Jade in the Upside Down

Its Taken Her

It was pitch black. Darkness had finally settled in for the night, and it was in no doubt making its presence. The only thing that could be heard was the never ending stop and go of the motor which belonged to the double-decker tour bus that was making its way to New Jersey, the next stop on the first world tour of Little Mix. 

The four girls - Jesy, Leigh Anne, Jade, and Perrie, had all gone to bed fairly early that night after ending a two night show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The ride from New York to New Jersey would be short in comparison to the previous bus rides, since they would be on the east coast now for a couple weeks. 

The bus rides typically were full of noise and laughter, joking around and movies being played, but not tonight. Tonight the only thing that a certain tiny brunette could hear other than the bus itself, was the ringing in her head. 

Jade, although not the youngest of the group, was often looked at as being so but not because of maturity. All of the girls were wise beyond their years, strong, independent....but Jade had a lot she was hiding. Her petite frame, huge brown eyes, and soft spoken voice made her similar to a cute little character out of a Disney movie. However, what she was dealing with on the inside was something straight out of a horror film. The only thing is, the only person who knew that was Jade. 

Jade lay on her back, the covers of her little bunk pulled up to her chin. Layers of blankets lie spread on top of her. She liked the feeling of the heaviness on top of her because it made her feel protected. From what? She didn't know. All she knew was that it helped. 

Her eyes were heavy and tired but she didn't want to fall asleep. Her mind had somehow convinced her again that she wasn't going to wake up if she did. This happened occasionally but tonight it was worse because she was inside a moving vehicle. She felt like she was surrounded by danger either way she looked at it. She did not want to lie awake and wait on every turn the bus made to panic about whether they were going to crash or not, and she also did not want to fall asleep and be forced to surrender to whatever nightmare her mind had brewing in her head. She felt like she hadn't slept in days. Her eyes wanted to close so badly but she just couldn't do it. 

The mental war she had going on with herself continued for another half hour, until she finally gave up. The worst part about these mind games was that she fought with herself until she really didn't care anymore what happened to her. She fell asleep with the feeling of surrender and the lack of care about her life and living. It was an awful, awful feeling. Certainly not one that she felt was fair either. 

A little over an hour passed and it was now well deep into the night. It was around 2:00am when things started to shift down the wrong path. 

Jade had been softly crying in her sleep long enough for Jesy, in the bunk below, to notice. Jesy had been listening to her soft little cries for only a few minutes, but it was just so heartbreaking to hear. She knew whatever was happening was happening in Jade's sleep, but the pain in her cries sounded so real and it was hard to listen to. She gave it a few more minutes before deciding if she should wake her up or not. Whether to actually get up and risk waking up the other girls, or trying to text her in hopes of her text tone waking her up, she didn't know. There really was no best option because there was a risk either way, but being the big sister to the girls she was, she decided to get up and try to nudge her awake. 

Jesy tried to be as quiet as she could. Perrie and Leigh were heavy sleepers anyway so it didn't matter very much how quiet she was or tried to be. She got out of her bunk and carefully flipped on the dim light that was next to the bunks. She slid open the little curtain that stood as the only form of privacy the girls got to themselves. When she got a look at Jade she got worried that her little friend could be running a fever because of how pale her face was. She gently rubber her shoulder and quietly said her name. Jade's head slowly flipped from side to side and another cry escaped her mouth. Jesy tried again. This time though, she stopped moving altogether. Her head seemed to droop and her body looked as if it had fallen limp. 

Jesy called her name again, suddenly becoming fearful that something serious was happening. All of a sudden, Jades eyes started to flutter but her body remained still. Jesy had never seen someone have a seizure before, but somehow she knew this was what it would look like if she had. 

"Jade!" Jesy said at regular volume now. She shook her friend. She called her again. Her eyes continued to flutter, until all of a sudden Jade gasped sharply and sprung up holding her chest. She was in full on panic mode. She had no idea where she was and no idea what was happening. She was breathing so hard and clutching her chest so firmly that amidst the pure terror, Jesy thought she was going to hurt herself. 

"Okay, okay, okay....okay you're okay...its okay..." Jesy took her arm in one hand and rubbed circles on her back to at least try to calm her down enough to ask her what happened. 

Jade looked to Jesy, and all Jesy could see was panic and fear written all over her face.