The Sound of Wind
Page 93
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Hugo opened his eyes slowly to another room he didn’t recognize. He stared down at his arm, he was hooked up to an IV. Had he passed out? He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, and then froze. He was hallucinating. He blinked several times, looking away from the chair, but when he looked back, she was still there, slumped against the wall, her hands loose in her lap. But Crysta was dead.
Hugo tried to pull himself free of the machines he was hooked up to. He wanted to touch her, see if she was solid. But they immediately all started screaming and the doctor bolted into a sitting position, her eyes wide. And then her mouth fell open and she tumbled out of the chair, rushing towards him. She threw her arms around him in a tight hug, but then quickly pulled away. He could feel it. What was going on?
“How do you feel, are you alright, oh god I was so worried, how are you?” Her words tumbled out of her mouth in a jumbled stream, her eyes wet. He reached out, touched her arm, she was warm, soft, alive. He felt like he should say something, but nothing came out of his mouth. “Oh god are you ok?” She asked again. She was shaking and there were dark circles under her eyes. Was this another dream? He wanted to stop dreaming, it hurt. “Hugo?”
He should respond, even if it was a dream, “I’m ok, little tired, but I’m ok I think.”
“You’re awake!” CJ announced enthusiastically beyond them. She was standing in the doorway, two cups in her hands. She quickly set them down on one of the chairs and rushed over, “Are you ok? What happened? Did you see something? Was it bad?”
A vision. Was this a vision, or had he been having one? Was it too much to hope that none of the things he’d just been through had actually happened? Hugo kept staring at the both of them, dazed. They were ok? The explosion hadn’t happened yet?
“Are you ok?” Crysta tried again, quickly pulling the back of her hand across her eyes, but it couldn’t keep her from crying.
“Hey,” he said quietly, his voice cracking a little, “I’m ok.” He wasn’t ok, he felt sick and he was having a hard time sorting out what was actually going on in his head. Things that had seemed so clear before he woke up, made no sense now. Why would blowing up the head of the Russian mafia cause Seattle to get bombed? Who was Thoth? How did Patrick get out of Gideon Enterprises, and what had he been doing in the first place? And Crysta…Hugo’s face suddenly got red. He’d kissed her and she hadn’t been surprised.
“Hugo?” Both of them tentatively requested his attention and he blinked several times to focus on them again.
He needed some sort of clarification, “What’s today?
“Sunday. You’ve been out for nearly four days!” CJ offered, “So what happened?”
Hugo touched Crysta’s hand, “I’m ok.” She nodded, sniffling a bit. “I think it was a vision, but it’s all jumbled…it was like I was having several at once," Hugo frowned, trying to sift through his thoughts, but everything was coming to him so slowly, "I’m really tired. And uh….the last thing I did was pass out in the hallway on Thursday, right?” The girls nodded. He really wanted to sleep, but he was nervous that this might still be the dream and he’d wake up in Antarctica again.
“We should let you rest. You can tell us what happened later,” Crysta said, her voice quiet. Her face was still slightly damp, and he wanted to apologize, but what for he wasn’t sure.
“Yeah. I wanna know what happened!” CJ bounced up and down, “I’m going to go tell Clem you’re awake, well, going to take a nap, but you know what I mean.” She bounced out of the room. Crysta hesitated.
“Are you sure you’re ok? Does your head hurt still?”
He shook his head, “It feels fine.”
“Ok. But I’m going to stay just in case-”
“You need to go sleep too. Please. I’ll be ok.”
Her protest was sabotaged by a yawn. “Alright. But I’ll be right next door. If you need anything.” Hugo nodded. She started out of the room and he almost reached out to grab her wrist, but stopped himself at the last moment. What was he thinking? Hugo flushed, but Crysta thankfully missed all of that, her back already to him. He watched her walk out of the room.
He lay back down, staring up at the ceiling. There was a tight knot in his stomach; he was afraid to go back to sleep, he didn’t want to be anywhere else. But his eyelids were drooping, so he curled on his side and drifted away.