Tangled

166

166

166 Lisa: Fevers and Dreams

LISA

How long has it been?

A few days?

Weeks?

The sun should keep me oriented, but a fever gets me the first night I'm there.

The girl, Marisol, comes by every so often. Always with food. A few times with bowls filled with some noxious liquid that has my nostrils trying to close, avoiding the smell coming from within. She's expressionless as she shoves it down my throat, and I'm too weak to fight her off.

It's medicine, I think.

I think that because I slowly get better after the third bowl,

In between moments of lucidity, I dream.

Normal life. Home. Mom and Dad.

Working with Ava at Beaniverse.

Flirting with that cute guy who accidentally wandered into our professor's Eng Lit class instead of some sort of philosophy class

two doors down.

Cozy, happy dreams, of a place far from here..

An escape from the reality that chains me.

17:37

At some point the dreams turn from happy comfort to something uneasy and dark.

Sunshine warms my face as Ava and I relax at our favorite cafe,

sipping lattes and chatting. For a moment, the world feels right again, like I'm back where I belong

But then the shadows come

vision, dark tendrils snaking across the ground. I try to warn Ava, but my voice won't work. She keeps talking, oblivious, until the shadows coalesce into

behind her.

her, dragging her away as she kicks and struggles. I lunge for

about the turbulence. I reach for her hand to comfort her, but the plane lurches, throwing us forward. Oxygen Ava's screaming. I'm screaming. The world outside the windows is

Impact.

and rends. Flames erupt. Pain

last. Ava, drowning in a sea of blood. Ava, burning

55000

always, I'm helpless to

watch as she suffers.

escape. I can't wake up. The horrors play out again and again, an endless loop of

mercifully, I

weak. Marisol kneels beside me. holding a bowl of that foul-smelling liquid to

force myself to swallow. Anything to

torment.

me with a curious intensity. "How often has the Master fed from you?" she asks, her voice almost

"Just once," I rasp out, wincing at the

be this strong, not for a single feeding." There's something in her tone, an undercurrent of emotion I can't quite place.

you

she mutters, "He must favor y greatly, for a single taste to affect you

to respond to that. The idea that this monster might

]]

mast but no words

weten, my mind dealle

Mariel's

I want

ere will die

mure endle

to

need to me agan her hate prodding at my skin with

that make

neck, my wrists, my ankles. It's only when she peers down at my shoulder that I realize what

have any I rasp out, my voice rough from disuse and screaming. "He only bit

me with a strange intensity. "Only once," she repeats, as if tasting the words. "But

The memory of his fangs sinking, the agonizing pain, and

return.

swallow hard, trying to

a longing that I can't quite comprehend. "When did you know? she asks softly, her eyes never leaving mine. "When did you realize you were in love with the

Lisa Fevers and

For