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.
1. up.
What’s that?
… Ava, you…
Who’s that?
can you hear me?
I struggle to reach the voice that calls me,
but
15:30
1:10
112 Ava: Waking Up
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.
remember the pain.
Just wake up. Come back to
1. me.
No way.
15:30
2:10
Ava: Waking
here, in this hazy place.
have to come back. This is not where
should be.
here, in this serenity of darkness. I feel pain, but
Ava.
Alive.
Alive means death-
sorry for yourself. You
***
feel like sandpaper scraping against my lids. Everything is
Ava.
Her voice is warm
my throat
into my palm.
15:00
3/10
Ava Waking
turn my head slowly, painfully. She’s there, silver fur shining,
awake. Relief colors her tone.
swallow dryly, my tongue heavy and thick. “What happened?” The
into my arm. I want to protest but exhaustion
calling my name, but I’m already gone.
***
The steady beep of a heart
sheets rough against my skin. An IV
focus–white tiles, fluorescent lights. A hospital. Selene is curled up beside me, a comforting warmth.
back. Her relief
are here. They’re asking me questions, one talking over the other. It’s painful to my ears.
16:30
W10
Waking
I out?” I rasp,
disuse.
weeks, Selene whines softly. We were so
worried.
way
you feeling?” Lisa pipes up,
a punch to the
mine, and both Lisa and Lucas rest their
an entire process that leaves me exhausted.
stock.
it. One of the bags looks like milk, and that one’s connected to yet another IV line in the
in a hospital gown, blankets pooled around my waist. My
cautions as I waver, dizzy. You’ve been
15:30
5410
Waking Up
through a lot.
my mind back, trying to piece together how I ended up here. Training with Jericho and Lisa. Collapsing on the couch. Then… nothing. A yawning black hole in my
happened to me?”
between us, a
your wolf is trying
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 licks
She’s way too big for that.
afraid, Selene soothes, sensing my
15:31
6/10
Waking Up
like ashes on my tongue. Nothing about my life has been natural. Is Vanessa right? Are you going to be a part of me
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CZjn9uT9A/Dms1jJlL0V/qHwLxWbJ9f/71bqFQG8t3iQSS7wdxx+GUYtxJmWpsJBdXYWo89R0Rcu2bdoJfRiLpne7ao6NMCfsL7LRnHnDBsKxkKIT+sxo40PdDx98jP/yk2iAeWbPTqgAO0Hvg77izOvm93dgOjWnewDPjaPZQqeEO/S653fCYGEpW54Hi9uiTi1JvwRs91pQyl1mvJy5PFKkXdId5+lFmN3E7bGosr/S0Gsl9lE2EbtaJypOhu7agj44bLMC/vwwDDGJGViedWbQL5lIcRM5IQjeeNZfaJvWZdnllPed/x1FhMPyv4VJp1zsf982UJE13reV1cSpYKcxl4IloscrtWEdGhVF1yoEfm0wn04/xQEkbYqJSE5/MWj6LUo2ESYzzWC/tA7EMhdLkJfumwf7lo16dj6IQb+BsF66dFzEkKAFVk/oIhb8DXP00RHc6EV0f6J/TmRrXQjFa+FSQkM5cehGFbf8w==
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