A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 2)

Chapter Nine

This time, when I wake up, it's because of someone shaking me. The last vision I had just ended up being a repeat of the one I had before. While frustrating, the child in me is just chuffed I won the battle Ava and I were having. Completely unintentionally, sure, but a win is a win, eh?

As I return to reality, it's impossible to ignore the intense aching in all my muscles. My head is sore to the point where surfacing thoughts is painful, and even when I manage to get one through, it's hazy and confused.

"Shit, Ava, what if we can't wake him up?" Carmen's voice chatters from somewhere above me, but I can't open my eyes.

"He's okay, he has to be--I--It can't be that harmful, it's not--I..." Ava is stammering, and it's one of the few instances I've ever heard genuine fear in her voice. "I should've spoken to my mum first, I--I didn't mean to do it, I don't know if the ones before made him sensitive to it or--or, whoa, I don't know."

"Well, we have to think of something because we were meant to alight over half an hour ago now, and I'm not paying a fine because of his incessant--"

"Shut up, Jamie," Carmen snaps, which makes me chortle in my deranged state.

"Felix?" everyone pipes up in unison, which is honestly really impressive. A well oiled machine, this lot.

Just under an hour later than we were supposed to leave the ferry, my feet touch dry land. I think Annabel's finally given up because she's not tried to harass me once since I woke up. She usually holds out a lot longer when I'm stropping with her, and I'm slightly offended she's given up so easily this time, especially after last night.

I'd have thought she'd be way too nosy to not demand answers about what I did and didn't see in my visions. I can still barely see straight though, so I have no issue with her leaving me in peace for a bit. I'm leaning on Tom for support as we walk towards the car, and I'm just grateful for the opportunity to sit down once we all squeeze inside.

"We're not doing that again," Ava mutters as she starts to drive.

"It's fine, I'm fine," I say, but the fact my voice comes out sounding like that of a pensioner's doesn't really sell what I'm saying. I blink a few times to try and clear my vision, but it's useless. "It's probably just because we tried to do it so much. Once or twice is fine, I'm sure."

The fact Tom practically had to carry me to the car doesn't help the act I'm trying to pull off, either.

"I'm fine."

I'm barely convincing myself at this point. I don't remember it happening, but I drift off at some point, and spend the next few hours slipping in and out of sleep. My dreams are weird and fragmented, and I think I'm mumbling a lot because every now and then, I catch the others looking at me with furrowed eyebrows before falling back into one.

Most are flashes that last a few seconds, and they're all related to last night's visions in some way or another. Some of them are just replays of the scenes I saw, while others are bizarre twists on everything I saw. In one instance, we're in the car except nobody is driving and a woman has replaced the man in the passenger seat, and then the next thing I know I'm sitting on Ava's lap while my dad's behind the steering wheel and Jamie sits in the passenger seat, and we're driving through an open field in broad daylight with heavy metal music playing. None of it makes sense.

At one point, I wake up to find someone has taken off my dad's hand-me-down jacket, and my shirt is soaked through. In my daze, I think we're outside and it must have been raining, but we're still in the car and I realise I've just sweat through my clothes.

What feels like forever later, I'm being woken up by Carmen. We've arrived at the airport. I feel better. I think. It's grey and wet outside, but as I step outside the car, the rain wakes me up, so I can't complain. We all rush inside with our stuff, and I manage to do so without Tom's help. We're leaving Ava's car and a bunch of our stuff at the airport while we're away, and all the flowers that were crammed into it have finally been binned.