Hunter's Alpha (gxg) ✓

52. Coma

JUDE

I have dreams of her.

The blue-eyed girl. Hunter.

These are the dreams I like. The ones where Hunter is both a girl and a woman. When she morphs between my best friend to my lover.

When she changes from my lover to my wife.

But it's only a dream, and the dreams fade, like they always do.

Sometimes I dream of my mother. She teaches me karate. She shows me how to shoot a gun. She gives me driving lessons.

She whispers, "I love you."

She whispers, "It was for the best."

And I forgive her, I do, but family is not made of blood but choice. I choose Hunter. I choose the Underground.

So when she disappears, as dreams do, I am sad to see her go, but that is all I am—sad.

Then my dreams swirl between the Underground and the city of New Orleans. I am plagued with images of colourful banners and a life I will never live.

But always, always, the dreams come back to the ship.

The crash of the ocean.

The collision of the sky.

The strike of lightning and the explosion of fire.

I was on the highest point of the ship. Facing the sky and the clouds and the stars. Ready to die.

But when the rumble of the bomb rippled through the ship, I was the first to fall.

The wind cradled me. Tearing me from the mast.

Saving me, in a way.

I was the only one spared.

Because I wanted to see the sky.

Because I was closest to the storm.

And when I landed among the waves and the rubble, when I heard Hunter's voice calling my name from the depths of my unconsciousness, I listened.

I answered.

I told her, I love you.

I can die now, knowing I got to tell her. Knowing it wasn't all for nothing, because she is alive and all I ever wanted was for her to be happy.

But I don't want to die.

I don't want to die, so I hold on.

And I keep dreaming.

Please, Jude. If you're in there, if you're listening . . . come back to me. I love you. I love you. I love you.

I dream until I wake up.

I have to find Hunter.