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The high lasted forever. I drifted in and out of dreamless sleep, and each waking brought a hallucination more feverish than the last.
One time, I opened my eyes to a full set of clothes hovering mid-air. Another time, I saw a female silhouette made of pure white light.
The damp shape of her hand dragged over my arm, then my clammy neck – I think she was washing me? After a wonderful while she hovered over me, like a curious deity studying a mortal, so close that her exhales seared my cheek. She smelled of hospitality– of wood chips and linen sheets and tea. A strange, bonfire-like warmth emanated from her, and I remembered how it cocooned me head-to-toe. It was bliss – every last trace of the sea mist's biting cold thawed away like frost in spring.
"Hurry and wake up," she said gently and pulled away.
I was childishly upset when she withdrew. It became cold again.
It was a reflex – I reached for her and whined, "Could you stay, please?"
The figure recoiled with an "yeugh!" and fled my sight, and did that feel like a knee to the throat. With what wit I had left, I wished she weren't real and fell back into slumber.
❦
For what seemed like the hundredth time that fateful day, I stirred, fully this time.
It was night. Faint pitter-patters of rain drummed on the window, every so often interrupted by distant rumbles. Nothing could staunch the cold, not even being indoors under what felt like ten layers of duvet – still it prevailed, burrowing its way into my skin like maggots into a cadaver. A bedside lamp glowed a jaded yellow, pathetic against the dark.
I opened my eyes some more but soon gave up – even the dimmest light brought about a crushing migraine.
Someone sat beside my bed while another person, younger-sounding, spoke from further away. Their garbled murmurs sharpened as my stupor cleared:
"...sure you don' need me 'round, Miss?" the girl was saying.
"For the final time, Miss Bruntley, I am positive. Spare the girl for now, if you please. I'm sure everyone is as eager to meet Miss Abraham as you are. You all will meet soon," said the person closer by, exasperated.
"Right. Uh, 'scuse me then, Miss," the girl said.
As soon as the door creaked shut, chatter erupted outside the room. They sounded like children, many of them. I squirmed at the grating noise.
