Disturbing the Peace

Chapter 13

I would first just like to thank you all for reading. I have just hit 150 reads, and I could not be more grateful!

Here's the chapter...

************

Two more days passed, and neither of them went by without me visiting Leo. Rain, Marc, and Ferris visited a couple days ago. The desk lady knows me by name now.

Leo is getting better but the guilt courses through my veins day and night. I had a migraine for most of today because I'm stressed; Rain, Marc, and Ferris were smoking today; I couldn't bring myself to tell them to stop; Leo coughed up blood while I was visiting, but at least he's no longer in an oxygen mask. He can't move very well but he can speak.

It's hard watching him, I won't lie. It's difficult to just...sit there. Helplessly.

I uncover my flowery comforter from my bed and get in. I think about Leo before going to bed.

*************

Leo's face flies at me, bloodstained, bruised, and cut. "Leo what happened?" I call.

"You killed me!" he hisses. His jaw opens and comes an inch away from mine and I scream. Suddenly, I can't move.

The scenery changes and I'm in a dungeon looking interior. A life-sized bloody doll girl walk towards me with a knife. "It's your turn!" She comes to stab me and I feel a pain stab me.

Next thing I know I'm waking up in an old hospital. I'm frozen onto the bed as the doctor's neck stretches so his head is in my face. "You don't deserve to live. You're a murderer!" he screams.

He holds the plug that's giving electricity to the machine keeping me alive. Faces swarm me, but I can see his hand on that plug the whole time. Leo's face cries out to me, "Why would you kill me?"

"I'm sorry!" I scream to him.

The doll threatens me in a wispy voice and says I'm getting what I deserve. The doctor laughs. I try to cry but the tears won't come. I can't move so there is nothing to take me out of this living hell.

The plug is pulled and I begin gasping for air, feeling my throat close in on itself.

"Willow!" The heads cry out. "Willow, Willow!" It becomes a devilish chant.

I blink once and I find myself laying on my bed, still frozen in fear, gasping for breath. "Willow!"

Oh, god, there still here.

I quickly find out it's only Rain and not creepy heads. Her parents, Ashlee and Hayden, stand there next to her looking concerned.

Rain throws a handful of water in my face, causing me to snap out of my paralyzed state. The tears finally spill. "I-I was so scared!"

"What happened, honey?" Ashlee asks, hugging me to her chest.

I don't know.

"Uh, well...mm...I couldn't move, and faces flew at me. Leo was screaming about why did I kill him. There was a doll who stabbed me, then I was in the hospital and some-some doctor said I didn't deserve to live, since I was a murderer, so he pulled the plug keeping me alive. I-I couldn't breathe. I thought Leo was dead. I was dying. I felt helpless. I couldn't move. Couldn't save myself." I sob.

Hayden, being as smart as he is, comes out with the answer to my experience, "Willow, if you were paralyzed, I think you has a sleep paralysis."

"I thought he was dead!" is all I can get myself to scream out into Ashlee's shoulder. "I need to see him."

"Right now?" Rain asks. "But-"

"I need to see him!" I scream persistently, standing up wobbily.

"Baby, you've just been traumatized," Hayden, the voice of reason, calls after me. "Now's not the time."

"Sorry, man, those words aren't in my vocabulary," I call back and leave the house, hopping on my bike and pedaling like a mad woman.

I reach the hospital and walk through the double doors. I run straight to Leo's room after the desk lady nods at me in confirmation.

I walk in and find him looking at my scarf.

I throw my arms around him in a tight embrace and I feel his smirk form while his head rest on my shoulder. "Thank god, you're alive!"

"I'm moving better now too." He lifts his arm up as if to show me. A sad sigh escapes him. "They say I may not be able to walk again without crutches."

"It's-it's not true!" I shake my head in disbelief. "I know you. You can overcome anything. You haven't had a wink of marijuana since being in here."

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to. I've gotten headaches from the cravings."

"I know how you feel," I reply.

He smiles. "You are so strong. And so are the rest of our friends. Giving it up even when you can get it. The difference with me is that I can't get it."

I look down at my feet. "About that..."

"What?" His eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"Our friends haven't exactly given up weed." I give him an ashamed glance, but I can't take the blazing stare he's giving me, so I look back down again.

"They need to Willow. You need to take charge here," he coos.

I burst in a flare of emotions. "I'm not you Leo! How can I stand up against all of our friends? How do I do that? I don't wanna fight all of them! What if they won't listen?" I scream. "What if they hate me for going against them?"

"You're being way too over dramatic!" Leo decides. "You're not in a soap opera. They'll listen to you." He puts his hand on my wrist and slowly wraps his fingers around. "Do it for me."

My mouth forms into a tight line. "I-I don't know if I can."

And with that, I run out of the hospital room and exit the building. I hop onto my bike and ride with no clue of where I'm going. I just ride.

God, I'm a weakling.