Unexplainable

"Ryan... Ryan..."

He opened his eyes slowly as he heard his name being called repeatedly. At first, he thought it was his imagination but the continuous call of his name made him wake up. As he looked up, the first thing his eyes saw was Lily, his girlfriend, looking directly at him with a questioning gaze plastered on her semi-stoic face.

The day had already broken and the ray of the sun shining through the window hit his face. He realized he was lying flat on the floor and then recollected how he landed on the floor.

Instantly, he tried to get up but he felt weak. He immediately tried again but he still couldn't get up. What is wrong with me?, he thought.

Noticing his struggle to get up, Lily had to ask, "Are you okay? Why are you on the floor?"

She bent over to his side and touched his face. Immediately, she let out a gasp as she felt the high temperature of his body.

"Oh my goodness, you're burning up, Ryan," she announced, "We need to get you to a hospital."

She tried pulling him up but she couldn't handle the weight of the man's body. He was definitely stronger than she was but that wasn't the case. The man's body was already stiff. Ryan himself kept on trying to get up but the result didn't change.

"Ryan, just get up will you!" the lady sounded annoyed as she thought he was faking it. Just what was his problem?

"I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm trying hard to but I can't." he explained in an helpless voice.

The situation was getting hopeless. It felt like someone had used a bucket of glue to stick him down to the floor. Just why was it difficult to get up? Or was he paralyzed?

The wind suddenly blew hard into the room. It rushed to his face and he felt a sudden energy go through him — an unexplainable energy, and immediately, he got up by himself.

It was a thing of surprise to Lily, not only himself. He was down not too long ago and he looked really fit the next minute. That was really unexplainable.

She got up slowly and touched his face and what she felt got her more surprised, "You... you... you are not burning... up again," she stuttered as she let out before finally getting a grip of herself, "How's that even possible?"

"I'm surprised as you are," he told her.

He was obviously surprised at the incident that just happened. He didn't have a definite explanation but he knew it wasn't ordinary. The cycle of his life might have gone through a slight change since waking up at midnight, that, he could tell.

He looked at Lily's surprised face and felt something vibrating in him. He looked at his hands. They were shaking repeatedly and he couldn't control it.

Lily came to a conclusion. She had had enough of that early morning drama, "Something's wrong with you, Ryan. We need to get you to a hospital," she told him and then went to pick up her phone from the bed.

"And what are you trying to do?" he asked her with a confused expression.

"Dialing the emergency line..."

"And what's the emergency about?" he curiously asked, a sarcastic tone hidden beneath it. She was overdoing it!

"Since you don't want to head to the hospital, maybe a bit of force—"

He quickly cut her off, "There's no need for that," he told her as he gestured to his hands which had stopped shaking, "Let's just get out of here."

.....

They got out of the hotel room and handed the key over to the receptionist at the counter. The receptionist eyed them suspiciously before collecting the key from them. She had attended to them the night before when they got here in their drunken state.

Stepping out of the building, the man flagged down a taxi. The taxi pulled up in front of them and the driver wound down the window.

"Where to?" the driver asked them.

"Broadway Street," Ryan told the driver.

"Get in."

Ryan opened the taxi door for Lily and after she hopped in, he followed suit. Seeing they were both in, the driver ignited the engine and drove off.

Throughout the ride, there wasn't any form of communication between the man and the lady as different thoughts were going through their minds.

Lily was still confused about the whole thing at the hotel and this rendered her speechless, whereas Ryan stole a few glances at her as he couldn't bring himself to talk to her. He probably knew why she was acting that way. But just what could he say to ease her stress?

The driver eventually reached Broadway Street and they got off the taxi after the man had settled the taxi bill.

Silently, they both began walking up to cover the few distance left to Ryan's apartment. It was a Saturday, but Ryan was supposed to be at his place of work. Since there was no way he could make it again, he would have to call in to ask for an impromptu day off.

"So, are you going to start explaining what happened in the hotel room?" Lily asked Ryan, without looking at his side, a few steps left to reach Ryan's apartment.

He looked at her but she focused her gaze on the road they were passing through. Why did she have to bring that up now?, he wondered.

"How do you expect me to explain what I don't even know about?" he asked her calmly.

She turned to face him and her countenance wasn't welcoming, "Then how on earth did all that happen?" she let out. She wasn't in the mood for simple chitchats and the tone of her voice didn't deny it.

He sighed and averted his gaze away from hers, "You don't expect me to talk about that now." he stated blankly.

"You had better start talking. One minute you're burning up, the next you are looking fine. Another minute your hands are shaking, the next they stop. How on earth does that even sound right? Or does it make sense to you?" she lashed out at him, her tongue as sharp as a fang.

Still facing the direction of the road, he sighed aloud. Of course it didn't make sense to him either but as he didn't know what to tell her, he had to tell her to shun the matter.

"Let's just forget it Lily. It's nothing." he told her, unwilling to drag on the issue.

"I'm not ready to," she replied in a whisper. She had suddenly become calm basically because she had noticed his unwillingness to answer her. But the pestering was still on.

Ryan stopped immediately. He couldn't explain if he was furious or just confused. Couldn't she just stop?

"Lily," he began calmly, "If I have a definite explanation about what happened, I would have told you. I'm serious, I still don't understand."

"I'm sorry..." she apologized sincerely. Hearing her, the man — at first surprised — wrapped his hands around her and embraced her in the best relaxing way to calm the nerves of the lady. The best way to end the issue, he concluded in his mind. This was the first time he was seeing her being this worried so he knew he had to handle the situation with care.

"It's okay," he told her in between the embrace, "let's go home."