Asleep

28 Who Is That?

Nora~~

I tell Radia everything, but to Tye I only say that Charlie and I got in an argument and I won't be working with either of them.

         Radia grabs the end of my blanket and snuggles into her couch beside me. She insisted I stay with her and that she'd feed me until I'm ready and able to find a new job—like I did for her. Earlier in the day she helped me carry groceries from my home to hers.

         "Are you sure you want to watch this?"

         I grip the edge of the blanket, pulling it tighter against me. "I want to see."

         "All right." She doesn't sound convinced. Grabbing the remote she turns the TV on and flips to the nightly news and mutes the speakers. In about five minutes they're going to rerun Doctor Pace's interview. I didn't get to watch it before.

         "Did you recognize this Cobbs guy?"

         "I think? The woman who attacked me wasn't familiar, but for a moment there was a girl between us, surrounded by blood."

         "Is it any weirder than Charlie disappearing in front of you or your injuries being gone?"

         "Why—how do you believe me?"

         "Because why would you lie? I trust you, Nora. More than anyone else."

         I nudge my arm against hers and rest my head on her shoulder.

         "Have you talked to Ryann?"

         I cringe. "Not since a week ago."

         "Did you really not like him?"

         "He wasn't for me."

         She picks up the remote. "Can you at least be his friend? After what happened with Charlie, you need to surround yourself with people you can trust."

         "And I can trust Ryann?" Trusting someone isn't something I can just do.

         "He's a good guy and has been asking me how you're doing." Every time I think of him I'm reminded of the utter mortification I felt when he made the comment about Charlie dating Marcella. I don't know what the embarrassment stemmed from, just that something was inherently wrong about the two of them together.

         But now, any discomfort I felt then shouldn't matter. If he succeeded in making Charlie uncomfortable, I should praise him for it.

         While she unmutes the TV, I fire off a text to Ryann asking if he wants to grab lunch next week. I show it to Radia. "Happy?"

         She only pokes my nose and turns her attention to the television.

         Pace's one-on-one interview starts with the interviewer, Kandice Smith, introducing Pace.

         I thought I would cower seeing him. Instead, I'm filled with a kind of rage that makes my insides feel as if they are boiling.

         Pace launches into a description of how Somnia has changed in the past 20 years.

         Something presses against my right side. Radia's on my left.

         Curled against my blanket is a tiny human. Her blonde hair twisted in ringlets sways as she looks up at me. She grins.

         I've never seen someone who looks as young as she does. It's not as if her features are shrunken but rather not fully developed. 

         "Radia, who is this?" I ask my tone measured; though, I feel the hysteria building.

         "The reporter?"

         "No. Her." I point at the little girl.

         Radia leans forward to see around me, her eyebrows raised. "Who?"

         "You don't see the girl sitting beside me?" I don't know what kind of eyeglass prescription she would need to correct this.

         "No . . ."

         The little girl laughs, her teeth look thin and fragile. "I miss you, Nora." She rubs her face into the crack between my arm and stomach. "Why did you leave?"

         "I . . . I don't know."

         "You do."

         Radia mutes the television. "Seriously, who are you talking to?"

         The girl presses a quick kiss against my cheek. "Come home."

         Grabbing a hold of my shoulders, Radia twists my upper body toward her and makes me meet her eyes. "No one's there. I promise you."

Brushing her hands off, I turn toward the little girl. "I promise you there—" She's gone.

Something is seriously wrong with me.

Radia takes my hands in hers. "Tye and I are getting dinner tomorrow night. Come with us."

That'd be horribly awkward, and if I'm seeing things, Tye will only be weirded out. "I'm not third wheeling on your date. I don't even feel like going anywhere." It all only happened a few hours ago. I can still see Charlie and how he looked when I ripped off my blindfold. I can feel the betrayal I had felt come over me as if it were a vacuum where all that existed was the pain he had caused me.

"I don't want you alone any longer than you have to be, and I have to leave tomorrow to go to work anyway. And it's not a date."

"Right."

"You make it less awkward for us."

"At my expense."

She brings our hands together. "Say yes and you can choose where we'll go."

"I'm seeing things, Radia. Should I be going out in public?" I pull my hands away.

"Should you be sitting inside all day and night by yourself?" She has a point. Maybe spending a couple hours doing something normal would be good for me. Even though I'm not in pain, my body feels heavy like it wants to lie down for a long, long time. Lying down won't do anything though. The time I'd spend staring at a wall, alone with my thoughts about today and Charlie and the hallucinations is all time I could spend with friends, laughing off my pain.

My phone vibrates on the coffee table. It's Ryann. He'd love hangout next week.

People I can trust. The thought makes me want to scoff.

I'm starting to wonder if there is anyone I can trust. After everything that's happened, I don't know what's real and what isn't.

Who's real and who isn't.

I can't even trust myself.

Some of you might have heard that a person by the name of Mohan Sha has stolen 70 Wattpad books from 24 authors and is selling them. My own story, My Best Friend's Werewolf, has been stolen by them and is being sold on Amazon. On my Twitter (MikaelaBender), I've posted a thread about this. If any of you can retweet the post so that we can get the word out about this thief and get him removed from the sites he is selling the stolen works on, I'd really really appreciate it.