Serenity - Ellie Williams [1]

24.

Wren

Waking up is like swimming towards the
surface of an endlessly deep lake. No matter how much you kick, it's almost like you don't move an inch. And the entire time you're fighting to the surface, you can feel yourself slowly drowning. And part of you wants to wake up more than anything, but another part is so tired that they'd rather just sink to the bottom. That's the difference between wanting to live and accepting death. Years ago, she would have said she was okay with dying- it didn't scare her like so many others. It was inevitable, just a fact of life. Like how the sky is blue, grass is green, we all die. That day in the power plant was the first time she was afraid to die. Not for herself, but for the people she would leave behind. Perhaps that's why she was immune, because she wanted to live.

And perhaps thats why, even months after she was shot, Wren's woken up.

——

There was a great burst of light when Wren finally blinked her eyes open, making her brain recoil and her eyes squeeze shut against her own will. For a moment, she could only blearily blink her eyes, unable to see past the hazy shapes around her. It was unbelievably silent in the room, besides Wren's own heaved breathing, and it smelt a great deal like bleach and something else she couldn't recognize.

Finally, after what felt like ages, her eyes opened of their own accord and my surroundings came into view. She was in a small room, facing a big window with it's curtains drawn back. The bed she was in felt too hard, like lying on brick, and as Wren slowly began to come back into herself, as things clicked into place, her chest began burning something fierce. There was a great itch there, one unscratch-able past the gauze she could feel wrapping my chest.

The door creaks open, startling her as her eyes dart towards it, heart rate picking up, and a pair of familiar eyes meet her. For a second, there is complete utter silence as their eyes bore into each other's. Then, wetness there as she brings a trembling hand to her lips. "Oh."

After Wren's mom finds her awake there is an abundance of people entering the room. First, her mom sitting at the bedside with both Wren's hands in hers, shoulders shaking as tears flow freely down her tanned cheeks. "I'm so sorry." She says first. Then, "i'm so glad you're awake."

Maria and Tommy enter next, Tommy thanking god while Maria places a sturdy hand on her mothers shoulder, smiling at her proudly like she never had a doubt in the world Wren would wake up. She tells her she's been asleep months, Wren's eyes burn a little with all the time she's missed.

She wait, letting them welcome her awake, and then she finally says her first words since waking up, "where is she?"

When she opens the door, the room is empty save for Wren, still sprawled out on the bed. At the first sight of her red hair and worried eyes it's like all of the air is sucked out of the room- Wren's breath leaves her in a great sigh and her chest aches in a new way. Ellie looks at her, wide eyed and tear stained cheeks and she says, "oh."

Their hug feels like home, her chin against the top of her head, Wren's weak arms wrapped around her shoulders, her hands gripping the fabric of her pajamas like the other girl will disappear if she doesn't hold on tightly. Wren feels so weak- maybe she will.

"I'm so sorry," She says. "Please don't ever leave me," She sobs. Wren holds on tighter, shaking her head and hoping she can feel the words Wren can't say- hoping she knows. "You were gone, and I was alone. Again. Like I was after joel- after Riley. I was so alone and it was just me and you bleeding on the ground and I was just going to curl up beside you and die with you." Her words are a sob, choked out like a cough- and they burn. Dear god, Ellie's words scald her like they physically exist- and they hurt.

Wren says; "I'm sorry." Then; "you aren't alone." And; "i'm right here with you, always." Ellie didn't reply, and she didn't have to because wren knew what she felt- because They both felt it.

They were safe, Wren could feel it. They had lost things, they were broken, but they were here now. Together. And maybe this wasn't over, maybe there were still things to come. All the other monsters out there in the world.

That was fine. That was okay.

Because they are here. Together.

They are home.