Hi. I'm tired and sick.

9/24/2018

Elwin rushed into the room, his spectacles arranged on his face lopsided with a brown satchel hung across his shoulder as he asked what was wrong. Alden quickly explained, and flashes of a specific tree in a specific forest with a sign that probably inspired the Lord of the Rings hung up on the entrance to it.

Yup, she was thinking about the Wanderling Woods.

And no matter how much she banged her head on the plush bed, she couldn't knock it out.

Knock.

It.

Out.

She wanted the red warning lights flashing in her head OUT, and she wanted them out NOW. She wanted that itching instinct to stop pulsing through her body. She wanted her heart rate to go DOWN, stop pounding in her chest. She wanted Dex to be okay, that's all she wanted: her best friend to open his periwinkle eyes and not be in pain, not be in danger, not be not fine.

But she had been shunned out of the room before she could do anything.

"Foster, you've got to calm down," Keefe reassured her, subtly leaning closer to her. "Dex will be okay, and then it can go back to him and me barfing over Fitzphie."

"Keefe..." She couldn't do this right now. Not when... "Please, just..."

Keefe sighed. "Look, I'm just trying to lighten up this tension in the air. And your shoulders," He gently placed his hands on her shoulders from behind her, and she tensed up a little more in response. He took another step towards her, now against her back, and instead let go of her shoulders and trailed his fingers down her arms. Sophie closed her eyes. She needed to think about Dex, she needed to stress out, she needed to-

It wasn't what she was doing when his hands rested on her waist. "Keefe, we need to talk about the cave."

He leaned into her a bit more, and she could feel the intensity of his stare focused onto the hair that cascaded down her shoulders. "Did you... did you like it? Besides the almost dying part," He shifted his head to peek over her right shoulder, and the warmth was overwhelming her senses. His heart softly beating in his chest was making hers beat a little faster, and everything was so different in that one moment than it had ever been.

She slowly nodded, surprised yet not quite surprised at her own answer as the realization came to mind. "But did, did you?"

"Would I be doing this if I hadn't?"

She froze, thinking of his words, thinking of the way his arms were now wrapped around her hips, thinking of his actions, thinking only about Keefe. No, nope. Nope. She refused to even entertain the notion of the possibility that Keefe... and even herself... no. She wasn't. She couldn't.

"I... I, um, uhhhh... heh heh?"

"If it's any consolation, you're a really good kisser."

She turned around immediately, his arms letting loose around her, and her eyes were... very wide. "Wait, what?"

"I said you're a good kisser, Soph."

"I-"

"I wouldn't mind if we could do it again, maybe without the knife stuck in my leg."

"Me, me neither."

She felt his breath mingling with hers.

"I wish you knew." He placed his hands back onto her waist.

"Knew wha- mmmmm."

His lips against hers had silenced her words.

...

"Fitz, is he okay? What if-"

"He's okay. Elwin says he's in stable condition." He reassured her.

"But-"

"No buts."

"No being annoying. Which is what you're doing. Right now."

Fitz sighed, still smiling at her. She looked away to hide her blush. "Look, he'll be okay. Dex will be as okay as his need to call me Wonderboy."

Sophie laughed. "Okay."

"Now, I have to go. See you later?" Fitz asked.

"Yup."

He kissed her forehead, turned around to leave, froze, and stopped misstep. 

Sophie was trying to figure out what had happened, gaping at him, fighting the urge not to touch her forehead.

She could only imagine what he was thinking.

"I'm just gonna, uh, maybe, huh. Gonna- Bye!"

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd he was out the door, with Sophie still standing in the room, so many thoughts running through her mind and yet none at the same time. Even minutes later, she still stood there, frozen, unable to move.

Because she was scared that if she moved, it might wake her up from this dream of hers that couldn't possibly be possible. And yet it was a nightmare, with the agonizing dread of Dex and the mystery elixir.

Nightmares are dreams too.

...

"He's... Okay?"

"Yup," Tam said.

"AND AWAKE!!!!!" Biana screamed at them, a couple hallways down as she was levitating towards them at an alarming speed, spinning forward in a mid-air somersault before ramming into the doorway. "IF THEY DON'T LET ME IN-" Biana frantically jiggled the doorknob, still levitating several feet above the ground and realized that she didn't have to jiggle it.

The door was already open, and at this point, Sophie mentally facepalmed.

"WAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Biana was clearly uncoordinated, barreling into the room.

"She's going to give all of us a headache with that noise..." Sophie muttered. "Did they give her some sort of laughing gas or something?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

They walked through the door to find a slightly startled Dex and an Elwin shaking his head. "I just gave you the treatments. I can't have you on bed rest for that ankle- again."

"DEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!"

"Ugh. Hi Dex. You're fine? Okay. See ya. I don't need to watch this." Tam walked out of the room. Sophie imagined that if he was a girl, he would've flipped his hair.

Oh wait... he just flipped his bangs.

"Bye?" Dex said.

Sophie quickly hugged Dex. Then, together, Biana and Sophie filled Dex in on the details. Apparently, he didn't remember ANY of it. It's almost as if there was a blank spot in his head.

"I don't know. I feel like I want to see what will happen if I use the elixir again. Wait, did I even drink it?" He asked.

"Nope," Biana answered.

"Did you touch it?" Sophie asked him.

"I'm not sure... I need that elixir."

"WHAT?!"

"I said, I need that elixir. It'll help. I promise."

Sophie and Biana took this time to send incredulous facial expressions at each other. What was Dex thinking? Was he... what in the world?!

"What are you thinking?!" As soon as Biana said this, Sophie glanced at Biana, and vice versa. They knew what the other person was thinking, without even the Telepath to check the other's thoughts.

They needed to read his thoughts.

"I'm thinking that I need to use- see that elixir."

Sophie shot another look at Biana when Dex wasn't looking. Distract him.

Biana looked back with a subtle yet swift nod. "Dex... it's dangerous," Biana moved to sit on the bed, cradling his hand. "What if you get hurt?"

The last thought before Sophie pushed through Dex's barriers and into his mind, was that Biana sure did know how to distract a boy.

NOT IN THAT WAY UGH-

And at last, she heard his voice breeze through her mind- 

She didn't hear his voice "breeze through her mind".

In fact, she didn't hear any thoughts at all.

But why? Why wasn't Dex thinking? Where were-

There were no memories that had come to mind. It's as if he was speaking off of autopilot, as if someone had come in or... like he was still under the elixir. Like it had done long term... nope. She couldn't-

But she did.

Long-term damage. Dex couldn't be gone. He wasn't damaged. He was still Dex, right? No. And as soon as her panic had started, it stopped, it froze along with everything in her.

She exited his mind.

And everything was plummeting to the ground, her tight grasp on all of the things that she had had- it had slipped from her fingers and they were gone, far far far away from where she was. She was standing on a precipice, watching it, watching as she backed out of the room, watching as Biana looked back at her, confused, watching as she stumbled back through the door, watching, seeing herself from somewhere else, who knows where. She wasn't inside of her body right now, she was out of it, out of everything, in some sort of stupor, in some sort of state where she wasn't working. Everything in her body was working for her, everything was falling, but everything else was working against her, and she couldn't do anything but watch.

Watch.

And watch she did.

Just watch as she collapsed to the floor.