Dying Wish

[10]

My eyelids cracked open. I was where I last remembered being, in Alice's bedroom. But that was about all I could discern. It could've been a day or year since my knee was blown away. So how'd it look? I wouldn't know just yet; I was too tired to move the covers off my lower half.

Flat on my chest, my body felt ten thousand pounds heavier. That inconvenience sent me back to sleep an unknowable number of times. What stabilized my consciousness for longer than half a second was the sound of my name. Chanted.

"Gray... Gray..."

I entered the light slowly. That face.

I whispered the name, "Alice." Several things were different about her. A green uniform instead of pajamas. Today must've been a school day. Based on the patience with which she hovered, it must've been after-school. "That smell." What was this?

Whatever it was, it broke the aromatic cocoon where I slumbered. The sweetness of the shampoos, soaked into the pillowcase. Cherry, I think. That's why I had no sense of time, because it was so easy—no, too easy to snuggle my nose deeper into the fabric and the scent. Something disturbed that now. It disturbed my stomach, too.

"Oh, this?" she said. Her eyes landed on a white plastic bag on the nightstand. "I thought you might be hungry by now." She dug out an aluminum tin. "I picked up a burger. Only one. Let's get you up." Gentle hands propped me against the headboard. "Slowly."

"You're not hungry?" I grimaced through the stiffness.

"Uh, starving," she corrected. "This is mine, Gray."

"But you said—"

"We're sharing. Ok, so Hannah was with me when I bought it. Everyone at school thinks you have a stomach virus. Getting you your own greasy burger might've given us away. You've only been out for two days. Hannah is great, but—"

"She has a big mouth," I interrupted. Although my fingers worked fine, Alice moved the steamy piece of browned flesh toward my frown. "Nice job picking such a sucky lie, genius." My jaw opened over the food, then slammed closed.

She scoffed, "Excuse you!" Her fingers whooshed away. So fast!

BAM!

Pain rattled from my jaw into my skull. "Ahhh," I whined. I thought I shattered all my teeth.

"For your information," Alice said, chomping down a massive bite, "that was Miss Batch. She assumed stomach bug and I didn't correct her." I barely heard the explanation over the lingering ache. Something about my agony made her erupt into laughter. At least, that's what the sound started as. Slowly, tears dripped onto the fries. I looked up with a gasp. There she was, whimpering. Her wrist knocked the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry. I..."

"I was just joking," I said. "Just, uh, just forget about it, ok?"

"Nnnot that... They... They could've killed you..."

I sighed.

"But they didn't..."

"But they could've. And... and it would've been all my fault."

No.

"It would've been my fault," I corrected. Tears popped from her eyes. "The blind can see I'm on my own. Can't live with a mom you don't have, right? I guess that leaves staying with dad. He's always been a 'my decision is final' kind of parent. I can't tell you how done I was listening to that. I tell myself I left. He told me I'd regret it. If I died, he'd be right. It's on me to survive."

"All alone?"

"If that's how it has to be, yeah. I won't go crawling back—" I squeezed the covers in my lap— "I can't." My chest heaved with a heavy breath. Moment of truth. Pulling the linen, I had no idea what I was going to find. So what had become of my knee? Nothing. Just a white bandage. There was no way. Alice confirmed this reality.

"Well, you're not alone," she said. "You have me." The bitten burger moved toward me. I placed my hands on her wrists then closed the distance to my lips. Don't get me wrong, I'd tasted a burger before. Several. None of them tasted better than this one.

THIS IS WHERE CHAPTER 4 ENDS

I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE. THAT'S JUST ME. NO CLIFFHANGER EITHER.
RELIEVED OR DISAPPOINTED? GIVE IT A VOTE AND LET ME KNOW LOOOL

OH, AND ANOTHER THING... AS MUCH AS I LIKE THIS PART, IT'S REALLLY SHORT. TOO SHORT TO BE A FAIR UPDATE.

ENJOY THE START OF CHAPTER 5 RIGHT NOW AND THERE WILL BE MORE TOMORROW!