Chapter Eight
Maya Hart

All of the sudden, I felt myself hit the ground. For some odd reason, I heard no loud, "THUD!!!". Did that mean that when I hit the ground, I scared myself awake? I opened my eyes and looked around. I shrieked, then jumped up out of fear. I was looking right at... myself?

"How the heck...," I managed to breathe out, puzzled.

I was staring at myself, but how? The version of me that I was looking at was laying in a hospital bed and was connected to several wires that led to a life support system and a cardiograph. Just as I was about to ask myself how this was possible, it hit me.

"I can't believe that librarian Riley lied to me!" I cried, "I'm still dreaming!"

I whirled myself around. Just as I was about to storm out of the hospital and try to go and find another cliff or a building and make another attempt to wake myself up, I realized that there was someone else in the room. Riley. She was leaning over the hospital bed as tears ran down her face. I soon realized that was the Riley that Dream Riley told me about when we were in the frozen cave. This was the Riley who was visiting me in the hospital. The real Riley. I was no longer in dream world. I was in the real world.

"RILEY!!!" I cried with joy as I ran over to her to give her a hug.

That's when something strange happened. I ended up running right through Riley. I stopped when I had realized that half of my body was now going through the hospital bed. I shrieked as I jumped backwards and out of the bed.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!?!" I practically screamed.

I looked over at Riley. She just kept on crying and looking at the version of me that was lying down in the hospital bed. She didn't even acknowledge the fact that I was there.

"What, did you just not see that?" I asked with an annoyed tone, "Because if I was you, my mouth would've hit the floor!"

Riley just lowered her head and let out a sob. "Please wake up, Maya..."

That's when it dawned on me that Riley couldn't even see or hear me.

"Am I a... gh-ghost?" I trembled as I looked down at myself, "Did I... d-die?"

I looked up at the version of me that Riley could see. According to my cardiograph, my heart was still beating.

"If my heart is beating, then why do I feel like a ghost?" I asked myself.

My stomach lurched. That's when it occurred to me. I wasn't exactly dead, but I am sort of like a ghost now. I was in the state that's in between life and death, known as limbo. My body was still knocked out, in a coma, but me, my body's soul, is no longer inside of it. I was still alive, but not quite. But, how did this happen? How did I get into the state of limbo and how do I get out of it?

"How the heck am I going to get back inside of my body so I can wake up?" I asked myself.

I thought for a moment.

"I know! Maybe if I just touch myself and concentrate really hard, I'll go back inside of my body!"

Not wanting to freak myself out again by going through the hospital bed, I walked around to the other side of it. I placed my hand on top of my body's hand, closed my eyes real tight, and concentrated.

Just as I was about to open my eyes back up to see if it worked, Riley wailed, "Oh, Maya, I sure hope that you'll make it out ok."

    I quickly opened my eyes.

    "I'm fine, Riley! I'm right here!" I practically screamed, rapidly waving my hands in front of Riley's face.

    My heart dropped into my stomach. I looked to the side of me. I sighed. I could still see myself lying down in a hospital bed. I then looked at Riley who now had waterfalls springing from her eyes. She walked to the side of the bed and climbed on top of it right next to my body. She closed her eyes shut and began to sob some more.

    "M-Maya, I-I wish y-you c-could j-just w-wake u-up a-already...," she managed to choke out.

    I started to tear up. "Oh, how I wish I knew how... I would love to wake up right now so we can finally do all of the fun stuff that we used to do together again..."

    That's when I lost it. I bolted out of my room in the hospital and the waterworks began. I just couldn't bear to see Riley upset like that. It makes me upset. Also, knowing that she can't hear or see me makes me upset. I wish I could go back in there and comfort her, but I can't. I'm basically a ghost that isn't quite dead yet now.

    I decided to take a walk throughout the hospital to calm myself down. By now, it was nighttime. I walked into random patient's room just so I could see what other people in this world have to deal with. Since I am nothing but a soul until I get back inside of my body, I just walked through the doors that lead into their rooms. Literally. One man lost a leg. One woman had leukemia. One boy had a bad case of pneumonia. One girl had broken both of her arms. I felt so terribly ill for all of them. I hate watching people suffer and not being able to do anything about it. Why am I doing this to myself? Maybe visiting random patients who were severely injured or very sick wasn't such a great idea. I walked back into the hallway. I held my hands behind my back, lowered my head, and not knowing where else to go, walked forward.

    Just as I was about to go back into my own room and see if Riley was still there, I heard someone let out a loud scream. It sounded like a young boy. I whipped my head around.

    "Ahhh!" The boy screamed again.

    The scream was coming from the room adjacent of mine. I quickly ran into the room and peeked at the boy to see what was wrong. My jaw dropped to the floor. There was a huge cloud above the boy's head. Instead of being white, this could had pictures on it. There was a realistic-looking, red dragon and a boy who looked exactly like the boy who was lying in bed, except for this boy was wearing knight armor. All of the sudden, the dragon flew up into the air. I gasped. It was as if I was watching a movie! The dragon spat out fire at the boy in the knight armor. The boy jumped backwards, dodging the flames.

    "Ha, missed me!" The boy who was in the hospital bed taunted.

    I looked back at him. His eyes were closed. He was sleeping- no, dreaming. That's when it dawned on me that the cloud was the boy's dream cloud.

    "H-how?" I managed to stammer, "How am I seeing this?"

    Wait, if I could see this boy's dream cloud, then could I see other people's dream clouds too? I quickly darted out of the boy's hospital room and back into mine. I gasped. Riley was still lying down on the hospital next to me, but she was fast asleep. Like the boy, she had a cloud above her head. On Riley's cloud, there was a girl who looked a lot like Missy, our enemy, and another girl who looked a lot like Riley. Since it was Riley's dream, those girl's definitely had to be Riley and Missy. Both of them were holding life sabers. Riley's was blue, while Missy's was red. Also, they were both on the edge of a cliff, except for Riley was closer to the cliff than Missy was. All of the sudden, Missy knocked Riley's life saber out of her hands with her own. Riley stumbled backwards. Her hands were now literally touching the end of the cliff. Missy raised her red life saber really high, causing Riley to cringe.

    "NO!!!" I cried as I bolted over towards Riley's dream cloud, "MISSY, DON'T YOU DARE HURT MY RILEY!!!"

    I know that it was just a dream, but there was no way I was going to let Riley have a nightmare! I had to somehow wake her up! Without thinking, I balled my hand up into a fist and punched the cloud right where Missy was. Wrong choice. I tried pulling my hand back, but it was stuck inside of the cloud. Before I knew it, my feet were off of the ground. I looked back over at my hand. My whole arm was now inside of the dream cloud. It was if Riley's dream cloud was trying to eat me.

    "AHH, LET ME GO!!!" I shrieked as I closed my eyes shut real tight.

A/N: Oh no! What do you guys think is going to happen to Maya? I'm so excited to watch the final part of Girl Meets Texas tonight! Who do you guys think is going to win? Rucas or Lucaya? I predict that neither girls will date Lucas because they will realize that it will be better if all of them remain best friends. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-C77