Winters (Book Five)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Everything is uncomfortably bright and I look around trying to spot someone or something that I know. Motion consumes me and I know I am moving forward but the world is slow and blurry. Searching for something, anything I finally see her. Moving towards her I can make out her ringlet curls but her back is to me. I continue to try and reach her, but I feel like I am moving backward. Calling out for her, she slowly starts to spin and her figure blurs and I try to rub my eyes.

"Aviva!" I call out but I lose the details of her face from the light. Struggling with everything I have, suddenly she is right in front of me, her glasses missing from her beautiful face but I flinch away from her.

Her expression is so dark and her lips are curled in disgust as she looks at me. She shakes her head making her curls bounce slightly before stepping away from me. Panicking I reach out to her but she is already back across the room. She hates me, she doesn't love me, she doesn't want to make it work anymore.

The lights continue to grow brighter and more intense and I can't make out anything anymore. Struggling to do anything, my limbs feel heavy and I know I am stuck. This feeling, I am dreaming, this isn't real. I need to wake up and I thrash around and slowly start to feel the fabric of sheets around me. I broke myself out of the nightmare for once.

"Of course, she is going to flip her lid! Lena isn't the adventurous type with her appearance, she's a CEO!" Someone hisses and I try to open my eyes but my body aches.

"I think she looks fantastic,"

"She does look fantastic, but that's because she's hot Faith,"

"You have a point; I think we just need to ease her into it. Hadley was pretty shocked when we had to shave most of her head but she took it well. Adaley is a master stylist after all," Faith says and I grunt slightly and try to pry my lids open. Everything is blurry and I realize Faith and Click are relaxing sideways in two chairs they stole from somewhere. They both give me a tentative smile and I look down at my arms and they are fine.

"We had your burns healed; they weren't too terrible considering you set multiple acres of land on fire. But your skin will probably be sensitive for a few days," Faith says casually and I roll my eyes. She is so unfazed by everything at all times, Kass thinks it's an over-exposure to trauma, but I also know part of is that Faith was trained to be prepared for anything and by default always minimizes her actual reactions to things.

Tilting my head to the side, I am startled when my scalp is lit up and I bolt upright. Looking at the two women in front of me, they give me sheepish smiles and I try to recall what they were talking about before I woke up. I can recall fragments, something about Hadley's haircut. But as I reach up and touch the left side of my head, I find it shaved. Brushing my fingers over the fuzzy stubble, I notice something that feels geometric shaved into the side and bolt out of the bed and into the hospital bathroom.

"Oh no," I say as I see that almost the entire left side of my head has been shaved and that there are some linear lines sliced into the cut to make it edgier. Touching the rest of my hair, my long locks are gone leaving me with a slightly longer bob.

"I think you look fantastic," Click says casually and I stare at her speechless.

"What happened?!"

"You singed off a lot of your hair in the fight, and then you face planted into some smoldering grass and there was no saving the length on the left side so your cousin shaved it," Click says and I reach up and touch it in despair.

"People are going to think I lost my mind!" I screech flustered and I hang my head in despair. I should have kept myself upright! Next time, I am dousing myself and my clothes in fire retardant.