Hearing My plea

7

Willis's screaming, I swear to God, could be heard all the way in China.   

The first person to come barreling through our cabin door was Aspen. I wasn't even done with the first wave of pain, had only been awake twenty seconds when he came rushing into my room and practically shoved the still-screaming Willis out of the way. His hair was disheveled, his eyes alert, and I could see he was scared out of his mind.   

"What's wrong? What hurts?! Peyton!"   

I could barely look at him because I kept clenching my eyes shut. The pain had never felt so bad before, never felt so bad. I wanted to die. I sent a silent prayer up to whatever was up in the sky to make the pain go away. My screams became louder each time, even though I had assumed that to be impossible. My chest was a foot off the bed I was arching it so much- the pain was plucking me away.   

Aspen was clutching my hand, his eyes never left my face. I had never felt so humiliated. I could hear voices outside of other classmates crowding around the cabin, and I couldn't even imagine what they were thinking of me right then. Hot tears were pouring down my face, my limbs were out of control. I never cried in front of people- ever. And even worse- Aspen scooped me up in his arms, flailing limbs and all, and brought me outside, and through my loud screaming I could hear him say he was going to take me to Nora's.  

I swear to you every god damn student was there to see me have that tantrum. Aside the pain, the humiliation enough was a cause to want to die.   

Willis was trailing behind, blubbering like an idiot. Why couldn't they just leave me alone to ride this out by myself? No, instead, Aspen decided to run me all the way through the woods to Nora's office, where she was working late. He barged through the door, and immediately began telling Nora what was happening and was directing Willis to go get a wet cloth as he lied me down on the couch against the wall.   

As soon as I hit the couch the first wave was over. I un-clenched my fists from Aspens hands and gasped for breath, deep rough breaths that made me want to cough.   

"P-please," I whispered in my pained voiced. "J-j-just... leave..."   Nora smoothed back my hair and put a hand on my forehead.

"Honey, what's wrong? What's going on? Aspen, go get the doctor on the-"  

"NO!" I didn't mean to yell, but I knew that was a bad idea. Through clenched teeth, I growled, "Don't call my mom, either...."  

"We have to call some body!" Aspen roared. "Peyton, you're sick! You need medical attention!'  

"When did this start?" Nora asked Aspen. He told her about how he woke up from a dream, no specific dream, and felt that something wasn't right, and then he heard me screaming a couple cabins away and went to see what was wrong. Nothing he said went along with what actually happened, and I realized he didn't want Nora to know about the dream, because that would lead to suspicion of which one of us was dreamscaping.   

"Well, at least it's over," Nora said as Willis entered the room and handed Nora the wet cloth with shaking hands, which Nora put on my forehead.   

I shook my head. "Y-you n-n-need to gag me," I said through my clenched teeth. I could feel the pain building again, but slowly. "It's not over."  

"We aren't going to gag you, Peyton! You aren't some hostile animal!"  

I began to grunt as stabs of pain prodded me, and I began to shake again. My face itched with the humiliating tears.   

"Peyton, Peyton, listen to me," Aspen said when he walked over and took my hand. I looked at him through narrow eyes. "We are going to be here. We're going to help you through this."