22:20 – Day 1

It's barely been two hours since Jesse went to sleep, the night sky outside still dark. The flames in the fireplace were still steadily burning their way through the logs, bathing the room in a gentle orange light.

Jesse's sleeping from was staring to move on the couch. She rolled over in her sleep, shaking her head slightly. Eyes squeezed tightly shut. Letting out a soft groan, her eyelids slowly fluttered open. Jesse blankly stared up at the roof for a few seconds, blinking slowly several times.

As she slowly started to become aware of her surroundings again, it also became clear to Jesse that something wasn't right.

The thing that worried Jesse the most was not the dull throbbing in her head, or her slightly fogged up vision. It was the fact that she no longer felt cold. She wasn't just not cold any more, she was properly warm, almost hot inside her thick jacket.

"No, no, shit no." Jesse breathed, shutting her eyes tightly.

She reached up with one hand to wipe a few beads of sweat off the side of her face, her skin burning at the touch. A steadily rising fever.

Using the back rest of the couch, Jesse shakily heaved herself upright into a sitting position. On instinct, she held onto the couch for balance as the world lightly tilted around her.

Leaning slightly down, Jesse clumsily felt along the base of the couch until her fingers wrapped around the bottle of water. She shakily removed the cap, bringing to bottle to her lips and taking a few large gulps. Even the water – which Jesse knew for a fact was ice cold – felt warm.

"Okay... maybe this is just the flu or something." Jesse mumbled to herself, flopping back down onto the couch and taking a deep, shaky breath. "I'll just go back to sleep... see if it blows over."

Jesse closed her eyes tightly, trying to think of anything else to get her mind off of how crap she was feeling at that moment.

She's never wanted to be back in the safety of the Order hall as desperately as that moment. Or to at least be with her friends, have somebody by her side who could remain optimistic for the both of them.

Jesse let out a soft groan, struggling her sore body over onto her uninjured side as she tried to get more comfortable. Despite how extremely heavy her eyelids felt, her mind refused to welcome any sleep.

What if it wasn't just something small? What if she came down with something serious? Could one of her wounds have gotten infected already?

Jesse took a deep breath, forcing out the negative thoughts. Trying to think of something that could put her mind at ease, maybe help her fall asleep.

Another strong gust of wind howled around the corners of the sturdy cabin. Jesse opened her eye slightly, listening to the furious gusts of wind outside. It sounded really nice... even refreshing.

Jesse shook her head to herself, closing her eyes again. She wasn't even thinking straight at that moment!

"Sleep. Just sleep." Jesse muttered to herself, her voice cracking slightly.

She coughed slightly, hating how dry and scratchy her throat was starting to feel. Jesse weakly felt for the water bottle again, mentally cursing to herself. She was meant to use it sparingly, not gulp it all down in one night!

After another small drink, Jesse curled herself back up on the couch. Sleep. That's all she felt like doing at that moment, if only her body would agree.

Slowly exhaustion began taking Jesse over again, her mind drifting off. But it was far from a peaceful sleep. As the minutes ticked by, Jesse restlessly tossed and turned, drifting in and out of a shallow sleep.

For how long it went on, she didn't know. At some point she must have properly fallen asleep, because when Jesse woke up again – the sky had changed from a deep navy colour, to a pale grey. The sun only beginning to rise.

It was quiet outside, the wind having settled and no snow falling. Of course that wasn't the promise of a beautiful day – it had become clear that the weather could easily change in the blink of an eye.

Jesse didn't really acknowledge what the weather looked like outside the window. She wasn't feeling much better than she did the previous night, still quite unpleasantly warm inside her clothes.

She blinked sleepily a few times, letting her tired eyes fall close again. Her idea for planning a next step at daybreak, long forgotten. The only plan she had at that moment, involved sleeping the entire day away. Jesse curled herself up into a tight ball, nestling her face into the armrest of the couch. She let out a slow, tired exhale. Oh, how she longed for a proper bed at that moment.

Sleep slowly began consuming Jesse again. The thought of forcing herself up and awake crossed her mind briefly again. She was quick to brush the thought aside. There was no way it was just going to 'blow over' unless she allowed her body to sleep and rest.

After all, there were enough resources to keep her going for another day. If she ran out of water, she could always move over onto the soda in the fridge. Maybe even brave going back upstairs and check the toilet tank – that would be her last resort though.

Jesse's eyes slowly opened again as she thought about the fire and whether it was still going. She could see a few small flames still flickering in he fire place, the large logs nearly burned through.

Not feeling the power to get up and add more wood to the fire, Jesse just closed her eyes again. Just a little more sleep... when standing sounded like less of a challenge, she would get up and relight the thing.

Darkness wrapped around Jesse's thoughts again.

All she could see while she slept, were memories. Old memories, the times she spent together with her four best friends. Pairing up with Axel to annoy Olivia while she tried to work in the lab... Exploring the world outside Beacontown's walls with Petra... curling up in front of the fire place to read a good book with Lukas...

All those memories felt so far away, they felt so out of reach. It felt like Jesse hadn't seen her friends or her town in years. She so desperately wanted to return to it, continue on where her memories left off.

Jesse would much rather spend more and more hours stuck in her cramped office with Radar, filling in sheets after sheets of paper, than be stuck in the dark hole she was in at that moment.

Jesse wanted her friends to find her, she wanted somebody to help her. To take her back to Beacontown, back into the open arms of her friends. She never wanted them to leave her side again.

Yet, all these desires felt so... impossible. Would she ever be able to return to the life she had somehow left behind? Or was this how her story was going to end?

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Jesse wasn't sure how long she slept, before she woke up again. Long enough for the clear weather outside to turn grey again, a blanket of storm clouds hiding the sky. Strong gusts of wind whipped the falling snowflakes in every direction.

Dazed, Jesse sat up on the couch. Despite the extra hours of rest she had gotten, dark circles were forming beneath her eyes. She looked – and felt – utterly sleep deprived.

Jesse's tired eyes scanned the room slightly, not even acknowledging that her fire was burned out completely, or a fresh blizzard was raging outside. It was unknown whether she was even aware of where she was at that moment.

Still sweating profusely, Jesse reached up with shaky hands and began to clumsily fumble with her thick jacket, trying to get it off. After several pained groans because of her broken ribs, Jesse managed to free herself of the piece of clothing, carelessly tossing it aside. She didn't bother to mess with the many layers of sweaters.

Jesse collapsed back onto the couch, letting out a few gasp-like breaths. Her mind was barely coordinated, her thoughts all over the place.

Her friends... Beacontown... She needed to find them...

Jesse struggled upright again, brushing away a few strands of hair that was sticking to her forehead. Still boiling hot, cooling down was her biggest desire at that.
She couldn't stay there, if she did, she was going to die. She stood a much better chance out there, trying to get somewhere or find someone... yes, that was what she had to do. The blizzard wasn't a problem, she wanted to get some fresh air any way, cool down a bit.

Her sickness blinding Jesse to any logic, too out of it to realise what she was about to get herself into.

She weakly reached down, feeling for her boots. Shakily pulling them onto her feet, not even caring as some of the fabric from her pants-leg got bunched up inside.

Jesse staggered into a standing position, nearly falling right down again. She held out her arms, swaying slightly on the spot. Her teeth gritted as her injured body throbbed, her ribs and shoulder begging her to take it slow. Her head felt heavy with pain.

Barely acknowledging her injuries, Jesse felt her way along the dark wall, not even aware of the fact that she was battling to keep her eyes open. Leaving her down jacket behind on the floor where she had tossed it.

Jesse finally found the door, leaning heavily on it. A small bit of rationality struggled to push to the front of her thoughts. You're sick and over exerting yourself. Going outside is a death sentence.

Jesse shook her head to herself, her instincts heavily leaning over to a more illogical side. You need to find your friends, get back to Beacontown. You can't sit in here and wait for yourself to slowly wither away.

Jesse felt for the door knob with shaky hands, soon feeling its cold surface against her skin. She didn't even realise that this meant she wasn't wearing her gloves. Simply ripping the door open and staggering out onto the porch.

Jesse squinted slightly, her eyes burning like fire in the icy wind. She didn't pay attention to how cold her body became in literal seconds. Staggering off the wooden porch, her legs were quick to crumple beneath her. She simply brushed the fresh snow off her clothing, before forcing her complaining body back up.

Jesse looked around in a dazed state, not even sure which direction was left or right. Everything was starting to blur together in a mass of white and grey.

The lake was to one side... she didn't fancy sliding about on the ice again. That meant she wanted to go the other direction, but where was that? Directions were too complicated, she'd just go forward.

Jesse began to weakly stagger ahead, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. How she was even managing to stay in an upright position, nobody would know.

Her teeth were starting to chatter, the sweating and panting from earlier long forgotten. Her sweaters were succeeding in keeping her warm, but they weren't nearly as wind proof as the jacket she left behind.

Stumbling forward, Jesse collapsed into the thick snow again. Her eyes were barely staying open, her lips already a pale blue colour. Her dark brown hair damp and littered with snowflakes.

Jesse tried pushing herself up on her elbows, only to drop back into the snow. Despite how far her thoughts were from rationality, she had enough sense to bring her exposed hands to chest. Slipping them in underneath her sweater, allowing her body heat to prevent any forms of frostbite.

After a few seconds of lying in the snow and taking several deep breaths, Jesse tried to get up again. Her ribs throbbed painfully, her shoulder almost completely numb. With a bit of effort, Jesse heaved herself onto her knees so she was crouched in a crawling position.

Maybe I should try turning back and return to the cabin?
No way, that's a foolish plan! I've gotten this far!

Clenching her jaw and gulping back a scream of pain, Jesse pulled her heavy body upright again. She wrapped her arms around herself, her teeth chattering loudly as she looked around.

She didn't have a clue in the slightest which direction was which, or where she was at that moment. It was hard to tell whether the blizzard was obscuring her vision, or if her own sight was out of focus.

Her mind only barely awake, Jesse proceeded to blindly stumble forward into the storm.

___

Talk about escalating quickly, am I right?

So things took a turn for the worst on Jesse's side of the story. The one character who was actually in a fairly good position, regarding their whole situation, and now she might just be knocking on death's front door. Lost in a blizzard and barely able to stay on her feet, things aren't looking too great for Jesse at this moment.

I'll be honest with you, I was cringing when I wrote this, because I wanted to be screaming at Jesse through my screen xD

Now I'd definitely like to hear what you guys think! What's wrong with Jesse? How is this going to play out? How did we get from a somewhat stable situation into a mess like this?

Be sure to leave your theories, because I'd definitely like to know what you guys think, considering you don't know all the details I do! We still have a lot of chapters to go before we'll get any answers...

Now anyway, let me pop off, sit back and wait for reactions to flood in.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter - or were screaming at your screens, I'll take that as a valid equivalent to enjoyment - and I'll see you all in five, long, torturous days with chapter 8!