Morph [EDITING] || Wattys 2017 Winner

~TWENTY FIVE~

~hunter~

Amelie lies there, pale and motionless, on the bed. She's dressed in a light hospital gown, and a thick white bandage covers her stomach. I stare at it, praying that she'll wake up. Just I as have been doing for hours - ever since we brought her back from the Lynx.

"Hey," comes a voice, faint and shaky. I turn to see Amber coming towards me, looking pale and exhausted. She runs a hand through her hair as she approaches. "How are you holding up?"
"Just about okay," I say after a pause, distracted. "How is she?"
Amber sighs. "It's... I'm not going to lie to you. It's not looking good. She lost a lot of blood, and there's a limit on how much I can do. Her brain suffered major blood deprivation. Even now, I... I don't think I can do anything else."
"She'll wake up, though, right? A couple of days?"
Amber pauses, for too long. "Hunter..."
"No."
"I can't help her. I don't know when she'll wake up, if she even will... ever."
My heart is thumping so loudly, and it's almost all I can hear. I can't lose her. I can't. "She doesn't even know, I never told her how much... how much I love her. She has to wake up. She needs to." I never told her, never let it show, because I thought she liked Ryan. But now, when I'm faced with what's just happened... I have to tell her.
"I know," Amber says softly. "I know."

Suddenly, she reaches out, and hugs me tightly. I'm taken aback, but after a second I wrap my arms around her and squeeze back. Amber and I are like siblings, we've known each other so long. And this hug is just what I needed.

Because it's only then, when I realise everybody else cares for Amelie just as much as me, that I finally let my tears fall.

~~~

~amelie~

White surrounds me. It's all I can see.

I reach out with a hand, and touch the weird mist that fills the air. It's not quite cold and not quite warm, and incredibly confusing. Slowly, I look around, and I spot a figure in the distance. I pull myself to my feet, but as I move splitting pain shoots through my stomach.

"Ah, ah..." Pained, I clench my teeth, and my hand flies to my belly. When I take it away, it's covered in scarlet.

"You've been shot," comes a familiar voice. My heard jerks up to see the figure, face in darkness, suddenly right next to me, and looking down at my injury. "I remember that."
"Wh... what?" I stutter, disoriented.
"You don't, but I do. Remember, that is. I remember everything though. Even that secret crush you have."
"What?" I say again.
"Wait... I wasn't supposed to say that yet. Ignore me. I'll give you a hint sometime soon." The figure continues, oblivious to my confusion.
I manage to string a sentence together. "Who are you?"
"Isn't it obvious?" replies the figure cryptically. "Man, you're slow at working stuff out. I should talk to you more often."
I keep staring at them, and I realise I have zero idea what is happening. "What... where am I?" All I can do is ask questions.
"Well," says the figure, frowning, "that I don't know. But I do know it's nice to meet you. Although you do need to listen to me more." They lean forward, and I gasp as their face comes fully into view, and I realise whose voice it is.

"I'm your subconscious. Hi, Amelie."

And I stare in horror at my own face.

~~~

~amber~

"Come on, come on..." I whisper. "Please work."

Warm electricity jitters down my arms as I pour all my energy into my patient, lying catatonic on the bed.

"Come on..."

I push the last dregs of my power out of me and into her, focusing on blood, and the electrifying feeling intensifies. I wait for the second feeling, the buzz that tells me that I've managed to heal the problem...

...and it doesn't happen. I sigh and sit back, kneading my forehead with the palms of my hands. I've already expended all my energy, and exhaustion is kicking in - on top of the frustration and panic that nothing I do seems to make a difference. Amelie's bullet wound is all but healed, but her blood levels are dangerously low. Close to fatally. And her unconscious state... for the first time in my life, I realise that there is literally nothing I can do. I've never dealt with anyone who's bled out - they've always got simple injuries to heal, nothing like this. My eyes flick over to the glass wall to my right, and I see a figure slumped in a chair in the room beyond the partition. Without a doubt, it's Hunter. He's refused to leave since Amelie was brought here, although we've all tried to get him to eat or sleep. The fact that he's finally passed out... at least he's getting some rest.

The one problem is? When he wakes up, he'll ask me how she is. And there's only one thing I can say.

I don't know.

~~~

~amelie~

"What do you mean," I say slowly, "you're my subconscious?"
Other-Me pauses. "You're the conscious part of our brain, and I'm the subconscious. You're in control all the time though, don't worry. I just try and give you clues when I can."
"That was you?" I recall the gut feelings, the instinct, that I got right before Cade died. The hints thing seems plausible - as believable as another me in a weird white fog-land is, anyway. "Yes, okay, but how are you here? What's going on?"
"Well," Other-Me begins, "You got shot, which you've probably blanked out, but right now I would guess you're clinging on to life. Probably back at base."
I frown. "But... hasn't Amber healed me?"
"You're still here, and I'm not relegated to the back of your head again, so I guess not. It was a long time before they found you, and you were bleeding out pretty badly... I don't know."
"But I'm still alive, right? I mean, I'm here talking to you. Wherever we are."
"Maybe not," Other-Me replies. "I'm pretty sure this is an NDE."
"A what?"
"Sorry. Near-Death Experience. You know, the light at the end of the tunnel... I think we skipped the part about the tunnel, though. This just looks like the light."
I'm too stunned already to appreciate what my subconscious just said, so the revelation doesn't shock me nearly as much as it should. "So... I'm dead?"
"My guess is that that depends on you." Other-Me leans in, and smiles at me. "Do you want to live, or not?"
Images race through my head - Sophia, Hunter, Amber, Lila, Elian, even my dad. I'm not ready to leave yet. There's so much I haven't done, haven't said, and I have to finish what I started. "I want to live."

As the words leave my mouth, the white background surrounding us glows brighter, and flecks of shining warmth materialise around me. "What's happening?"
"You're living," answers my subconscious, smiling. "Have fun. Just listen to me next time, okay? Gut instincts. Not jokes."
I grin back, in spite of the confusing, panicking situation. "Okay. Before I go, though..."
"Yes?" Other-Me asks, as the shining specks filling the air start to move in circles around me.
"You said something about love." They're moving faster now, whizzing around like a tornado, obscuring my vision slightly. But I can still hear my subconscious laugh.
"Do me a favour," she says, "and go talk to Hunter."
I smile as the specks whirl so fast I can't see, and then they fade, turning black, turning fuzzy, and my body grows heavier...

...and my eyes fly open and I sit bolt upright, and let out a scream.