Chapter 21

I was floating. It wasn't vertigo, the world wasn't swimming around me, I was just. Floating. I couldn't feel the bed or that weight over my body anymore. I was weightless.

I have to say that after spending what felt like days in constant pain, this was a nice change.

I opened my eyes and it didn't hurt. I saw that I was in complete darkness. Then a small light appeared and it felt like I was being pulled towards it, I did nothing to stop it. I was curious.

The light turned out to be a doorway I walked through and saw a switchboard. There were the phone wires all over a table and the, jacks, I think they were called, had labels on them. I walked closer and saw the labels were names. I didn't recognize any of the names.

'Thresh'

'Tammy'

'Louis'

'James'

'Nathan'

'Otis'

'Rose'

'Carla'

'Darrel'

The names went on and on.

Until I caught sight of a name I had heard once, in my weird dream.

'Thomas'

'So he was on here?' I thought to myself, 'He had been a Lycan, maybe this was a bizarre list of Lycans.' I guessed.

I started looking everywhere for one name, and finally found it:

'Raphael'

I smiled thinking of him and his smile and his laugh, the soft words he'd said to me. Then I thought back to my dream, Raphael had been in some sort of camp, there had been a medical tent and a lot of people gathered there, I tried to recall anything else about it but I couldn't. I had been so focused on Raph I hadn't noticed anything else. Why was he there?

I looked around and found more switch boards with more names. I turned back to the first on I saw and all of the phone wires were in the jacks. I blinked and they went back to laying idle.

I spun around and the world went dark again.

I was floating again but this time I saw flashes of images, they all went by so quickly I couldn't remember them, but I was left with a feeling of knowledge.

I know it's weird to say, but I felt wiser, older.

I floated in the darkness for what felt like eternity. Almost to the point where I thought I was suffocating, I could barely breathe. I couldn't see anything. I started to panic and try to move but that heavy weight had come back and I felt paralyzed. I was hyperventilating and I felt like screaming. 'Would anyone hear me? Am I alone?' I thought.

I all of a sudden felt like I was being yanked upward, wind blowing in my face and the darkness being left behind. I began to panic again, 'I didn't want to go back to reality, there was no pain here, I want to stay!' I screamed inside my head.

But I couldn't fight it, I soon returned to reality and pain.

Instead of the cold that I had been feeling the past couple times I woke up, I felt like I was burning from the inside out, the worst part my head. I felt like my eyes were boiling, and my skin was on fire. And best of all, my old friends the red hot stakes had returned. They struck me again and again, I could never anticipate where they would hit next, it was just constant pain. Someone kept wiping my nose, "She's losing too much blood." I heard. 'My nose is bleeding? Great.'

I thought that maybe after living like this for however long, I'd be used to it, but I wasn't. It was just as painful, if not ten times more.

I tried to hold in the screams but I couldn't, I was in so much pain. The only thing I wanted was for Raph to hold me in his arms again, to stroke my back and give me that contented feeling.

But he never came.

Wherever that camp was and whatever he was doing it must've been important. 'But why leave me?' I kept asking myself.

The time passed with stake after stake driving through my head. I'd hear voices every once in a while, I recognized the women's voices and the man's sounded familiar, but Raph still wasn't there.

I snapped out of my daze when I heard the deep, voiced guy, "How long has she been like this?" He asked sounding bored.

"Since she woke up. Which was around nine."

I couldn't hear the guy's response, but I heard the second guy continue to speak, "She woke up at seven this morning and Luna came over to check on her." I could make out a fuzzy memory of a woman coming over, 'Luna, huh? The Alpha's mate.' I recalled while listening to the rest of what he was saying, "Raphael called around noon, asking about her. She was still awake then. She fell asleep at just before three. The nosebleeds started at around five, and haven't stopped."

I heard a noise and then, "Goodbye Alpha."

'Alpha? Alpha?! So that deep voice guy's an Alpha. Wait he was leaving but I had to ask him something.' I thought to myself.

I focused on him, I had no idea what he looked like but I focused on him. It was like I could sense him, and when I finally sensed a connection I opened it.

-You, your the Alpha.-

I didn't hear anything back, although it had felt like he was listening. It's hard to explain it was like I could sense I had his attention. When I established a connection it reminded me of that weird switchboard.

"Has she said anything to you?" I heard the Alpha ask.

"No, well except when she asks for Raphael and stuff."

"Hmm, I would like a minute alone with her." I trembled, not at his words but at the stake that bore into my left eye. I held in the scream, for some reason I didn't think the Alpha would appreciate it if I screamed.

-What?- I heard his voice in my head.

-Ha! So you did hear me.- I said happily. A happiness that soon faded as the vertigo had returned.

-Yes. Now what do you want?- he asked sounding angry.

-Okay then.- I said rolling my eyes in my head, which did not help the dizziness, -What's your name?-

-My name?- Okay, now he sounded really annoyed, I could just picture him pinching his nose in frustration. -My name is Thresh.-

The first thing that came to mind was Hunger Games, but I refocused. I was about to ask my next question when I felt two stakes dig themselves into my skull. I made that strangled choking sound that I made whenever I held in a scream.

I heard Thresh scoff. I was so fed up with the two people who seemed to think it's so easy to lay hear and take this pain.

-Hey!- I yelled at him, -I heard you say that the first one with whatever gift I have, was bedridden for days, and he was a Lycan! So don't you dare think that it's easy when you feel constant pain like I'm feeling.- I wanted him to know how it felt, I focused on it so intently I heard him shift in his seat. And the connection for him to feel my pain was open long enough for him to feel a fresh hot stake impale through my right temple. I heard him wince. I severed whatever connection I had created.

-Doesn't feel so nice does it?-

-Never do that again!- He yelled, sounding really mad, -Now what do you want?-

-What can I do with my gift?-

-I'm not entirely sure. I never actually met the original person just heard about him. But you clearly know you can mind link, transfer pain. Have you tried tapping yet?-

-No, but.- I took a shuddering breath, -I think that's what the voices are. Me picking up on their mind links.-

-It's possible.- He said. We continued to talk then he said he had to go.

I lay there feeling like my nose was bleeding, someone finally came into dab it. I then drifted off into a dreamless sleep.