Phoenix in the Light

The Offering

Writers Note: I hope you can forgive so many filler chapters, I promise we are nearly over the boring hump. The tension will come back, and in FULL FORCE I promise. I felt these interactions we needed to continue Jamie's story. This is an extremely dialog-heavy chapter, so if things get confusing I do apologize. Dialog is something I struggle with slightly. I'm playing around with the formatting of the chapters, let me know if you like this format versus the way I was formatting it before. Just trying to make it easier to read. Alright, LUV y'all.

................................................................................................................................................................

It had not been Ghost's eerie visit or his condemnation of me still being alive that sent me into a tailspin. It was the restraints on my hands. In the few seconds that I had watched Ghost leave my room and disappear into the hallway like a phantom, it had not registered that I was tied down to the bed. But once his betrayal of words had worn off and I tried to move my body, I realized. I was immediately brought back to that medical facility, where I had stared at that ceiling tile for months, counting the dots on the tile and talking to myself like a maniac

"Get these fucking off me!" I screamed into the night, hoping anyone would hear me. At first, there was nothing, silence filled the room and the hallway outside. I began to scream as loud as I could, screaming obscenities and threats at no one. I writhed against the restraints as the feeling of being trapped again and being prodded and poked against my will flashed like a dreamscape in my mind. My heart raced, thumping against the inside of my chest like a rabid animal trying to break free of its cage and the heart rate monitor next to my bed began to alarm in response.

Tears were streaming down my face when the door to my room swung open and standing on the threshold was Alex Keller. I breathed a deep breath when he sprinted to the side of my bed, "Jamie?"

"Get them off me, please" I begged. His fingers fiddled with the leather cuffs before my good hand sprung free. Whipping myself to the other cuff I yanked my broken hand from the leather with a painful grunt. Immediately my heart slowed and my body relaxed, although in a bit of pain in my hand. "Thank you."

"Are you alright?" Alex asked sleepily.

"I'm better now," I answered, taking in as many deep and satisfying breaths as I could manage.

"You're really pale," he said gently.

"The restraints," I pointed, rubbing my wrist just to double-check that I was actually off and I wasn't tied down anymore, "why would they put those on me?"

"I-" Alex shook his head, "it may have just been a precaution." His eyes found mine and I saw fear in them. Not the same kind of fear that we shared in that room with the glass panel, it was fear that one might have when they've watched a scary movie and can no longer turn the lights off in their room at night.

"It's ok," I said to his panicked eyes, "I'm alright." For the first time, those words to him were not a lie. Despite everything that I had gone through, everything that I had felt and been exposed to in the last nine months, I felt seemingly...fine. Mentally, I felt strangely motivated and alert. Like waking up to Ghost had allowed me an unspoken clarity of myself, my body, my consciousness. Perhaps it was just the painkillers in my system giving me a false sense of euphoria, or maybe it was genuine, and being rescued had just reset my system to no longer need to compensate for the pain and fear in that prison. But I felt...alive.

Alex's face relaxed when he saw the tears and panic from being restrained fade, and his rough and calloused hand found its way to my own. His touch was even more soothing, and I welcomed the warmth on my skin. Even though we were no longer fighting to survive the cold of that prison cell, he was still warmer than the air in this hospital room, and I didn't want that warmth to leave.