The Sandman's Daughter

Four

Four

Cassie sat on a bench outside the school and watched the ambulance pull away. The lights flashed as it rushed out of the parking lot, taking all the school spirit with it.

All around her people stood in groups, their faces ashen with the thoughts of death that possible haunted the halls of Madison High. The teachers huddled around the principle in the parking lot, trying to make some sense of the tragedy.

Cassie wiped a tear from her eye. She'd never seen anything like that before, and she didn't think she could ever scrub it from her mind. She kept seeing Tyler flop against the floor. Again and again, his body would do the same horrific dance through her memory. She shivered, trying to get the image to go. She'd lose her sanity if she had to keep seeing it.

"Cassie?" a voice spoke softly next to her.

She looked up and found a red-eyed Sam staring at her. "Is he okay?"

Sam shook her head as she sat down. "The guys told me that he's slipped into some kind of coma, but no one knows what that'll mean," she told her as she wiped her eyes. She looked over at her, an imploring look in her eyes. "What happened, Cass?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. He fell asleep in class, then woke up screaming. After that, he went into a seizure."

"It doesn't make sense," Sam said as she watched the people around her. "Tyler's in his prime. This shouldn't have happened." She was quiet for a moment. "They've cancelled the pep rally...and the game. They're sending us all home. No one feels like being here anyway."

"I can't say I blame them," Cassie said, looking over her shoulder at the school. "I don't know if I'll ever want to set foot in that classroom again."

"Let's get out of here," Sam offered

With one final look back at the school, Cassie nodded, following Sam to the car.

***

The girls sat at Cassie's kitchen table, neither one saying anything. The day's tragedy weighed too heavily on their minds. It was all they could think about.

Cassie leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She felt drained as if she was a battery that been used up and discarded. She was worried that she was headed for a breaking point if she couldn't find a way to recharge. Maybe a long hot bath would help ease her mind a little. At least it would give her a break before the night came.

She cringed at the thought of sleep. She could only imagine what people's dreams would be like after what happened to Tyler. There was no way she would get rest now. She'd be lucky if she wasn't yanked to every house in town.

The front door opened, pulling the girls from their thoughts. Cassie looked over at the clock. The day had passed away, disappearing silently as they had sat and worried. The night loomed in front of her, offering more grief in its wake.

"Cassandra?" her mother called as she shut the front door.

"In here, Mom," she said as her mother hurried into the kitchen.

"I heard what happened at school," Ms. O'Bryan said as she sat her purse down on the counter. "Are you okay, Samantha? I know since he's on the football team, he must be a friend of yours."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, he is, but it's not me you should worry about. Cassie was there. She saw it happen."

She looked over at her daughter, surprise in her eyes. "You were there?"

Cassie nodded weakly, not meeting her mother's gaze. "Yeah, I was."

"Oh, sweetheart," she spoke, crossing the room to her daughter's side. "Are you okay? Do you need to talk about it?" She pulled her daughter into her arms. "That must have been horrible to watch. Do you need to talk about it?"

Cassie squirmed against her mother, freeing herself from her arms. "Mom, I'm fine."

Her mother eyed her, the worry plain on her face. "Cassandra, you need to work through something like this. You can't just bottle it away."

"I'm not bottling it away. I'm okay."

Her mom sighed. "If you wanted to talk to someone who isn't me, we could arrange that," she told her.

"I'm fine," Cassie told her again. "I'm dealing with it. I don't need help."

Ms. O'Bryan looked at her one last time. "Okay, fine. Have it your way," she told her as she headed for the back stairs. "I'm going to change and then start dinner." She turned, looking at Sam. "Would you like to stay for dinner, dear?"

"That would be great, Ms. O'Bryan. My dad won't be home until later and I really don't feel like being alone right now."

"I can't say I blame you," she told her before heading up the stairs.

Cassie watched her mother go. When she was out of sight, she leaned over and kicked Sam lightly in the knee.

"Hey," Sam cried, rubbing her knee. "What was that for?"

"Why did you tell my mom I was there? I was planning to keep that information from her." She shook her head. "Now she's really convinced I need help."

"Well, would talking to someone really be such a bad idea, Cass?"

"I'm okay."

Sam leaned forward and looked her in the eye. "Something's been going on in that head of yours lately," she spoke softly. "You're more stressed than usual."

"I haven't been sleeping well, that's all," she told her. "It's not a big deal. Really."

Sam sighed, hearing the tension in her words. "You should at least see a doctor. Have them give you some sleeping pills or something?"

Cassie looked at her best friend curiously. Sleeping pills? Why hadn't she thought of that before? That might be the answer she'd been waiting for. "I'll think about it."

"Good," she told her. "We have way too many other things to worry about right now."

"Agreed."

Sam stood up and started to stretch when her cell phone rang. She answered it quickly. "Hello?" She held her phone to her ear, listening intently. "Okay, thanks for letting me know, Mike," she spoke after a few minutes. "Keep me informed. Bye." She sat her phone down and stared at Cassie.

She waited patiently, letting Sam work out what she wanted to tell her.

"That was Mike. He and Riley are at the hospital. Tyler's parents just got done talking to them," she told her, sitting back down.

"What did they say?"

"Tyler's stable, but he's in a coma. The doctors don't know why. They can't find anything wrong with him."

Cassie looked at her friend. "It's good there's nothing wrong with him, right?"

Sam shrugged. "If they can't find what cause it, then they can't say it won't happen again."

Cassie shivered at that thought. The image of Tyler's shaking body flooded through her mind once more.

Sam saw the shiver. "Let's go watch a movie or something. Anything to take our minds off this," she said, rising from her chair.

Cassie nodded absently, joining her. She tried to shake the image of Tyler from her mind as she did, but it stuck to it like flypaper. This was going to be a long weekend. She had no idea what caused the seizure, but one thought kept pushing itself to the front of her thoughts: Tyler had been asleep when it happened.