The Nexus

Chapter 21

The next time Emma opened her eyes the first thing she noticed was the cheery yellow wallpaper of the room she was staying in. The next thing she noticed was Thomas slumped over in a brown armchair in the corner by the door.

She closed her eyes and moaned. Her body ached and she was shivering with what felt like a fever.

Thomas jerked, jumped up, and ran over to her. "Emma," he was right next to her bed, "can you hear me?" he asked.

She opened her eyes. He was tall enough, and the twin bed she was in was short enough, for him to be looking over her. "Of course I can hear you," she said.

Thomas let out a breath and pushed her over on the bed so that he could sit next to her. "You've been laying in the bed for two days, Emma," he said with exasperation.

She was shocked and her face showed it. She shivered again and Thomas placed the back of his hand on her forehead. "You've had a pretty bad fever, too, but it doesn't feel as bad as before. You were mumbling and tossing and turning. Sometimes it seemed like you were awake, but when we would talk to you it was like we were all invisible."

Emma propped herself up on her side and cradled her head in her hand. She looked at Thomas. "Something's different, Thomas," she said. She couldn't explain it, but for the past two days she had been in a dream. It didn't feel like she had been out to the world for that long, but on the other hand she felt like she had been gone for a lifetime. Her lifetime.

All of the experiences she had had in her life had been replayed for her from a different perspective. The voices were gone from her head, but everything from her childhood on had been revealed to her and she felt completely empty. Before this moment she had only really been able to remember her time from the recruitment center at the Agency. Her education and training.

Now the memories that had been flooding her were like a weight that was dragging her whole body down and threatened to pull her to the center of the earth.

She shuddered, "What happened, Thomas?" She could barely get the words out. The only way that she could describe the feelings she was having was as an overwhelming sadness.

"Do you remember Joan hypnotizing you?" he asked.

"I can remember agreeing to it," she replied.

"Well, you told us about an event in your childhood and then we couldn't seem to get you out of the hypnosis," he said. "We brought you back to your room and you've been here since, just running a fever and mumbling, like I said." The look on his face told Emma that he had been completely upset by her.

'That's nice of ,' she thought. It was only one voice in her head and it was a thought she would have never thought before.

She laid her head back down on the bed. All of her energy was gone. Her body was getting heavier by the minute. "I can't describe to you what has been going on in my head," she said.

"Well, something unbelievable happened while you were under hypnosis," he said. "At one point it was like you melted into the couch." His eyes were gleaming and Emma could see his excitement. He was so close to her on the bed and now his legs were crossed as he looked straight down on her.

The bed was comfortable and she pulled the white comforter up close around her neck. Her arms felt like cement. She was skeptical about what Thomas had told her. "That's weird," was all she could think to say.

"It was more than weird," he said. "It was like magic. You don't remember that? I've never seen anything like it except as a special effect in a movie."

Emma closed her eyes. "I don't remember that," she said. There were a lot of pictures flashing through her mind, but she couldn't recall melting anywhere. There was something, though. Like memories were still being sorted out.

"I think I need more time to think," she said with her eyes still closed. "I'm so confused."

"Are you still hearing voices?" Thomas asked.

"No, but I still don't know if I'm insane or not," she opened her eyes and managed to smile a little.

Thomas visibly relaxed. He smiled back at her. "I think you might need something to eat. You haven't eaten anything in two days."

Maybe that was why she felt so weak she thought and nodded her head. "Don't make me go down to that dining room," she said. "Can you bring me something?"

"Sure," he said. And he turned to jump off the bed. "Do you want anything in particular?"

Emma had rolled on to her back, "Anything and everything," she replied.