dark places - jb & ag {completed}

{eight}

For the past year, every day I woke up, it was a struggle to get out of bed. It was never easy for me when almost every morning I reached for my phone to call Sophie, only to remember she wasn't there to answer.

It was what I'd always done whenever I woke up and she wasn't sleeping over at my place. And when I woke up and didn't find her all of those times over the past year, my first thought was to call her. And it was even more painful when I realized why she wasn't sleeping over.

This time when I woke up, I had the hope that everything I'd witnessed before I went to sleep – passed out or whatever – everything that'd happened was nothing but a stupid nightmare I'd had because it was the first Halloween I'd spent without Sophie, or because I'd lost her on the same day. But I knew it was only a hope, I knew that everything I'd seen was real – because the pain in my back made me certain of it.

I groaned as I moved my hand up to rub my eyes, my arms aching and my eyes burning. I was sweating and breathing wasn't the easiest thing to do.

When I opened my eyes, I was met by the same shade of dark brown I'd seen right before I was knocked off: Justin's eyes.

"Welcome, Beautiful Angel," Justin smiled.

Welcome?

"Where am I?" I asked with a gruff voice, my throat burning from all of the screaming, I guess.

"You're home, where you belong," he replied.

Home?

What is he talking about?

I tried lifting my head up to look around me, but it took a hell of a lot of effort. When I tried turning just a bit onto my back, I cried out in agony.

"There, there, try not to move, you still need time to recover," Justin told me.

"Recover from what? Where am I? What happened to me?" I asked with tears falling from my eyes.

"Relax now, Angel," he said, "Just one more hour."

Hour?

"Why do you keep calling her that nauseating name?" I heard a woman's voice asking from behind me; her tone sounded disgusted.

"It's a long story, Mother," Justin replied with a kind voice. I realized it was the same woman that had been sitting on that chair on a higher point than the rest. "I'll tell you about it later."

"Good!" the woman said. "The bones are forming well, better than most would in just three hours. I think she'll be well very soon and good to start with forming feathers by the start of a new hour."

"Ah! That's great to hear!" Justin said cheerfully, "I can't wait!" He smiled down at me with so much tenderness and happiness in his eyes. I don't think I liked it.

I was seriously confused, aching and hungry. My body was heavy and my mind wasn't thinking right. I wanted answers, I wanted to feel better, and I wanted to go home. I was so scared. Yet, all I could do was just stay there, lying on my side, afraid and waiting for what I didn't know.

I watched the woman whom I now knew to be Justin's mother leave the room. She was dressed in some kind of black dress that was backless, but the dress didn't get my attention so much as what was on her back. There were wings.

I swallowed thickly, wondering if my mind was playing tricks on me. I got more confused and maybe even terrified when I saw Justin follow her outside; he was only wearing jeans and the same huge, black wings I'd seen in my dreams of him.

Was that even real?

A minute or two later, Justin came back into the room, a glass of water in his hand. And it was only then that I realized how thirsty I really was.