Coma (Paranormal Romance)

by Lilly Mance

  “You seemed rather certain that you went to grandma's because that was the only thing you remembered,” Zack continued, and Sophie nodded. “Is it the same for others you see?”

  “Without exception. Last memory is your destination.”

  “But we’ve never met,” I said to Zack, shocked that I was his destination. Briefly, he looked at me, and then back at Sophie.

  “One more question,” Zack cleared his throat, “Could you leave your grandma if you wanted to?”

  “I don't know. I didn't try,” Sophie replied. “I was six. A lot of things didn't cross my mind,” she chuckled.

  “But have you heard from others about that problem?” I asked, anxiously staring at her big blue eyes.

  “They didn't say,” she exhaled loudly. “You have to understand, I didn't want them around. Seeing them ruined my life,” she bowed her head, her golden locks following. “Last visit I had, before you, was a teenage boy from my school. He didn't care what his presence did to me. He was so self centered, and angry about his situation, so once he realized I could see him, he made my life a living hell. He would come to my class, and scream next to my ear the entire time.”

  “I'm so sorry,” Zack said, and put his hand on her shoulder.

  “So am I,” my thoughts went back to my own encounters. Oh boy, I've been lucky so far, “I know how you feel,” I breathed, imagining myself in her position.

  “At first, I was happy to be locked up in here. It was safe, and far away from them,” Sophie got up from her bed, and strode toward the window, grabbing the bars with both hands. “What was once a safe heaven, now is a prison,” she tugged the bars.

  I felt so sorry for her. If anyone could relate to her situation, it was me. Thank God that didn't happen to me. Knowing her situation, I was determined never to acknowledge any ghost's presence ever again. I looked at Zack, and his eyes met mine. There was compassion in his gaze, and I was thankful he was considerate, and didn't complicate my life.

  “When did you start seeing them?” Sophie turned around, and asked me.

  “I'm not sure. It's been like this my whole life,” I replied, thinking back.

  “Were you ever in a coma?” She strode back to her bed.

  “Not that I know of,” I said, and turned to Zack. He was quiet. Learning he was somewhere in a coma must have been hard on him, so I asked Sophie: “Are you sure it has to do with coma? Could something else be in play?”

  “I can't rule out other possibilities, but in my experience, it was always about coma.”

  Zack suddenly stood up, and said to Sophie: “Is there anything we can do to help you?”

  “No-one can help me,” Sophie lowered her gaze, and twirled her thumbs in her lap.

  “Arrange a meeting with your doctor. I'll come, and we'll show your doctor that it's real,” determination was in Zack's voice. My eyes bulged.

  “Why do you think she'll listen?” Sophie snorted, but her face showed a hint of hope. “I've been telling her for years that it was all true—”

  “Trust me. I have an idea,” Zack's gaze was distant. I remembered him saying that to me several days ago, and he came through.

  “Sophie,” I said, “What have you got to lose? Let us try.”

  “Okay,” she said, reluctantly. “What's the worst that can happen, right?” She let out a slightly hysterical giggle.

  “Don't tell her why you're asking for it,” Zack said. “Just set an appointment in the afternoon. We'll come by tomorrow at the same time as today, and then I’ll explain the details.” Sophie smiled, and nodded. Zack turned to me and said, “Let's go!”

  “Sophie,” I hugged her, and my eyes watered. I felt as if I was hugging an alternative version of me, “I'm glad we've met.”

  “Likewise,” she said with a faint smile, and we parted. I saw her lashes swept away a tear.

  ~*~

  Zack hasn't said a word until we got on the bus. I tried to start a conversation a couple of times until the bus had arrived, but he motioned for me to stay quiet. At my last attempt, he said to wait for the bus, and that it wasn't wise to talk to myself while still near that dreaded facility.

  On the bus, several people were sitting in front, so we went to sit at the back where our conversation wouldn't be heard.

  “We have to help her,” he said as soon as we sat down. So far, I haven’t seen him so driven.

  “I agree. Poor girl. What do you plan to do with her doctor?”

  “She's in there because no-one believes her. If I can get her doctor to believe I'm real, she might have a chance to get out.”

  ”I get that, but how are you gonna prove your existence?”

  “A set of tests,” Zack smiled, and twisted his fingers. Something sparkled in his eyes.

  “What kind of tests?”

  “Sophie is locked up, so she cannot possibly know what's going on outside her room,” he paused.

  “Go on,” I said.

  “I'll ask the doctor to go to the office and write something on a piece of paper. When she comes back to Sophie, I'll recite what I read, Sophie will repeat it for me, and I'll give Sophie the paper to hand over to her doc.”

  “Oh, that's brilliant!” Taking the paper from the office should be a great punch line. Copperfield worthy. “But what if her doc isn't willing to try that in the first place?”

  “That's easy. I'll convince her doc to give Sophie a chance by whispering into her ear that Sophie deserves it.”

  “Like you did with the nurses?”

  “Exactly like that,” he flashed a grin.

  “What if she sees a floating paper and freaks out?” My mom would, I thought.

  “Do you ever see floating stuff?” Zack didn't wait for me to answer. “As soon as I take something, it becomes invisible to this realm. That's why I have to give it to Sophie to hand it over. She'll be like a bridge between realms.”

  “How do you know that? You can't see what this realm sees?”

  “I learned the hard way,” he started meddling with the hem of his shirt. “Just like anyone, I have to eat. It's not like I can go to a store, and buy what I need. First couple of days, I was starving, so I went to a grocery store, and tried to steal an apple. It goes against everything I believe, but the pain was excruciating, and I decided one apple wouldn't hurt.”

  “I would have done the same, but that doesn't answer my question,” I replied, wondering why he looked embarrassed about stealing. Who wouldn't have done it?

  “I didn't get to that part, yet,” he threw a bland look my way. “The woman that worked there had just arranged apples into a pyramid. She turned her back, and I grabbed one apple from the top, but she turned back around that instant. I froze in place, unable to move, holding an apple flat in my hand. She looked at the top, noticed a missing apple, and didn't see I was holding it in my hand, right there in front of her. Just like you, I thought she would see a floating apple, but instead, she was confused, and looked around the floor for it.”

  “Oh, okay then,” that got me thinking. What if someone less moral was in his place? Could someone rob a bank, and get away with it? Unease formed in my gut remembering Sophie's high-school ghost who would be the kind that might cause havoc, but Zack was way ahead of me, saying:

  “There is one problem, though,” he looked up at me, his eyes rounded. “It seems all realms are under intelligent design. If Sophie is not supposed to get out of there, I won't be able to take the paper.”

  “What?! But you made her think it was a done deal. How could you do that, Zack? That's false hope, that's playing with her emotions—” I was furious. Putting myself in her shoes was easy, and I wanted to punch him for being so insensitive.

  “Calm down, Lyra. Here me out, okay?” Certainty in his voice made me nod, but I still felt the urge to smack him. He continued, “The fact that we were led to her must mean something. We would have never met her if it wasn't meant to be.”

  “That's hardly an evidence! You're acting on a hunch,
damn it!” I clenched my fist, imagining it clashing against his shoulder.

  “I was allowed to help you with the Fat-man, wasn't I?” His eyes grew wide as he was staring at me, waiting for me to acknowledge that fact.

  “True, but that doesn't mean you were sent here to rescue every damsel in distress!” Zack started laughing, what made me even madder at him. “It's not funny, Zack! Do you know how she'll feel if this doesn't work?”

  “I do,” he said, his face turned serious again.

  “No you don't! If you fail, that will seal her faith forever! She'll be marked as undeniably crazy!”

  “I couldn't live with myself knowing I did nothing, when there's a chance she could be rescued,” sadness colored his voice. He lowered his glance.

  “Neither could I, but we could have told her the odds,” I said, less angrily.

  “She wouldn't have agreed to do this,” he replied, calmly.

  “You can't know that!” I glared at him.

  “Would you have agreed not to call the police about Fat-man if you had known this?” He returned the glare.

  I wasn't sure what I would have done, so I said, “Nevermind. What's done is done,” and I turned my head angrily toward the aisle.

  He must have trailed off into his thoughts, because after quite a while, he said out of the bloom, “Imagine if it were you in there.” A hint of vulnerability overshadowed his eyes.

  “Oh, believe me, I have,” I snorted. “I've been walking on thin ice this whole time.”

  “Promise me,” he adjusted in his seat to face me, and took my both hands in his. “Promise me you'll never get yourself into that situation.”

  I couldn't move my gaze from my hands in his, but I managed to mutter, “I promise.”

  “Look at me,” he nudged my hands, and I looked up, losing myself in his concerned gaze. All anger had left me. Just like that! “No matter what happens, promise me you'll deny seeing anything but your normal world.”

  “I promise. Don't worry about me, Zack. I managed to get this far, didn't I?” I put up a self-assured smile.

  “That was sheer luck!” He sneered.

  “Stop it!” I said too loud, and several people turned around. I pretended to be on the phone, then said slightly quieter, “Don't get all parental on me now.” Hearing me say that, Zack let go of my hands, and averted his gaze out the window. Immediately, I regretted my reaction. Several minutes passed in awkward silence before I decided to apologize. “I'm sorry I snapped at you.”

  “Don't mention it,” he said, still looking out the window. “I overstepped my boundary, not you.”

  “What boundary?”

  “I don't have a say in your life, and I'm sorry for being so possessive,” he looked at me, and seeing sadness behind those green eyes made my gut clench.

  “You do have a say. We're in this mess together,” I smiled, and took his hand in mine. Heat spread through me, and our gazes locked. His eyes widened, and lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but then he changed his mind, and looked down at our hands. Gently, he caressed my hand with his thumb, causing ripples of unfamiliar feelings. Warmth spread throughout my body. Instinctively, I closed my eyes. When I opened them, he was staring at me, bewildered. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but he seemed a lot closer than before I closed them.

  Slowly, I pulled my hand back, and then asked him, “Zack?” He didn't reply, his gaze still fixed on me as if he were stopped in time. “Can I ask you a personal question?” He cleared his throat, blinked a couple of times, and then nodded. “Where do you sleep?” I didn't know why, but that question made him laugh hard like that night on my bed. “What?” I asked, but he continued laughing. “What's so funny?”

  “I'll never be able to figure out how your mind works,” and he laughed some more, leaving me baffled.

  “Look who's talking. What's going on in there?” I pointed at his head. “You're laughing at a perfectly normal question.”

  “I sleep in a hotel,” he said, still smiling. “Anything else?”

  “Where do you eat? You're not still hungry, are you?” A thought of him being hungry made my stomach turn into a knot.

  “I'm not. I go down to hotel's kitchen after everyone goes to sleep.”

  “But no-one can see if you take something, why wait till they go to sleep,” his realm was confusing to me.

  “That's the thing. There are rules here. I'm not allowed to do anything that might disrupt your realm's normal functioning,” upon hearing him say that, I was even more worried about Sophie. “Hotels, restaurants, grocery stores—they're all busy places with particular order. My actions would affect too many people, so I'm not allowed to meddle.”

  “And psych ward?” Returning focus to Sophie made Zack frown. He seemed reluctant to talk about it. We still haven't touched the subject of him being in a coma, and somehow I felt I needed to give him time to come to terms with it before asking any questions.

  “Less people are involved,” he said after a minute. “What we do there will affect Sophie and her doctor. Possibly her parents. Nobody else. That’s why it might work.”

  My bus station was up next. We agreed to meet tomorrow, and that ended our conversation. I stepped outside, and started past the bus. Through the window, Zack's eyes locked onto mine with a quizzical expression. Just as the bus started moving, and Zack's face disappeared from my view, I saw him put his palm against the window.

  ~*~

  I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned most of the night. Patience isn't one of my virtues, and there I was trying to be considerate, and not ask Zack what bothered me the most. How did I end up in his thoughts? There must be some logical explanation for it. He built a wall around him since that day in the park, and now this coma stuff put additional reinforcements in that wall. Unlike patience, determination definitely was one of my better sides, and getting through that wall had just climbed up to number one on my priority list. If he thinks he can hide behind it, he has another thing coming—that thought eased some of my anxiety, and allowed sleep to finally take over.

  ~*~

  Morning came too soon, bringing no relief. I woke up in a sweat pond, shaking off remains of a nightmare. I couldn't remember what it was, but the feeling of hopelessness and despair remained. Shower was inevitable, and I was already late, so I decided to skip breakfast and hurry to catch the bus.

  Murphy's law was a bitch. As if running late wasn't bad enough, traffic jam ahead of my bus had to be one of the worst I've seen in a while. Nervous drivers were honking, flipping fingers out their windows, and people on the bus became restless by the minute, cussing. A man came to our bus driver's window, and said something to him that prompted the driver to turn off the engine.

  He stood up and told us, “There's a pretty bad accident. We'll be stuck here for a while,” then he opened all doors.

  Majority of people exited the bus nagging, including me, and decided to walk the rest of the way. At least now I had an excuse for being late, but I doubted that would matter to angry customers at Mario's. I pushed my feet to go faster, neglecting the burning pain in my thighs. As I was nearing the place of accident, it was harder to push through the crowd. Many people wanted to take a closer look at what happened. I couldn't care less for the details of that tragic event, let alone take pictures like many people at the scene did. All I could think of was getting to work, and not running into any new coma patients.

  As I moved through the crowd, I came to a standstill. I couldn't push through, so I said to a gentleman in front, “Excuse me, sir,” at that moment, a woman next to him moved, revealing the rest of the man. The rest of his huge body. My heart stopped.

  The Fat-man from Mario's turned toward me, glaring. I almost pissed myself. I thought of what Zack had said about realms being under intelligent control. Bullshit! Face to face with my attacker, my day couldn't have been crappier. What intelligence would do that to me?!

  “Do you think I'm enjoying myself here?! Fat-man grow
led.

  “N-no, sir. I'm sorry,” I turned to try another way, far away from him, but he pulled my arm, jerking me back. I was expecting my life to run in front of my eyes at any moment, because I was surely dead after that.

  “I know you,” he said, fueling primordial fear in my gut. “You're the new girl at Mario's.” I nodded. That was it! He knew who I was. I hoped it wouldn't hurt to bad. He pulled my arm even harder, and I found my body sandwiched between his enormous belly and other people's backs. My shoulder sent a few stabbing pains, and I said goodbye to my right arm. His belly squeezed the last breath of air from my lungs, and I felt dizzy. Through teary eyes, I sent a few pleading looks toward people around us, but no-one paid attention. He jerked my arm one more time, and I was propelled down into the crowd. My weak body came crashing against several people that instinctively pushed me off, and I landed on my knees. Quickly, I stood up, and glanced toward the Fat-man. He wasn't looking my way, and I started laughing hard. Laughing at myself. Zack was right. He didn't remember me correctly. There I was, afraid my life was over, while he was only pulling me past him.

  Adrenaline pumped through me, easing the pain in my shoulder and knees. As if I had been given another chance in life, I started running, and reached Mario's in a blink of an eye. The rest of my shift, I couldn't wait to see Zack, and tell him how his compulsion had really worked. I started harboring new hope for Sophie. There might have been some intelligence behind all this after all.

  ~*~

  Zack came by earlier, and waited for me in front of Mario's. I couldn't stop looking at the clock, and the more I looked, the slower it moved. Even more so, I couldn't stop looking at Zack. I kept wondering how it would be if he woke up from his coma, and came back normal like me. Pleasant chills rushed through my body. My chest heaved from the possibility. That would make Helen eat her arguments, relationship would be possible. I had to help him find his body.

  Powered up by my latest conclusions, I went out to meet Zack. Wearing an all-around-my-head grin, I started toward him. Zack inclined his head, and curved his lips into a smile.