Into The World

#23 - Connecting the Dots

Toot!

Jason springs awake, rubbing his ears that resonate this blaring sound. "What was that?" he grouses, squinting to discern his blurry surroundings. He blinks his eyes, while attempting to recall the recent events to his foggy mind. "Ah, my head," he mutters, burying his ponderous head in his hands.

He can give us the results of the Cyan Project!

Jason lifts his head when he hears the harsh intonation. The call. He furrows his brows, gaze falling on the three figures around him, donned in the same white suit he wears. He leans forward to recognize the two figures on the far right of his bed. "Nathan?" he calls, glancing at the middle-aged man, his distraught blue eyes fixated on the spot above his head.

The novice vanisher's befuddled gaze shifts to the the woman beside him, her agape mouth covered with her right palm. They're frozen. He turns to his left, studying his physician whose right arm is raised mid-level, directed at the railing on the bed, his eyes half-closed.

"How is this happening?" He inclines to his right, peering at the distant bed. "Carrie," he says, viewing the recumbent patient, unaware of the monitor wires that begin to entangle with his blanket. 

He turns to the two frozen figures, gaze landing on the mounted clock behind them. "I'm stuck in time," he gasps as he watches the frozen clock, the golden second hand glinting above its stout counterpart.

"6.20," he mutters, reeling back in his bed. "I passed out again." Jason straightens his back when the hair at the back of his neck stand up. "Someone's behind me," he whispers, his hands now entrapped inside his blanket.  He slowly turns around, ignoring the pain in his right arm. Jason flinches when he sees a man behind the headboard, a melting headband clasped in his levitating right hand.

"Woah," Jason says, eyes on his physician as he loses his balance, trying to get his crossed limbs out of his matted enclosure. He slams his eyes shut, raising his shoulders to protect his neck.

A warm, sturdy barrier breaks his fall. He opens his eyes when the prickly hair brushes his forehead.

He freezes, not when he sees the blue-green swirls on her face, but at her weary ebony eyes. She cried. He muses,watching her puffy eyes now shift to his left, brows crinkled when he notices the glimmering blue swirls dance over the faded green ones. "The wires got you tangled," Eliza says, peering at his blanket.

Jason breathes heavily, trying to get his racing heart under control when she tightens the grip on his arms. She's- He snaps out of his daze when she hoists him back on the bed. The flushed diver watches his acquaintance cautiously untangle the wires around his blanket, her gloves unable to conceal the glow of the etched blue swirls. What happened to her?

Eliza brushes the wires away, her left hand digging into her suit pocket. Jason glances at the small bronze tube she retrieves as she heads to the other side of the bed. The placid owner keeps her head down as she passes the frozen Brookes, playing with the flute in her hand.

"Can you please tell what's happening?" Jason says, watching her stop before her dad. He arches his brows when the owner places the tube close to his physician's left ear. Did she-

Toot!

Anthony stumbles upon Jason's bed, letting out a yelp as he rubs his ringing ear. "What the-" He gets up, wide-eyed at his daughter who holds his arm. He shifts his gaze to his frozen colleagues, and then at Jason. "What is happening?" He turns to Eliza as he stands erect, "How did you-how are you-" His baffled gaze falls on the bronze flute, "How did you-"