't felt tears for so many years — she pulled it back in.

She turned incoherently to the single candle flame by the bed and around the dark room where its light barely lingered, wanting to be warmed by a fire; she was too cold. Then her eyelids rose in alarm, the fog lifted from her, and Jason was sitting by her, back at the abandoned automobile shop.

"Your mom's not here. It's only me," he told her quietly and continued wiping the sweat from her forehead — Ava's arm swung up to knock his hand away as she sprung to sit up.

"Please don't do this." He looked at her tiredly.

Just then, the white bandage around her raised hand came into view, and she jolted up onto the bed like a cat ready to pounce. He stood from the chair.

"How'd I get this? How'd I get in this bed? What happened?" Her head was foggy, she couldn't straighten her thoughts. It felt like there was something she needed to remember but couldn't. Somewhere she needed to be but wasn't. She needed, needed... "I gotta get outta here."

"Relax." His arms reached out to bind her, and she leaped off the bed away from him and sprinted for the door. He jumped in front of her with his hands out.

"Get out of my way. I gotta go," she said, her breath quickening.

"Go where?"

Her mouth came apart, and she looked around the room. Then out the window. "I don't know..."

"Look at me." Jason's hands were still out as he inched closer, but she didn't look at him. Her view stayed out the window, and she turned towards it, drifting away from him. His hand caught her shoulder and the other her chin, turning her back to him carefully. "Hey... Come back to me."

She came back to him, searching.... "What happened?"

"Your crazy ass started a fire downtown." His breath was calm — trained. "You got burned, passed out from smoke inhalation. I found you in time and took you home before anyone could connect it to you."

She couldn't remember.

"You woke up in the car and flipped... Got us into an accident. Your head hit the dashboard..." Jason grimaced. "You have a fever, and you're talking crazy shit now, Ava." He shook his head as if he didn't know what to do with her, but wanted to laugh in spite of it all. "You're flipping, alright? But you're back... with me." That was the real reason he wanted to smile.

"It feels like I lost too much."

His hands moved down her arms, down to her hands, and he closed his around hers. "You lost a little time, baby. But only a day. It ain't nothing we can't make up — and shit, do even better." He took a step closer, and only part of his cheek rose into a smile, but the desperation was clear in his pretty eyes.

The only thing keeping her from surrendering to the fog sweeping at the forefront of her mind was the sharp sensation still cutting away at her. It was screaming for air, and no one was listening so it gashed at her insides. She was being ripped apart.

It faded further to the back the more elated Jason became, and she was thankful for the growing pain relief, but it felt as if she was slipping into an empty void — she couldn't stand the numbness any longer. Not now.

As Ava's eyes finally met with his, her brows came down — tight — and Jason groaned.

She shook his hands off — "No" — and pushed him out of her way quickly and as hard as she could, sending him skating back on his heels, and went for the door again. If she would've been in a better mood, she would have laughed at that sight all the way down the hallway.

But there was a lock on the door, newly installed — there were still wood shavings on the floor — and unfortunately, Jason was one of the few people as fast as she was. His arm was around her waist carrying her back, attaching her to his hip like she was a football. Her arms and legs thrashed around like a wild animal, and her elbow came down on his head. Hard.

This sent a glimmer of clarity through her because it had made such a loud noise she was worried she'd gone too far this time and really hurt him. Her limbs almost lost their strength, but he was in her way, and she had to go.

Swinging her around to face him, he grabbed her arms to stop her from tearing him up and knocking his face in.

"Stop!" he hollered, the voice his deepest, but his eyes didn't show his anger; they showed pain. They only deepened as she hollered back at him, unfiltered, unyielding, her voice going hoarse, no one listening. They were screaming at each other and tossing each other until their throats were dry and their muscles, tiring, were pulling them closer to the ground. She tasted blood in her mouth. Her hair was wet and sticking to her face. Purple was beginning to show under his eye and blood glistened under his nose.

It was like she was possessed with this new thing inside of her she couldn't understand. Couldn't he see that? Could he see how desperate she was?

She had gotten away from him and ran into the bathroom — but when Ava looked around, she wasn't in the bathroom — she was back in the lake house and had just run into her bedroom — from out of the memory of just before the bathroom hallucination.

Oh God. She grabbed her head. "I'm going farther into crazy town."