woke. | II

hady

I heard what Daniel was saying, but I couldn't quite comprehend it. The words ran all over me, bleeding into my ears.

"Thanks for telling me," I said stiffly, fighting nauseous panic from bubbling up, "I'll give her a call."

I rang Alex, once, twice. Then I leapt out of bed and pounded on Cam's door.

"Jeez, Hads, is this going to be a thing from now on?"

The dam keeping me calm threatened to crack, my voice turning shrill under the pressure.

"We need to get to Alex's now."

He must've heard the urgency in my voice or something because he grabbed a shirt from the back of his door and started downstairs. I ran into my room and had a quick change and we were off, zooming towards Alexis' neighbourhood.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Daniel called me and said he thought he heard her scream for help when he was waking up." 

The car slowed noticeably, and he looked balefully at me. 

"Daniel thought." He said accusingly. "Hady-" 

I didn't give him a chance because I knew how the suspicion of eversleep hangs around its victims like a heavy cloud. Furthermore, he was newer to it than we were. There was no telling how much he believed, or remembered. 

"Before you think I'm being paranoid, how much do you remember from last night?" 

Cam sighed and shook his head, but he sped up. He probably doesn't remember a single thing, and honestly, I couldn't remember much either. Only something about a note - but that might be from another night, another lifetime. I didn't realize how worried I was until I tasted blood. I had chewed my lips bloody. As I thought about that, a wave of clarity swept my brain. 

I remembered Alexis remembering. I gasped. 

"What?" Cam asked, turning into a familiar street lined with palm trees. The modern little houses were set into two rows with clean lawns. "You look like a ghost." 

"I think... Alex's is getting worse." My voice was barely a whisper. 

"What does that even mean?" Cam asked, frustrated. 

"It means," I looked at him. "She might not wake up. It means the eversleep's got to her. It means she's as good as dead!" Right at that moment, he pulled up in front of her house.

"Stay here!" I ordered Cam as I caught sight of Mr. Ren. I flung the car door open and started yelling. 

"Uncle. Uncle Ren! Where's Alex?" 

"Eh? Oh, isn't she at school?" 

"No." I said defiantly, even though I wasn't sure. "I was supposed to pick her up!" I ended with a lie. 

"Oh..." He looked at his watch, "You girls are late." He said, unconvinced. "Let me open the door for you." His brows furrowed and I understood his annoyance. Alex was never late. She was the most punctual person you'd ever meet. It wasn't like her to sleep in at all - which was probably what her father thought she was doing. 

"Thank you!" I gushed and rushed in while Cam waited in the car. I thundered up her steps and burst into her room. She was stark white against her black sheets, the black walls, curtains. Everything, black. It made her look like she was already gone. 

"Alex!" I screamed, jumping on her and gathering her head into my arms. Christ! She was cold. Not freezing, but colder than she should be. "Alex!" I began slapping her left cheek, softly at first, then harder and faster. 

"Wake up, wake up! Wake UP! Alex!" Tears spilt out of my eyes despite my efforts of holding them back. She couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. I placed my hand on her chest, trying to feel a beat. There! I thought I felt something. The faintest thudding. 

I hoisted her up into a sitting position, using my body to hold her up and I thumped on her back. "C'mon, Alex. Come on, wake up." 

I shook her, watching her head loll from side to side. "Please, Alex, please!" I sobbed, hugging her tight to me. My mind scrambled for the next course of action. Should I have her committed? Strung up with cables and monitors, or would she have preferred to be let go? 

NO! This was Alex. If she could live, she would. Her name is synonymous with fighter. She was still a fighter! I ripped her from my shoulder and stared hard at her. "Alex... I know you can hear me and you are NOT going to be taken by the eversleep. Not on my watch. Now fucking wake up!"

Nothing. Not even a twitch. I set her gently down on the bed and with trembling fingers, I dialed the only person I knew who could help. 

"Daniel?" I said with a weight on my throat, "Alex... Alex is not waking up." A sob escaped me. "I-I, is there anything you can do?" 

It was desperation that drove me to asking Daniel Everleigh for help. The cost of hooking anyone up was astronomical. She wouldn't have wanted her father to bear that responsibility. But say, if a rich benefactor were to subsidize it considerably, what he doesn't know wouldn't hurt him. It would do the opposite; it would help him hang on to hope. 

"Have you got a car? Send her to the hospital now, I'll meet you there." I nodded mutely, unaware that he couldn't see me. But gratitude flooded me, knowing he understood what I was asking without saying the actual words. 

"Oh Daniel, thank you... Thank you so much." I breathed, looking at my friend, knowing that this is possibly the last time I would see her in her own bed. "Cam's here, so we'll-"

A sudden twitch of the arms, and suddenly she was on the floor. She had jerked so hard, she toppled out of bed. I dropped my phone in my haste to get to her, "Alex! God you scared the shit out of me! You weren't waking up!" 

She looked at me with fear, actual fear in her eyes. 

"What's wrong?" 

She lowered her eyes and I saw her hand stained red. I checked her all over and while she was covered in splatters of blood, there was not a wound in sight. 

"I had to." She finally whispered, looking up at me. Beseechingly. 

"What did you have to do?" 

"I think I killed him."