It’s Sabine.
Only it’s not.
“I’m Dr. Andros,” she tells me in a throaty voice, a familiar voice, a voice I’ve heard for months. I thought it was in my dreams, but it was real. “And you gave us quite a scare.”
She pokes at me with small hands, and I marvel at how much she is like Sabine, at how interesting our brains are when they are traumatized.
“You’re going to make a full recovery,” she tells me finally, and she looks a bit astonished.
“Thank you,” I tell her. And the teas she gave me in my dreams must’ve been medication in real life, sedatives. She nods and she’s gone.
I’m left alone with Finn, and it’s 6:42.
I don’t want to make him feel less than,
But I’m dying to see Dare.
Every molecule and fiber of my being needs to see him.
6:43.
So I have to ask.
“Finn, when will Dare be coming?”
Finn is at the window, and when he turns, his eyes are clouded in something dark, something hesitant. He stares at me, wondering what he should say, intent on handling me carefully.
We have to handle her carefully.
I remember the words from before, when I couldn’t see who spoke them.
A weight,
a heavy,
heavy
weight,
settles in my stomach because Finn is so very careful, because he doesn’t know what to say.
Fear flutters through me, and I move my tongue.
“Finn,” I say again, and horror is forming in my heart. “When will Dare get here?”
My fear takes off like birds, because Finn shakes his head.
He sits down, and picks up my hand.
His fingers are cold.
His body is still.
My heart is a weight,
dropping through my chest,
breaking all my bones.