Final Truth

Chapter 38: I Don't Sleep Anymore

Julia's point of view:

Another day, another failed test, another visit with Peter that made me wonder if the old him ever even existed before the monster took him.

Felicity does everything she can to help, begging me to please tell her what's happening so I don't keep everything inside.

And most of the time I do as she asks, glad to get it all out and expressing my deepest, darkest fears to someone who now knows more about me than anyone in the world.

But tonight when I finally get back to my prison cell, I shoot Felicity one look that says I won't be speaking for the rest of the night.

Thankfully, instead of taking offense, she shows me a look of understanding and leaves me be.

I pick a spot in the middle of the floor of my cell and lay down, lying flat on my back with the ground as my pillow. I exhale heavily and watch the tendrils of my breath rise to the ceiling, the cold barely noticeable to me anymore.

My body begins to slump in fatigue, eyes starting to droop with exhaustion as the full force of today finally takes its toll.

Oh how I want sleep to take me. I haven't slept in days. Please God, let me sleep tonight.

***************************

I dreamt of being in a dust storm.

For a split second I was home, and everything was okay, but then there was a loud crash and the storm started.

The air was nothing but swirling fragments of dust and glass, making a burning beeline down my esophagus to settle in my lungs. It surrounded me completely, caking on my clothes and in my hair and stealing my sight.

In a blind daze, I tripped over my own feet and fell to the ground, landing on what felt like a pile of stones. I started to heave from the lack of air, wondering when it would end.

But then as quickly as the storm came, it vanished. I could see again, although at that point I wish I couldn't.

The dust cleared and left nothing but rubble and debris in its place, the entire scene looking like a war-zone.

Among the destruction stood my friends, all of them in different forms of injuries.

Susan was haunched over in some kind of terrible pain, one hand on her back and the other fumbling to keep her crooked glasses on her face.

Kyle stood next to her, his entire body looking broken, but yet he stood, his face ashen and his eyes still. He didn't breathe.

Adam was perhaps the worst, a bullet hole in stomach and various pieces of glass sticking out of him. His red hair was a mess and he was slightly swaying back and forth, ready to collapse. He looked absolutely helpless, which is the last word I would ever use to describe him.

Cassia was the only one who seemed able to move, for she hobbled over to me and put her hands on my shoulders, shaking me in a hysterical fit.

"You have to help us!" She cried, her blonde hair practically brown from all the dust and her once pristine doctor's coat absolutely soiled in her own blood and various pieces of debris.

"How?!" I reply, shaken by her outburst.

"Help us!" She cried again, her blue eyes flashing with fear.

"Cassia, you have to calm down. How do I help you?" I pleaded with her, wishing for her to see reason.

But before she could say anything else, my surroundings disintegrated and transported me back to the lab that I seem to be in more and more often.

And instead of Cassia's hands on my shoulders, they were Peter's at that point.

He looked at me for the first time with eyes that belonged to him, spoke to me in a voice that belonged to him, and held me with hands that belonged to him.

But he was afraid; there was fear in his demeanor as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Help me."

**********************

I wake up with a strangled gasp, fumbling to put my hands on my shoulders to be sure that it was just a dream.

And sure enough, it was.

His hands weren't there.

I knew there was a reason why I didn't sleep anymore.

"Are you alright, Jules?" Felicity asks me, and I truly have no idea how to answer her.

My dreams have a habit of coming true in one way or another, which makes me more fearful than ever:

On the bright side, my dream seems to tell me that against every impossible odd, it seems that some minuscule part of Peter is still left.

However, I also know now that something terrible has happened back home, something Henley didn't tell me.

This time, my friends truly could be dead.