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.
Just wake
No way.
here, in
you have to come back. This
I'm here, in this serenity of darkness. I feel pain,
die, Ava. You're
Alive.
Alive means death—
up. Stop feeling sorry for
* * *
sandpaper scraping against my
Ava.
my mind, comforting. Grounding. I try to speak but my throat is parched, voice
nose presses into my palm. The slight weight of her head resting on my hand. I
awake. Relief colors her
heavy and thick. "What happened?" The
into my arm. I want
calling my name, but I'm already
* * *
chemical scent of disinfectant. Starched sheets rough against my skin. An IV pinches the back
force them open. The ceiling swims into focus—white tiles, fluorescent lights. A hospital. Selene
back. Her relief washes over
asking me questions, one talking over the other. It's
out?" I rasp, my throat raw
whines softly. We were
asks, way
feeling?" Lisa pipes up, from
The news hits me like a punch to the gut. I struggle to sit up, my muscles weak and uncooperative. Selene helps,
entire process that
needle pinches my hand, connected to an IV pole with a few bags hanging off it. One of the bags looks like milk, and
hospital gown, blankets pooled around my waist. My hair is lank
waver, dizzy. You've
together how I ended
black hole in my
"What happened to me?"
against my skin. Warmth flows between us, a
know for sure. Vanessa thinks your wolf is trying to emerge. Do
long, I yearned to shift, to run beneath the 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's way
be afraid, Selene soothes, sensing my
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