Freed

12

Not too long before dawn, when a sea of colors began to paint the sky and the sun's rays started to warm my skin, my heart began to hurt.

At first, I'd barely stirred, opening my eyes just enough to realize that I'd fallen asleep on the roof with Ethan next to me. I'd tossed and turned all night anyways, so I hadn't been in a deep sleep. The discomfort started small; a twinge of pain attacked my chest. Deciding it was nothing and it would go away on its own, I flipped over to lay on my side.

Within minutes, it began to grow and spread. My eyes fluttered open when the pressure began to magnify, almost like someone had gripped my heart in their fist and squeezed as tight as possible, unrelenting in their grasp.

I ended up jerking awake into a sitting position; one hand bracing myself and the other going up to my chest, where I could feel my heart pumping faster than usual.

"Ethan," I whispered, panic bubbling in my throat as I felt the race my heart had started on. My hands began to turn clammy. "Ethan."

He was laying on his back with one arm thrown over his eyes, but he stirred when he heard my voice.

"Ethan," I choked out, tears of pain stinging at my eyes as I folded over myself, the throbbing intensifying. He pushed himself up on his elbows, blinking away the exhaustion as he caught sight of me hyperventilating. "It hurts."

"What hurts?" He murmured sleepily, his voice husky from the remnants of sleep.

I couldn't bring myself to speak as I curled to my side, bringing my knees up to my chest. I was sweating, but I was freezing at the same time as my body broke out into chills. A tearless sob wracked through my body from the pain and Ethan shot awake, his demeanor shifting to alarm.

"Izzy?" He shook me, his hand banding around my upper arm to try and pull me up. "What's going on?"

A wave of nausea crawled up my stomach, and my face paled as I jumped into action. I barely made it through Ethan's window, into his room, before I was hurtling for the bathroom.

I hadn't eaten anything, so all that resulted from the nausea was dry heaving. I heard footsteps behind me, before the door opened and I felt someone in close proximity. I didn't care nor did I pay attention to who it was because of the sickening feelings that shot through my body.

Everything was a blur in the background. Footsteps approached and left, familiar voices spoke and silenced in hushed murmurs, hands tried to grab me, but I shoved them away, needing nothing but stillness.

"Izzy," Kaiden's voice was gentle, soothing, as he ran a hand up and down my back. My eyes peeled open and I realized I'd been leaning my head against the shower door. "Can you tell me what hurts?"

I glanced above him to see Ethan standing there, both his and Kaiden's attention solely on me as if they feared I'd break apart any moment now. I felt like it. Something was tightening with every passing second.

My throat was on fire, so I meekly brought my hand up to grasp my throat and then, gesture to my heart. A heart attack. I didn't know what it felt like, but if I had to guess, that was how awful it had felt for that period of time. Now, it had somewhat subsided as if a curtain had draped over my senses, blocking out the intensity of the pain.

"On a scale from one to ten, how bad?" Kaiden asked calmly. I held up eight fingers in return, letting my eyes slip closed once again as I pressed my cheek to the cool, shower door. His fingertips were freezing against my skin as he brushed hair out of my face, and I welcomed it. "Sometimes, it takes time for it to start."

"What?" I finally croaked, my voice scratchy as he continued running his hand through my hair in a comforting pattern.

Kaiden hesitated before speaking again. "The symptoms," he said quietly. "It's gonna start off pretty bad, like what just happened, but it'll get better when your body gets used to not being on the drug. It just depends on what you took. We were expecting this."