Chapter 112 Ava: Waking Up
Darkness.
Light.
So cold.
It burns.
My lungs ache.
Something's holding me down.
There are whispers. Prayers, I think.
Chaos reigns in this hazy world. Something beeps incessantly.
I'm sweating. My hands are too warm.
… up.
What's that?
… Ava, you…
Who's that?
… can you hear me?
I struggle to reach the voice that calls me, but something sucks me away again.
Frustration simmers, but I'm too tired to fight it.
Ava, you have to wake up.
There it is again.
I know you can hear me, because I can finally hear you.
Hear me? Hear me what? Am I talking?
Yes.
No, I don't think I'm talking. I'm too tired. My body is crushed beneath the earth. Fire ate every last bit of me. I drowned. The air was sucked away.
You're alive. You're asleep in the hospital. You're just fine. You just need to wake up.
No, no.
No, no, no.
Waking is pain.
I remember the pain.
no pain, Ava. Just wake up.
No way.
peaceful here, in this
you have to come back. This
I'm here, in this serenity of darkness. I feel pain,
die,
Alive.
Alive means death—
feeling sorry for yourself. You never
* * *
crack open. They feel like sandpaper scraping against my lids. Everything is blurry, shapes indistinct. White. Harsh
Ava.
warm honey in my mind, comforting. Grounding. I try to speak but my throat is parched, voice
hand. I turn my
Relief colors
my tongue heavy and thick.
She nuzzles into my arm. I want to
calling my name, but I'm
* * *
beep of a heart monitor. The chemical scent of disinfectant. Starched sheets rough
open. The ceiling swims into focus—white tiles, fluorescent lights.
Her relief
are here. They're asking me questions, one talking over the other. It's painful to my
long was I out?" I rasp, my throat
Selene whines softly. We were
asks,
feeling?" Lisa pipes up,
weak and uncooperative. Selene helps, bracing her body against mine, and both Lisa and Lucas rest their hands
entire process
upright, I take stock. My limbs feel stiff, atrophied. A needle pinches my hand, connected to an IV pole with a few bags hanging off it. One of the bags looks like milk, and that one's connected to
my waist. My hair is lank and greasy against
I waver, dizzy. You've
cast my mind back, trying to piece together how I
hole in
"What happened to me?"
face, his fingers hesitant and gentle against my skin. Warmth flows between us,
know for sure. Vanessa thinks your wolf is trying to emerge. Do you feel any
moon. To be whole. But now, with all the strangeness surrounding my heritage, the idea fills me with trepidation. I flick a glance toward my wolf, disguised as a husky for a reason she has yet to explain, and her ears flick as she licks my face, settling into my lap as though she's a lap
She's way too
my unease. This is
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