After Dark: A Story About Lucy And Niall

Chapter 25: Lucy

DREAM:

I was slowly falling into pure darkness. My whole body hurt and I was having trouble breathing. It was like the two sides of both of my lungs were stuck together.

When I hit the ground, it felt like all my bones cracked in half and none of them were spared. I felt the tears streaming out of my eyes as my vision came into focus. I tried to look around, but my neck hurt and it made it hard to turn my head.

All I could see was a light gray light coming from one of the sides. When I turned back, I had a little mini heart attack. I saw my dad's face with that evil sneer of his.

In a raspy voice, he said, "No matter how much you hide, I will always find you. If you run away again, the consequences will be bigger. That includes death. I don't if I get in jail, but you will pay for running away." Then a huge hand slapped the side of my cheek.

With that, I woke up.

I was in a hospital room, no doubt, with two doctors and two nurses around me. When the doctor saw me, he smiled.

"Well, hello. We're glad you are alive. How are you feeling?"

"Um . . . good. What-what day is it?"

"It is June first, 2013."

"Since when have I been in this condition."

"Since May twenty-first, same year. By the way, you have some people outside. They have visited every single day to make sure you were okay. They must really care about you. Do you want them to come in?"

"Yeah. Please."

"Aright. Um, could one of you open the door and tell her . . . " he turned over at me.

"Family."

"Tell her family to come inside."

                                                * * *

I was back in the apartment days after I woke up from that scary dream.

When I spoke to Niall and Minerva, or I should say Daniela, I found out that Daniela had started her YouTube channel and that Niall got a temporary job as a Subway sandwich maker.

In my room, Niall came over to visit. He started telling me that he loved his job and that he missed me. I told him how it felt being in the hospital and how my first day of school had been, and why I cut myself.

Somehow, we veered towards talking about love. We started asking each other about our love history and all that it was weird.

Things got even weirder.

Niall asked me, "So you ever want to date someday, or what do you plan on doing?"

"Uh . . . I'm not sure. I mean I want to get married and have kids, but I don't think I am ready for dating yet. I feel like I am going to do something to mess up my relationship. Like I am going to say something wrong and I am not going to know how to take it back. You get me?"

"Yeah. But how are going to know if you are going to be any good of a wife? There's always a first time and that first time is where you learn how to do stuff. Right?"

I nodded.

He continued to say, "Well then, when would you, personally, like to start dating?"

"Um, next year, or later. I don't know. I mean, I've never even had a laptop or a phone to check Facebook relationships or anything, so I want to take time to learn everthing I can to make things right. I don't want to be on a date and do something that would embarrass me or whoever is on the date with me."