After Effects

Chapter 24. - A Fever Dream

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Fever Dream:

noun [C]

A very strange experience or situation, usually a bad one that seems or feels like a dream rather than something happening in reality.

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Kris' POV:

The stage felt electric. The entire room was static. My heart was pumping blood and euphoria through my body as the cheers from our audience filled the room with nothing but positivity. Jan's arm was around me. He was breathing heavily just like i was. We had after all just jumped around for 3 minutes straight. It felt like there wasn't enough space in our lungs with how out of breath we were.

I closed my eyes for nothing more than 2 seconds and breathed in the fever dream of Eurovision. All that hard work, all those nights Tuva and I spend watching Eurovision, all those 10 days we spend locked in a studio to create our song, was nothing but worth it. It felt like a dream come true. One we'd had since childhood. It was such an incredible feeling of euphoria and fulfilment.

It didn't last long though.

We all bowed down, like we always did when finishing our song, but before we even got up a loud thud caught all of our attention. Our audience gasped and i heard a few comments fly from one person to another. It was mostly cuss words and comments filled with worry and surprise.

I looked to my left to see all the boys but no Tuva. I looked down and then saw her body lying on the ground. Her knees pressed against her stomach, arms digging into the ground to support her body and her hair surrounded her face as she was looking into the ground. She was swaying a bit - especially her head - and i could see her back moving along to the heavy breaths she took.

Without a single thought i let go of Jan and took off my guitar so it wouldn't be in the way of whatever would happen next. I pretty much just dropped it on the floor while i knelt down next to her. Tuva was breathing really heavily, like, really heavily. Almost as if she was having a astma attack, gasping for air. Her head was swaying along with the rest of her body. Instantly i put my hand on her back.

The rest of the guys were quick to kneel down besides her too. Bojan managed to step in front of her so the audience wouldn't be able to see her fighting to stay conscious. It at least looked like she was fighting to stay conscious. Maybe she was just having a panic attack?

The microphone she'd had in her hand was rolling on the floor and disappeared over the edge of the stage. A painful ringing went through the speakers as the microphone landed on the floor with a loud thud.

"Tuva?" Nace questioned, trying to get her attention.

"Hey, hey. You're okay, we're here now." Bojan told her.

Through her clothes i could feel her burning up.

"Tuva what's wrong?" I asked her, lowering my head to her level. She did not answer a single one of our questions or respond. Tuva didn't even look like she heard them.

Bojan put a hand on her head and gently stroked her hair. As he did i noticed a wound on her neck. It looked rather fresh, like maybe a day or two old.