Torn between Dreams and Reality

Chapter 17

Hearing something break, I jerked up, only to feel a piercing pain surge through my head. I scanned my surrounding instinctively, realizing that I was in a hospital bed. Mere panic took over me when I noticed a broken glass lying on the ground which might've been what I had heard breaking.

Bringing me knees to my chest, I rocked back and forth, memories of what I saw replaying like a movie in my mind. I realized my head was wrapped in a bandage as I stroked my hand over it. I winced when I stroked my cheek; finding a deep cut there. It was from when the psycho version of myself attacked me.

It was true, it happened. The horrors were really.

Tears pooled up in my eyes and streamed down my face as I sobbed loudly, burying my face in the pillow to scream in it. Rupturing my lungs, I took out all of my frustration through those screams when I heard the door open and shut.

Raising my head from the pillow, I saw a plump lady with flushed cheeks make her way towards me. Looking at my swollen eyes and tear stained face, she came closer, embracing my in a quick hug.

She pulled back, her silver-blue eyes boring through me. "Oh, sweetie, does it hurt too much, or is the bandage too tight. Do you want me to call a doctor or do you want to lie sown and rest?"

I stared at her with awe, wondering who she was. She probably realized that because of the way I was looking at her to which she smiled. "I'm Conrad's mother, sweetheart, but you can call me Lily. And I just had to find out who my son was spending so much time with. I'm sorry that the timing of our meeting wasn't too well."

"What. . . what happened to me?" I asked, pointing at the bandage on my head.

"I don't know sweetie; I wasn't there when this happened. I reached the basketball court when the ambulance arrived and I saw my son get in. But I'll just call him so he can explain everything to you, okay."

I nodded silently, slumping back on the bed, watching as Lily retreated to the door when a loud crash echoed through the hospital room. Lily turned around while I sat up straight and stiffened. My gaze shifted from the lady in front of me to where she was looking—at a flower pot that was seton the window—on lying broken on the ground.

I felt something start to throb at the back of my head again, like many needles sewing through my brain.

The lady still put on a smile, not realizing the horrors that were hitting me, "Don't worry, it must have been placed on the corner and probably lost balance."

With that she exited, leaving me alone with a storm brewing inside of me. I closed my eyes, focusing on my breaths but it didn't stop the eerie feeling of having someone watch me.

"Claire."

My eyes snapped up at Conrad, who looked like he wasn't sure what my next move might be. Neither was I sure as I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him wrap his own around my waist.

I was scared. I was scared of everything that was coming in my way, how it was breaking me. I was tired of it giving me stress and headaches that wouldn't leave.

I didn't want this; I wanted a normal life. A life with normal parents that would love and protect me, with friends that would cherish every moment with me and do crazy, stupid things with me, a life where I could focus on my studies and a better future... where no one would keep leaving me.

But what did I get? A dad that left me, a mom that abused me, a friend that forgot me, a past that haunts me, a reality that mistreats me, and dreams that forsake me.

Was that too much to ask for? To ask for a life that everyone else lives?

I clutched onto Conrad tightly, looking up to meet his melting gaze already on me. "Please don't leave me. I'll—I'll do anything, just don't leave me. I don't want to do this alone. I can't— I want to give up but I can't. Please don't leave me. You're my only friend, Conrad. I need you. I need you in my life. I don't want to lose you."

"Hey, hey, easy. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving you, calm down," he whispered, wiping my tears off. "You're a great person behind all of this, Claire. There's nothing that's going to change my mind on that, got it."

I nodded, only to let my eye well up with more tears. Burying my head into his shoulder, I let those tears gush out like a river and Conrad let me do so, even if it messed up his shirt. He said nothing, just rubbed my back as I hiccupped.

"T-thank you, Conrad. F-for staying with me. I-I wouldn't ha-have made it so far if it wasn't f-for you. I don't k-know what I would—ve d-done without you."

"Its no big deal, Claire. Nobody deserves to go through the shit you're in, especially alone."

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"Did you sleep well?"

My gaze snapped from the ceiling that I was staring at to Conrad who stood at the door. "Yeah, I did. What about you?"

He slid in and took the seat set right next to the bed. "Yeah, mom send me back so I could. She said that you were awake and fine now and that you wouldn't run away if I didn't stay."

I snickered a little. I had passed out while crying on Conrad's shoulder before.

"What happened to me, Conrad? How did I get this?" I asked him, pointing at my head.

He sighed. "I don't know. Wen you blacked out, I asked one of my friends to call an ambulance. I was carrying you to open field from the benches when the back of your head started bleeding. At first, I thought that maybe you hit your head on the benches when you tripped but then, you were just lying there and this scar on your cheek appeared out of nowhere. I was hundred percent sure that it wasn't there before and . . . that's what happened."

"The dreams. They did it."

He tilted his head with confusion, "Huh?"

"In my dream a... version of me jumped on me to hit me, that was when she scratched my cheek, leading to...this."

"Maybe it was—"

Conrad's sentence got cut off when the glass pane of the window burst out of the window, sending flying broken pieces towards us.

Thankfully, Conrad sat on the opposite side of the window and was able to pull me down as we ducked behind the bed for protection.

When everything settled, we sighed and got up when my glass of water started to move.

"Conrad. . ." I whispered, my eyes not leaving the glass as it moved towards the edge of side table. We didn't move, didn't even breathe as it fell off the edge, its pieces clattering everywhere.

Only when all the pieces settled on the floor did I hear a whispery, almost inaudible laughter that sounded like it belonged to a child.