“Do you feel any better at all? And are you hungry?”
“No and no. I’m definitely not hungry.”
“You need to drink something, though. You haven’t touched this water.” His scolding tone didn’t hide his concern.
“I’ll drink some water. At least, I’ll try.” Pushing up on her elbows, she managed two swallows before her head flopped back onto the pillows.
“Okay, I’m leaving you here with Boze until Beth comes. I won’t lock the back door, so she can come inside when she gets here.”
“Thanks.” She squeezed her eyes against a new spike of pain as she tried in vain to relax. She stared at the ceiling while the room spun around her, forcing her to close her eyes against the vertigo. Unbidden, thoughts of Kaevin assaulted her mind again. A strong feeling of... what was it? Worry? Fear? Foreboding? Hopelessness? Her breaths came quickly, and the room swirled around her. Her heart raced, her head pounding with every beat. She moaned with the pain and fought the nausea welling in her stomach. How could she be nauseous? She hadn’t eaten anything. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she needed to force herself to eat something.
She swung her legs around to the side of the bed, gradually pushing into a sitting position. Her head was throbbing, but no worse than when she was lying down. She stood, bracing herself against the bed, and took a few wobbly steps toward the kitchen. Just short of the door, her knees gave way, and she collapsed to the floor. She might have hurt something during the fall, but she couldn’t tell because her head demanded all her attention. Lacking the strength to move, she lay where she’d landed, drifting in and out of consciousness.
“Alora!”
She heard Beth’s voice through a dense fog.
“Wesley! Help me!”
She was vaguely aware Beth and someone else were lifting her by her elbows and walking her toward the bed. Over the hammering of her head, she was overwhelmed with desperate thoughts of Kaevin. She pried her eyes open, struggling against the arms propelling her forward.
“No. Wait.” Her voice sounded weak in her ears. “Please don’t take me to the bed. I have to go outside.”
Beth and Wesley exchanged a troubled glance. “Alora, it’s cold outside. There are two more inches of fresh snow.”
“Please. Please, it’s important. It’s a matter of life or death, I think.”
“You’re not even making sense,” said Beth. “Did you even notice Wesley came with me today?”
Alora tried t
o focus her eyes on the tall boy holding her right arm. “Please, Wesley. I have to go outside. If you don’t help me, I’ll crawl out there myself.”
“I think she’s hallucinating,” whispered Wesley.
“Let’s humor her,” replied Beth. “Once she steps out the door and the cold hits her, she’ll come back to bed willingly enough.”
With her two friends supporting her weight on either side, she made it to the back door. Wesley kicked it open, and she pushed outside, into the freezing cold.
“Don’t you want your coat and boots?” asked Beth.
“Ah!” She cried out as an icepick drove into her head. “Please. We have to hurry, or I’m going to pass out.”
“Where do you want to go?” asked Wesley, jutting out a determined chin.
“Anywhere out in the yard, in the middle of the snow.”
“Okay! Hang on!” Suddenly, she was scooped into his arms and carried out into the fresh untrodden snow. “Here?”
“Yes, lay me down. Right here,” she croaked.
He lowered her to the snow. She welcomed the numbing cold of the snow on her bare feet and arms, seeping quickly through her flannel pajamas and distracting her from the pain in her head. Again, her mind flooded with her last vision of Kaevin, his eyes glazed with sickness, barely able to focus on her.
Wesley yelped. “Who’s that?”
“Where did he come from? Is he alive?” asked Beth.
Alora cracked open her eyes, but a wall of snow blocked her vision. “Where is he?” she gasped.