Take Me Back To Paddington (SERIES)

Chapter 37 - The Awakening

Lisa gasped, feeling her throat constricted as her eyes shot opened. She could hear the traffic from distant and feel the chill of the air while her senses began to work. The thirst. It was the worst she had ever felt, almost like it was burning her from within every time she forced a breath in. She tried to turn her body, pushing onto the mattress with her elbow and she saw the clock by the bedside lamp. Her vision was blurry at first, but time was generous enough towards her desperation and she slowly began to see.

It was near 4 a.m. and she knew straight away that she had slept for almost 2 hours after she last met Nick at the convenience store. Her mind was still baffled from everything that had happened but it didn't stop her from collecting consciousness. Lisa didn't need minutes to remember the final step she had taken; jumping from the balcony. But as much as she wanted to stick to those memories, she couldn't help to focus on something else that have made her heart broken.

"N-Nick-"

That was the name she uttered when the pain in her chest emerged, feeling like it was digging into her with it, consumed her like leeches and parasites that nobody applauded for.  Everything that you changed there will be the same in here, Lisa recalled, fearing Draco Krauss's warning that she once heard before she involved herself in the soul selling process. She couldn't be bothered of the aching of her muscles as she attempted to get up since the fear and thoughts about losing Nick in this world too had infected her mind.

Her struggle to be herself again caught the attention of the owners of the house; The Kims. It wasn't her loud breathing that woke those two women up, but it was the noises she made when she fell on the floor, pulling the bedside lamp with her and the light bulb shattered.

"F-fuck..." Lisa groaned as her chest pressed on the carpet, still trying to get on her feet even though she knew she should have given her body more time to adjust. This was the first time she ever felt like a stranger to her own body—like she had forgotten of how to breathe with the same lungs, how to stand and walk with the same legs. She was just like a baby who just started to explore what she could do with herself.

The bedroom door was yanked and Jennifer's steps came through first before her wife's.

Jennifer exclaimed, "Lisa!"

She wrapped her arms around Lisa's, trying to help as soon as she saw her best friend on the floor. Her heart beat fast, having to handle the unwelcomed surprise and panic that were injected into her while she was asleep. 

"For fuck's sake," Another Kim in the room complained, her eyes wandered on the floor. "Careful with the glasses, babe"

Jennifer couldn't care less about the stinging pain she had already felt before her wife's warning made its statement. Even if the bottom of her feet tore up by those sharp pieces, she would still run for Lisa and hold the woman in her arms like she was doing now. Her palm was busy stroking Lisa's back as the detective coughed heavily.

"Breathe, Lisa" Jennifer tightened her arms, feeling the shake of her friend's body that worried her so much. "Can you breathe?"

But then her wife showed a different kind of concern that could be mistaken as annoyance by other people that didn't know Jisoo as much as she did. She knew that Jisoo was as worried as she was at the moment. Her wife just had a tougher way in showing it.

"What happened to you, Lisa?" Jisoo asked, crossing her arms while her back leaning against the door frame. Her temper was fighting for a higher ground, yet the care she had for Lisa won the highest gratitude. "You sound like someone is choking you to death"

Lisa took a moment together with a deep breath before she slowly broke the hug, looking into Jennifer's eyes that had layers of tears in them, waiting to be dropped with a blink.