Brushed

Chapter 8

“Did she seriously fall asleep?”

                 “Yeah, but I don’t blame her. Come on.”

                 As I open my eyes, I am forced to squint again. I don’t recognize where I am, because the walls are a shade of sky blue. Panav and Adriana are talking on the other side of the room. When I turn my body to face the wall, I realize that I am in another hospital bed. It’s dark purple, almost the color of the shirt I’m wearing. When I look down, though, I realize that I am in a pale pink hospital dress. Did something happen to me?

                 “Well I didn’t fall asleep. And her mom wasn’t kidnapped and murdered!”

                 The lighting in this room must be off, because Adriana’s hair looks as if it is light brown, not the dark chocolate look it always has.

                 “And she didn’t have to do all this,” Adriana starts, “to be safe! No one’s out to get her!”

                 “She doesn’t have a killer out to get her, but there are other people out to get her—”

                 “How would you know?”

                 “Because… because… I could almost sense it from her…”

                 “You think you know something about her. You don’t. You guys met a day ago, or whatever it was. You know nothing about her!”

                 “But I do. I know that—”

                 “No, you don’t know it!”

                 Panav sighs and lowers his head, almost in defeat. Adriana’s beat him in this one. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to argue. Adriana seems to be in a really bad mood—which is rare; extremely rare. But he is right; I am being hunted by someone else. And he knows it, even though I didn’t tell him. So we do have a connection. That proves it.

                 Finally, he lifts his head up and speaks. “Adriana, calm down. She’s going to wake up soon, and she doesn’t have to wake up to this.”

                 “I don’t care what she wakes up to!” Adriana shouts.

                 “I’m awake,” I mumble. My lips feel swollen. My face feels puffy and I can just imagine what I look like. Attempting a smile at Panav, I flatten my hair with my hands. He smiles back.

                 What has happened between Adriana and me? I don’t think I did anything bad to her. I do a lot of bad things, but I never intentionally hurt Adriana.

                 “Oh look who it is, the princess!” Adriana shouts. She gives me a look that I have never seen before. A combination of anger and craziness. I have never seen her as crazy as this. Then she stalks out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

                 Panav and I both stare at the door. Does he know something about her that I don’t? They don’t look like friends.

                 “What was that all about?” I ask. “She’s mad at us… and we didn’t even do anything. At least I didn’t do that.”

                 “Well, I have no clue what got into her. I haven’t done anything to her, and neither have you, or anyone else. But I do have a couple theories.” He pauses, looking away from me. “One: she might be overwhelmed. Her mom died and she just found out, on TV. I wouldn’t be happy either. Two: her power. Her power might be out of control.”