ILLUSION, ELI HALE

eighteen | aftermath

When Nadia awoke, she was in the dark.

She jumped awake from the darkness of her mind, her instincts going straight to flight mode. The girl was in a defensive position, hands up as if she was going to fight whatever in her mind had forced her awake.

She'd not remembered what caused her to wake up, but it must have been a nightmare. She felt like she was sweating bullets. The girl raised the forearm of her good arm and placed it over her forehead, and sure enough, she was burning up. The slightest hint of a headache was pulsing in the back of her skull.

As the girl placed her hands over her eyes to help her adjust to the new environment of the dark room she was in, flashes of the dream appeared in her mind. Arrows being thrown at her, sounds of animalistic growls threatening her into a corner. Glowing yellow eyes staring back at her. The sound of car wheels screeching just at the last second.

A dream.

She blinked once to familiarize herself with her surroundings. Once, then twice. It took her a moment to realize where she was. The girl was in Eli's bedroom, having previously been lying comfortably under the boy's comforters. One of his stuffed animals, an Elephant Nadia had gotten him for a joke on April Fools was discarded to the side; she'd previously been cuddling it in her sleep.

Her best friend's bedroom was the same as she remembered it: the maroon walls filled with the posters of his current obsessions; anime and indie bands were the majority. Trophies from when he played little league were scattered over his room, stacks of video games in one corner and a bookshelf that was beginning to catch dust in the other.

Nadia pushed herself up in the bed and realized that there was a bandage wrapped around her arm. It looked like her wound wasn't bleeding through the white bandage like it was her cardigan, which was great. She was wearing a tank top under her sweater, thankfully, so she wasn't entirely naked among a group of men. And surprisingly, she wasn't in pain. She had to be on a massive dose of mixed medications because whatever Doctor Deaton had given her, Nadia could feel no pain whatsoever.

It was then that she realized what had woken her up hadn't been a dream at all. Just pieces of events from the night before jumbling up into this one big memory that scared the girl awake. What happened last night was real. Allison shooting her. Nadia, Eli, and Scott running through the woods, Eli telling her two shocking truths in the span of an hour, her going in and out of consciousness in the back of the Sheriff's truck. As much as she wanted to wake up and convince herself that she'd gone crazy, last night was real. It all was real.

The fogginess of her mind was beginning to clear, as was the fast beating rate of her nervous heart. Nadia pulled herself out of Eli's bed, fixing the blankets back to normal and patting the elephant on the head in an attempt to thank him from the other room. There was a sliver of light coming from the bottom of the closed door, and if Nadia focused hard enough, she could hear voices coming from the other side.

The alarm clock on the side of Eli's bed was reading a few minutes after 5:30 am. All sense of peace in Nadia's mind had immediately turned into panic. She'd not been home all night. Her mother and brother had to be worried sick about her. Nadia had never gone this far before. Sure, she'd broken a rule or two, but staying the entire night outside the house without telling her mother was way out of line. She didn't even have her phone to let her know she was alright.

Last night at the game, Margie was already calling around about her daughter's whereabouts. She probably had called the entire Sheriff's Department by now. Nadia was surprised there weren't sirens racing down the streets searching for her right now. Once she got home, she was never leaving that place ever again. Nadia had already made peace with that thought. Bye, bye, Eli. Hello, Colorado Boarding School.