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.
the pain.
will be no pain, Ava. Just wake up. Come back to
1. me.
No way.
15:30
2:10
Ava: Waking Up
here, in
you have to come back. This is not where you
should be.
me? But I’m here, in this serenity of darkness. I feel pain, but it doesn’t
die, Ava. You’re
Alive.
Alive means death-
enough. Wake up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You
***
sandpaper scraping against my lids. Everything is blurry, shapes indistinct.
Ava.
warm honey
my throat
nose presses into my
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Ava Waking
resting on my hand. I turn my head slowly, painfully. She’s there, silver fur shining, blue eyes
colors her tone.
thick. “What happened?” The words scrape
I want to protest but exhaustion drags
calling my name, but
***
returns gradually. The steady beep of a heart monitor. The chemical
my skin. An IV pinches the back
but I force them open. The ceiling swims into focus–white tiles, fluorescent lights. A hospital. Selene is
relief washes over
and Lisa are here. They’re asking me questions, one talking over the other. It’s painful to
16:30
W10
Ava Waking Up
out?” I rasp,
disuse.
weeks, Selene whines softly. We were so
worried.
okay?” Lucas asks, way too close to me.
are you feeling?” Lisa pipes
a punch to the gut. I struggle
her body against mine, and both Lisa and Lucas rest their
entire process that
I take stock. My limbs feel
a few bags hanging off it. One of the bags looks like milk, and that one’s connected to yet another IV line in the elbow of my
hospital gown, blankets pooled around my waist.
I waver, dizzy. You’ve
15:30
5410
Waking Up
through a lot.
how I ended up here. Training with Jericho and Lisa. Collapsing on the couch. Then… nothing. A yawning black hole in my
to
us, a
Vanessa thinks your wolf is trying to emerge. Do you feel
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,
way too
afraid, Selene soothes, sensing my unease. This is natural for
15:31
6/10
Waking Up
tastes like ashes on my tongue. Nothing about my life has been natural. Is Vanessa right? Are
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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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