The Psychic Next Door

Chapter 16: Realize

When I woke up again, the door was open, but only by a crack. Light streamed in from the next room, but my eyes were too bleary to really make out anything just yet. It felt like I had been asleep for ages. Every muscle in my body was stiff. My neck ached. I rolled onto my back, carefully stretching my arms out in front of me, trying to ease them out. But I took one look at them and gasped, completely forgetting about stretching; my once battered arms, slashed with red and blotched with purple, were now only tinted with faint yellow. Vivid pink stretched across where angry red had been before.

How long had I been asleep?

I sat up in bed and found that my body didn't protest as much as it had the last time. Everything came back quickly, my mind not as jumbled as it was before. I knew where I was, and I knew I needed to find Polly... or find out what had happened to her. I tried to push the last thought away, telling myself to be optimistic, but it had already sunk its claws into me.

I slid off the edge of the bed, trying to move as quietly as I could. Fortunately, walking was no longer a struggle. I could stand easily, without feeling like I was about to collapse. My body had fully healed, though I didn't really understand how.

The deep rumbling next door told me that the Beast was still lurking nearby, but it stayed where it was, in my bedroom... it seemed what Luc had said was true; it couldn't come in here. For whatever reason, he was keeping it out.

Now that I knew exactly where it was—and knew that it couldn't jump out at me at any moment—it seemed a lot less threatening, like a tiger in a cage. For the first time in what seemed like ages, I wasn't worried about it. Instead, I had Luc himself to worry about, and I had no idea what to expect from him. Of course, I was still wary of him, but... everything about him just didn't seem to fit together.

Did it really matter though? I could worry about his motivations later, when I—and hopefully Polly, I thought as a lump formed in my throat—had escaped. As I crept to the crack in the door, about to step forward, struggling to come up with an escape plan, I realized that I was dressed in only an oversized white t-shirt.

The blood drained from my face, horrified at the idea of him dressing me. For a second my mind swam, and I felt faint, but I forced the thought from my mind. I couldn't dwell on it at the moment. I needed to find Polly.

My eyes adjusted to the bright light as I pushed the half-open door aside and crept forward into the main room. The kitchen was a mirror version of my own, but the living room was significantly shortened by the wall-to-wall curtain that separated the "work" area from the rest of the apartment.

Fortunately, there was no sign of Luc. Perhaps he had already left for the day.

In the small space, it only took a few more steps to find Polly; she was stretched out on a futon sofa, which had been converted into a bed. I exhaled deeply with relief, rushing to her side. She was definitely alive; her chest rose and fell with each breath. But her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be deeply asleep.

I saw the remnants of her wounds as well; the large gash on her forehead was now knitting together well, with a large expanse of pink, papery skin stretching over top. She had other scrapes and bruises, but those were barely visible now. And, to my surprise, I noticed that the cast was no longer on her leg.

The simple plan of just grabbing Polly and sneaking out immediately came to mind. I sat down next to her on the edge of the futon and gently grabbed her shoulder.

"Polly!" I hissed, quietly as I could, as I shook her shoulder. "Polly, wake up! We have to leave!"

But she didn't move. Her eyes stayed firmly shut, her chest rising and falling evenly as ever. I shook her harder and harder. The more I tried, the faster my heart beat. She may be alive, but why she isn't she waking up? Her injuries seemed to be healing, but maybe there was something wrong internally. Was she in some sort of coma? If she was, she needed to be in a hospital. So why wasn't she in a hospital?