The Stranger on the Beach

The Motel

          "It's hot," he said, eyes closed as the glow of the morning sun warmed his face, showing the red of his eyelids as intense light shone through them. Two days had passed since he fell unconscious and his body was somehow half-naked and buried beneath thick blankets. Was he running a fever? He felt perfectly fine, aside from the heat collected in the sheets that practically became a furnace of cloth. He could hear Bonnie loudly complaining about the broken air conditioner as she walked past his bed, but when she made eye contact with a guy she thought almost died, she shouted in excitement, calling the others into the room.

          In seconds, all of them surrounded him, happy that he was awake but bombarding him with questions, more than half of which he was too groggy to understand. But there was one problem... He didn't recognize any of them. A bunch of strangers stood around him, weirdly smiling at him as if they were best friends or family, but Michael was frightened, scared that he'd been kidnapped or something of the like.

          Whatever the case, Michael shifted the sheets off of him and sat up, pressing his back against the wall while Cassie moved closer to him to check his temperature. All too ready to defend himself and get away, Michael thrusted the palm of his right hand to her nose, effectively shoving her onto the floor as pain flooded her face. He made a bound for the other side of the room to put distance between himself and his "captors," watching as Bonnie yelled rather...unfriendly words and Keith tried to get them all to calm down.

          A sudden shriek echoed in Michael's head, painfully loud enough to bring him to the ground as he clutched his ears. They were hot and irritated and so was his hands and wrists. Having no idea what was wrong with him, they all agreed to take him to a hospital. Forget the roadtrip, no one wanted to go anywhere if they all weren't together. But their best friend cowering in pain and attacking anyone who came close definitely wasn't going to make this easy.