Leaving Laurabelle Falls

Chapter 5

I want there to be no mistake- When I woke up that second time, I remembered more than I've told you so far. I'm not sure exactly when everything clicked together, when all of the dreams and reality merged and I was displaced from my reality. I know I got back more details from dreamland as time went on, but I definitely had more than this when I came around the second time. It all gets a little blurry, though, and I'll be the first to admit that.

Even the things I haven't told you yet, even the things I have still told no one. And there are things that I can't include. If I made this hundreds of pages of sprawling lore, of every little detail and coincidence, I still wouldn't have enough space to discuss it all.

I got back memories as I went along. I daydreamed "new" ones, trying to make sense of the pieces as I lay in the hospital bed. I tried to cling to my sanity by submerging myself in the insane.

But when I woke up the second time, everything felt different.

"You were awfully sleepy." Noah commented. He stood beside me, his hand close to mine on the bed. I took it, breathing out a harsh sigh.

"I'm in the hospital?" I asked, looking around.

"Did you... forget?" He asked. I turned to look at him, and something on his face shifted. "Not that that's a bad thing, the doctors said it would be completely normal-"

"No, I didn't." I responded, immediately. I didn't want him to worry.

"Okay, good." He said, his shoulders slumping. "I'm... We're all worried."

"School hasn't started yet?" I asked, trying to sit up. I pressed my arms down on the bed and pushed, and was almost knocked back on my back with how much it hurt to move. But I didn't want to fall asleep again, not yet.

I could feel how sluggish my thoughts were, how heavy my body was. But I knew I wanted to stay awake, needed to, in fact.

"Where's mom?" I asked.

"The doctors told her you'd likely be sleeping the rest of the day." He said, turning towards the door. I wondered if he expected her to come charging back in, like a motherly sense had tingled and let her know that they had been wrong, that her baby was back.

The door remained shut, and Noah turned back to me.

"She's at work?" I asked.

"It's gotten worse than usual." He said. "Not to bitch at you as soon as you're waking up. Christ, I'm sor-"

"Don't." I interrupted him.

I put my arms down on the bed again, trying to push myself up. It was a grueling task, with my muscles shaking even from the effort of shifting positions. A small sound of pain escaped my mouth, and Noah immediately moved, swooping down to press a button.

The top of my bed moved upwards, and I sagged back down, too weak to continue to struggle. There were a few moments of silence as Noah returned to standing upright beside me, his mouth pursed into a thin line.

"You're going to need some physical therapy." He informed me, his voice grim. "You're going to be fine, but your muscles haven't gotten any use in the last couple of months."

"I'm going to be fine." I repeated.

Now that I was sitting up, I was feeling a little bit more alert. I was staring at the blank television, starting to catch up to the situation. My mind was scanning over memories, some of which didn't belong to this place, or this time.

"Are you feeling a little out of it?" He asked, suddenly breaking through my thoughts. I was trying to put the pieces together; everything seemed like a broken jumble of thoughts, words, and feelings. I could see flashes of a forest, a town, friends I hadn't seen and friends I hadn't met.

"Yeah, a little." I admitted, sheepishly turning back to him. I could feel memories fighting to make their way to the forefront of my hazy mind. I wanted to entertain them, but I knew I had to pay attention to what was happening now.

"That's normal." He reassured me.

There was a brief pause, and I found myself dragged down again.

"You know," He said, his voice sounding distant, "We thought you might be a goner for a little while. It was really scary, Laura."

"Sounds like it." I responded, trying my best to give him my attention. I could hear the emotion in his voice, and normally, I would have been there. I would have been comforting him, giving him every bit of my attention.

"We were really going to miss you." He said, his voice shaking. I finally turned back to him, feeling a little bit queasy. The closeness of my situation had not yet dawned on me.

He reached forward, running a hand affectionately along my hairline. "You don't have to worry about that. I'm awake, now."

I wondered if he heard the double entendre in my voice, if he knew then that I wasn't normal. If he knew that something was off.

If he did, he laughed it off. "Yeah, you are."

He released my head, and took a step back. He turned towards the TV, and pointed at it. "Do you want to watch something? I'm pretty sure BFB has a Bethany Lawless marathon on right now. They're getting ready for season twelve."

"Season twelve?" I asked. He smiled.

Every year, I did a Bethany Lawless rewatch in preparation for the new season. The show was notorious for bringing back old characters and referencing past events, and I didn't want to miss something if they did decide to circle back.

Granted, I knew something that he didn't know.

This season wasn't going to take place on earth.

"That sounds great." I said, reaching weakly towards the TV remote. He took a few steps towards the foot of the bed and swung out the table, grabbing the remote for me. He tossed it my way, and I quickly turned the TV on. I began flipping through the channels, trying to find BFB.

"It's one-thirteen." He informed me. I weakly pressed the buttons on the remote, almost failing to press the three in time. He noticed. His voice was a forced neutrality as he commented, "You know, they have a wheelchair set aside for you. So you'll be able to start school with the other students."

It was in commercials. I turned to him, blinking owlishly.

"Wheelchair?" I asked.

"Yeah." He said. "But hey, at least they'll be making fun of you for something other than your ears this year."

I had abnormally large, human-shaped ears, in this reality.

"Oh, shut up." I responded, huffing. I would have crossed my arms if I thought it was worth the energy. "It's coming back on, you're gonna make me miss it."

"Only you," He teased, "Would wake up out of a coma and immediately start rewatching Bethany Lawless."

"And only you would make fun of me for it." I shot back. He laughed, and I glanced over. His eyes were warm. Even though I could tell how pale he had gotten, and see that he had lost a few pounds, there was a little bit of his old glow back.

He tucked himself into the couch. It looked uncomfortable, but he didn't seem to mind. The wooden lining of the arm rest was only covered by the jacket that he had brought.

I tried not to think about how long he might have been sitting there before I woke up.

It wasn't hard; I was sucked into the TV.

But, unfortunately, even with my attention zeroed in, sleep threatened to take me. I could barely feel my body, and was clearly still recovering.

As I drifted off to sleep, Bethany loaded a deer into the back of her pickup truck. His eyes were cold and dead.