"Why's it complicated?" Sam asked, looking confused.
"It just is," I said. "She can't be outside right now. That's all you need to know."
Sam dropped the subject and continued looking through my stuff. Honestly, I was just waiting for her to fall asleep so I could see Max.
After half an hour, Sam started talking again. "...Was it the earthquake?"
"What?"
"You said Max can't go outside," Sam almost whispered. "Is it because of the earthquake?"
"Um..." I had honestly forgotten about the earthquake. Lucas had filled me on it right after I got back, but we hadn't talked about it since. Henry caused it, so Sam wasn't entirely wrong. "Yeah. She's still recovering."
"Oh," Sam looked embarrassed. "Sorry for pushing it, El. You guys seem like really good friends."
I nodded my head. Sam was right, Max and I were close. I felt more happy with Max than I did with anyone else. When I lost her, it was like a part of me died with her. Only that piece didn't come back when she did.
"I'm going to sleep now." I said. Sam didn't respond. I put on my blindfold and tried to focus. I'd never entered the void without some kind of background noise, but there's a first time for everything, right?
I opened my eyes and saw Max lying in her hospital room. It worked, I got to the void. I grabbed her hand and fell directly into her (technically my) room. Everything seemed a bit faded, like it was slowly disappearing.
"El!" Max was sitting on my bed. She seemed excited. "I have really good- Are you ok?"
I could barely breathe. Max's eyes were pure white, like someone had erased them. It was like I was reliving my nightmares. Any moment now, the bedroom would fade away and I would have to see all the horrible deaths I caused play out in front of me.
Max ran over to me and tried to calm me down, and after about half an hour, she managed to get my breathing back to normal. We sat in silence on the bed for a few minutes before I spoke up.
"You were going to say something before. What was it?"
"Oh, yeah!" Max's face lit up. "I think I'm waking up soon! I can feel my actual body now!"
I was so excited that, for the second time today, I could barely breathe. The doctors, our friends, even Susan had started doubting Max would ever wake up. Lucas was the only other person who thought she even had a chance of coming back, and we were both just proven right.
"El? You ok?" Max snapped me out of my thoughts with a concerned expression.
"Yeah, I'm just processing what you said. You're waking up soon?"
"Yep! But you should probably go, I don't want to find out what happens if you're in here when I come to!"
After a lot of convincing, Max finally got me to leave. It took all of my strength to not jump around and scream with joy. Tomorrow, I would go to the hospital and see Max, hopefully in her real body.
