Page 285 of Fragments
There’s no way I’m back here. I gotout, I know I did.
“Ren?!” I try to call to him, but my voice isn’t working…
Nothing’s coming out.
I can’t breathe… I’msuffocating, beneath a freezing surface.
I’m underwater. I’mdrowning…
“No!” I try to scream, but I can’t.
I’m going under, sinking to the bottom like a stone.
The burn in my lungs kills. I kick and scream, trying to swim to the surface, but I’m not getting anywhere.
I’m…dying.
“Ren!”
Flinging around, my eyes reopen, and I’m in a different room. A room with white walls… In a different bed.
“Are you alright?” a voice asks… It’s not familiar.
Someone leans over me. A person I’ve never seen before.
“Do you know where you are?” they ask me. I shake my head, confused. “You’re in the hospital. You almost drowned.”
“No…” I grunt. “That’s impossible. I got out… I found him!”
“Calm down…” the nurse says. “You need to relax…”
No. Get away… This isn’t real. I found him… I made it.
Nurses are holding me down while I struggle and fight. “Get off of me!”
“Bring him downstairs…”
That voice… It sounds like…
No… Not him.
Not The Ivory.
“You can’t do this!” I kick and scream while large guards pick me up and carry me away. “I got out!”
They put me in a straitjacket. I can’t move…
I… can’t… fucking… breathe…
“Let me go… Ren!” I scream.
“Wake up…”
I hear his voice.
“Lexington… I’mhere. Wake up, baby…”
Sucking air into my lungs, my eyes finally openfor real, face flinging around. Ren is holding my arms down, blue eyes shining at me in the dark room.
