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

edges of my vision, dark tendrils snaking across the ground. I try to warn Ava, but my voice won't work.

behind her.

her, dragging her away as she kicks and struggles. I lunge for her, but my feet are rooted. Darkness swallows her

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

Impact.

erupt. Pain

last. Ava, drowning in

55000

unseen monsters. And always, I'm helpless to

watch as she suffers.

chains, but I can't escape. I can't wake up. The horrors play out again and again, an

mercifully, I do

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

as the bitter liquid hits my tongue, but I force myself to swallow. Anything

torment.

often has the Master fed from you?"

once," I rasp out, wincing at the pain in

shakes her head. "The withdrawal shouldn't be this strong, not for a single feeding." There's something in her tone, an undercurrent of emotion I can't quite place. Envy?

you

her face as she mutters, "He must favor y greatly, for a

respond to that. The idea that this monster might favor me fills me with nothing but a sickening twist of my

]]

lase mast but no

weten, my mind dealle

Mariel's odd

want is to curl up

ere will die

mure endle

doesn't wees to

need to me agan her hate prodding at my skin with

that make me

doing. Her fingers press against my neck, my wrists, my ankles. It's only when she peers

any I rasp out, my voice rough

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

that. The memory of his fangs sinking, the agonizing pain, and the sickening

return.

trying to push the

her arms and resting her check on them as she stares at me. There's something wistful in her expression, a

Fevers

For