Separian - Book 1

Chapter 5

Get up.

I recoiled. The thought... it was dark, and the sound brought with it an unwelcoming aura.

"Hi, Mrs. McDavis." I knew that voice too. "Is there still no change in his condition?"

"We managed to get a fair amount of fluid into him last night, but I doubt he'd remember it if you asked him. He's been somewhere between this world and the next since then." My mother sounded worried. But who was she talking about?

"Do you mind if I stay with him for a little while?" the other voice asked. "I will let you know if anything changes in his condition." Whoever it was, they were trying to hide something from my mother.

"You really don't have to be here-" My mother checked her words as they left her mouth. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. What I mean is, if there's something else you need to take care of or somewhere you need to be, I'm sure he'll understand."

"I appreciate it, but I'd like to be here when he wakes up, rather than hear about it over the phone and have to rush over."

My mother's voice was light, "You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like, dear. If there's anything you need, I'm-"

"-Just down the hall," she finished for my mother. "Thank you, Mrs. McDavis."

A door closed and a set of footsteps disappeared down the hall.

My eyes felt heavy, like they were weighted with dumbbells. My arms and legs felt equally restrained. No matter how hard I tried to make them move, I couldn't. But I could feel parts of the muscles flexing beneath the skin, so something was happening. Just not enough to show.

Keep trying.

Flashes of a memory echoed through my mind. A reflection... of me. But what did it mean?

I realized quickly that I knew this girl. She had a habit; one I'd only picked up on this past school year. She hummed when she was upset, or troubled by something. I didn't know if it was a conscious choice but she did it so infrequently that I was surprised I'd noticed at all. So now that she was seated on the end of my bed and humming, I knew I needed to try harder to respond. She was upset.

I tried to force a sound, even a whisper through my lips, but my vocal chords were about as willing to cooperate as the rest of my body. All I could do was remain still and listen to what transpired around me. My mother had been referring to me; her son, lying half alive on the bed, in case that wasn't clear.

Jetta was unusually quiet so far. Even with how familiar she was with this girl, she generally couldn't sit still when in the same room as her. She'd run in circles, rub her back against her leg, moan, anything to grab her attention for one stroke across the top of her head. Then the process repeated. This girl was here almost every day since before we entered high school. So the fact that Jetta still wasn't able to get enough of her was odd. But even so, it was familiar, a ritual almost. Was my condition really affecting her this strongly? I wondered if she'd been eating since I'd blacked out.

Come to think of it, why didn't I have any memory after the incident? The last thing I remembered was looking into the river and seeing-

Me.

There it was again. As if I couldn't control my own thoughts anymore.

"Claire couldn't stop asking about you today." My thoughts quieted and continued to listen to the sound that filled the room. "She feels terrible about what happened. She's even trying to blame herself for this." It was a joke, I knew. Her voice sounded strange. "She refuses to talk about what happened between you two after you left the auditorium that day. Saying it's really not that important. You know I hate it when people dodge my questions." Absolutely I knew; all too well.