Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Maya had never been so glad to wake from a dream, and couldn’t understand the lengths that her mind could go to, or the things it could conjure in order to scare her.

Without waking the sleeping Ka, she slipped out of bed to the bathroom, padding barefoot across the tiled floor. A block of iridescent silver floated in front of her momentarily before she blacked out.

Maya tried to move but couldn’t. Realising that she was still asleep, still dreaming, she opened her eyes expecting to see her bedroom, but got a hospital ward instead.

, she told herself, as she closed her eyes, waiting to wake up in the real world.

“Maya!” cried Ellie, skidding to a stop in front of her bed.

“Ellie, what’s going on, where am I?” Maya croaked sluggishly.

“You’re just fine, I’m here hunny, I’m here,” Ellie reassured her, holding her hand. No matter how many times Ellie saw her best friend with tubes sticking out everywhere, she couldn’t get used to it. She didn’t want to. Her friend had been asleep for nearly three months and she’d just about given up hope of her ever waking up.

“Car, where’s car?” Maya moved her head very gently followed by her fingers. Ellie squeezed her hand, wondering who or what was.

“Don’t you worry now, everything’s going to be okay,” Ellie stroked hair out of her face with her free hand.

“What happened, where am I?” Maya’s questions had more force behind them this time and Ellie felt that she should at least try and answer.

“You’re in hospital, but you’re okay now, we’ve got you.”

Ellie’s reassurances were met with a light frown, followed by Maya repeating the word ‘car’.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Ellie told her as Maya grew agitated, trying to move. “Hey, rest now, don’t try and move, just lay there.”

But Maya just kept repeating over and again. Ellie didn’t know if it was part of one of her delusions, of which she had many.

“Who is car?” Ellie asked tentatively, realising Maya wasn’t going to let this drop.

“My boyfriend,” she articulated slowly and deliberately, still struggling with speech.

“Maya, you don’t have a boyfriend,” it came out a little sharper than Ellie intended and she apologised immediately.

“Car is my boyfriend, he was in the bedroom, I was in the bathroom, why am I not in the bathroom?” though her speech was slurred, it was clear what she was saying, making Ellie’s heart sink like lead, jostling with her other internal organs for space.

“You’re not in the bathroom, you’re in the hospital,” she continued, praying Maya would return to her as the old Maya she hadn’t seen in a long time.

The consultant shone a light to detect pupil responses, before taking Maya’s pulse and checking her reflexes.

“You seem in good health for someone who has just woken from a coma,” he told her thoughtlessly. Ellie was not a violent person, but had to hold back from jumping over the bed and thumping the idiot.

“Coma? What coma?” Maya quickly became agitated, and Ellie couldn’t calm her down. “I was in the bathroom, where’s car? Why can’t I wake up? This is a dream, a terrible dream, make it go away, make it all go away!” her voice had risen in pitch and volume, and while still retaining some amphibious qualities, was becoming clearer. It hadn’t been used in a while. Ellie wondered if the intubation had scraped her vocal chords.

“Hey, hey,” she tried to soothe her fragile friend, but she was inconsolable. Before long Maya withdrew into herself, sobbing quietly. “Please don’t go,” Ellie begged her, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I need you, please don’t go again.”