Overwatch: Jinxed

Chapter 37: Bad For Me

After a full day of just hugging and crying and flowers, Isabell had been sound asleep for hours. She'd barely had a moment to herself, and now, at three in the morning, was when she finally had a peaceful second to just spend breathing.

Everyone had come in and said hello. Genji had sat next to her and they'd talked for hours. Winston had been overly apologetic and kept making passive-aggressive remarks about Jamie. Angela had just been ridiculously relieved. McCree had ended up challenging her to a shooting competition (which ended in lots of broken vases and Winston losing it with Jesse), Reinhardt had let her take his hammer apart to see how it worked and Mei had not stopped crying the entire time.

But the one person she needed to talk to never showed up.

She knew she wasn't supposed to, but Isabell got up out of bed and opened the curtains, and then the window. She looked out at the sky - the night sky that brought so many questions. It was so clear out here, and she'd never bothered to look.

When you're here next to me, you're like a burning ball of fire that I can't take my eyes off. An explosion like you are my favorite kind - the ones that keep burning and burning until they blind everyone around them.

"But what if I blind you?" she whispered, letting the wind snatch her words away as she trailed her hand along the windowsill. 

Outside it was still and calm and peaceful. Isabell cast a glance back at her door, where she knew someone was waiting in case she accidentally died or something.

She carefully removed the drip from her arm and disconnected herself from the heart monitor after fiddling with the mechanics to make sure that it kept beeping steadily. She  grabbed the ropes for opening the curtains and used some scissors she found in a craft box (marked with suspiciously dark-with-green-highlights colors) to sever them before tying them together. She tied a few quick knots in them, looped her big rope around her bed and swung it out the window.

She didn't have to - but Isabell had always wanted to do that. And it would keep Reinhardt, who was no doubt sleeping outside her door while supposedly keeping an eye on her, out of trouble.

Ignoring her makeshift rope completely, Isabell crouched in her windowsill and slid down the drainpipe to her right, connected to the wall. She landed softly in the grass and sighed with relief - this was all she needed. Just a little time to figure things out.

A month. An entire month, she'd been in a coma for.

It took less than five minutes to slip into her old room and pull out a loose shirt and shorts.

The cool wind carrying the smell of salt and rainforest tousled her hair as she walked towards the forested part of the island. It was outside the shields, but that was what Isabell wanted - to feel like there were no walls around her.

She remembered panicking when her head went silent. She realized now that the terror she had felt was from the illusion that she was under the influence of a collar again - emptiness in her mind, without thoughts to call her own. It was strange to think that even while deep in her subconscious, she still had fears.

For some reason, she remembered younger Jamie a lot better now. She could see his eyes, his long blonde hair that was forever messy, and even remember his laugh. She would have had to have been at least four, and yet now she could remember this nine- or ten-year-old Jamie better than ever.

She wondered what else had gone on inside her head while she was in a coma. What had happened to finally wake her up.

Isabell couldn't remember most of what had happened - but she did remember coming to a realization.