Someone was shaking her shoulders; their fingers were warm and somewhat clammy. Her head was completely limp as it was being tossed about. In her chest, she could feel her heart beating sluggishly, at a way too slow pace. Her limbs were cold even though she could feel something burning her skin both underneath and on top of her. She couldn’t remember how to move. She tried to look around, but moving her eyes made them ache and she hadn’t even opened them yet. Every little noise she heard sounded fuzzy. Focusing as hard as she could, she paid close attention to the buzzing in her ear.

Slowly it started to sound like a person frantically yelling. Feeling was seeping back into her fingers from the hands holding them. “Ayalet, wake up! Come on!” They let go of her hands, she could hear their feet running into the next room, turning a faucet on, then running back. Something warm and wet was set on her forehead.

Fluttering her eyelids, she was suddenly blinded by bright lights. “Ugh” She wanted to cover her eyes, but she hadn’t regained feeling in her arms yet.

“Ayalet, Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you’re okay. What’s wrong, what happened!?” Jaisons face completely filled her vision. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to leave all the lights on.” Backing off, he jumped over to the door and flipped one of the light switches. “Better?” He handed her a cool glass of water.

She drank deeply, but struggled to swallow. Coughing, she answered with a strangled voice, “Kinda, thanks.” A coughing spasm overtook her.

Jaison put his hand behind her back, helping her sit up and started rubbing small circles. A sharp pain shot into her skull, pounding against her forehead, “Oww! My head.” she yelped.

Concern completely washed over Jaisons face, “What happened?” He asked as he sat down next to her on the bed. Bed? Why was she in bed?

“Honestly, I don’t know.” She paused, giving herself time to catch her breath, “My memory is hazy, I can’t remember what happened.”

“You fell asleep under the tree, or at least, it seemed like you were sleeping. Your head fell onto my shoulder, but for some reason you felt really cold; so I tried waking you up, instead you collapsed. So I carried you to my house. I was terrified, because no matter what I did you wouldn’t move. It got worse about an hour ago, your heart started to slow down and your temperature dropped. Even when I put a heating blanket beneath you and a thick comforter on top of you, it did nothing to warm you up. I was about to call an ambulance but then you started feeling warm again. . . ”

His eyes were too much to stare into so she turned to look at the wall. Instantly her body seemed able to breathe again. It was then that she noticed the room was rather simple, nothing was on the walls. There were boxes on the ground next to his bed. If this is his room, it didn’t look like he’d finished unpacking yet.

Hoping to break the silence, she tore her eyes from the wall and looked up into Jaison’s eyes again, “Do you ever see images in your head?” Why had she asked that?! She hadn’t meant to, she didn’t want to. Yet, for some reason the words just slipped out without her control. Damn. She wanted to ask where he had moved from.

Consideration crosses his face, “Like what, dreams??”

“Well, kind of. . . No. . . that’s not it, it feels too real to be a dream. More like a vision, like you’re watching TV but in your head.” She was mumbling to herself, trying to figure out what she meant. What did she mean? How could she put into words the things she saw? Feeling a slight tingle at the back of her head, she reached her hand up to rub it.

Thinking about what happened; she continued to mumble to herself the first thing that came to mind, “Did it all really happen?”

Jaison suddenly jerked to a stop and looked straight into her face, confusion dripping from every pore of his body, “Did what really happen? Stop mumbling, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

Ayalets head felt frazzled as her brain went over everything that had happened. There was just so much running around in her mind she couldn’t handle it alone causing it to just spill out.

In front of her she could see clouds, again she wasn’t in her body. All around there were people with wings flying into their homes above the clouds. Next to her was Joseph smiling down at her. She reached out for anything and felt Jaison as a jolt of electricity shot between them. The images rushed into her brain and out just as fast. Next to her, she felt Jaison flinch to something.

As the image faded she began to talk herself through it as if talking out loud would help make more sense. “It was almost like I was in her body, Yelena’s body watching a movie.” Pausing, she tried to think over what was running through her head, “I think I might have time traveled, or had a vision or something like that, it could have been a dream but I’m not really sure.”

Jaison was frozen to the ground, his eyes closed. The next second he looked up and around as if he didn’t recognize where he was. Shaking his head, he brushed his hair out of his face, picked up a pillow and set it behind her so that she could remain sitting up.

When his hand brushed up against her back, the images returned. She was getting dizzy with the images' sporadic return. Pictures rushed through her head of Yelena, Joseph and everything that she saw about Yelena and her time period. Looking up into Jaisons eyes, she felt like she was looking into Josephs. They looked nothing alike but something about their eyes felt the same, “Joseph?” Images of Joseph and the feel of his body from the memory came rushing into her head. She felt her hand reaching out to him, wanting to feel his warm body wrapped around her again.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“What’s wrong?” He asked with his eyes burning into her. The urge to hold him close and kiss him overwhelmed her senses. To feel someone close to her, to take away the fear, confusion and loneliness. Without even meaning to her body leaned close to him, going in for a kiss. Her heart felt like a bird frantically flapping in a small cage. His expression turned to confusion but her head was so foggy she couldn’t stop her progression. Her lips brushed against his lightly before he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back.

“Ayalet. . .” Suddenly, her trance was broken and she was beyond embarrassed by what she tried to do.

They sat in silence, neither one of them wanting to say anything. The air in the room was somewhat stuffy as she started to feel claustrophobic. Jaison leaned forward over his knees, staring at the floor before standing and moving to a nearby window. He stood for a second before he finally responded in a voice that sounded as if he was trying not to break something and had to be careful about what he said, “Ayalet. . . I think . . . ”

He didn’t even finish his sentence, instead he moved back toward the door. Leaning against the doorway, frowning and staring at the ground, deep in thought. She had probably scared him away now. . . What made her want to trust him so much? Why did she keep talking about it? No one would think she was sane when she started talking about her visions. And why on earth did she try to kiss him?! Why linger here and hear him call her crazy?

Tears began welling up in her eyes, her nose started running, and her vision blurred. Grabbing the end of the covers, she threw them off herself and cautiously put weight on her legs. At first they were kind of sensitive, but within seconds, the feeling fully returned. Glad she was still fully dressed, she searched for her shoes. Seeing them at the end of the bed, she walked over, put them on, stumbled toward the door and tried to slip past Jaison.

He looked as if he had been shocked out of sleep. Looking up, Jaison stared at her in confusion as she walked past him. “Where are you going?”

A small part of her wanted to give him some chance to prove her wrong and the other wanted to run as fast as she could to get away. “Home.” Daring him to say something, she turned around and stared at him. When he didn’t do anything, she continued walking out the door.

The entire way home she stumbled on tree roots, rocks, even her own feet. It took her a few minutes to recognize everything as she wiped the remainder of her tears away. Jaison apparently lived about half a mile past her parents’ house, because she recognized everything. Ayalet and her parents used to walk this road all the time to get to the creek. They’d always walk in it, splash water at each other, watch turtles lay eggs in the sandbank during the springtime, slip and slide across it when it froze over during the wintertime, try to catch the fish and frogs as they swam in it, or even just sit under the weeping willow. Not many people knew about it, because there were many hidden passages. She hadn’t gone there in forever, she would consider it now, but the sun was setting at the moment and she needed to get home.

After walking about 25 minutes, she was in view of her aunt’s house. Forcibly dragging her feet up the stairs, she quietly opened the front door and walked into the insanely bright living room where the TV was droning on about the latest news, Aunt Krista’s favorite channel. Feeling kind of dizzy, she started to stumble down the hallway to her room bumping into walls and nearly knocking over a photograph on the wall.

“Ayalet, is that you?” her aunt’s shrill voice called from the kitchen.

“Yes Aunt Krista, I’m just going to my room.”

“Well, I hope you remembered to take off your shoes, I just vacuumed… I mean lord knows you don’t... anyways I’m going out to dinner tonight with some friends. You’ll just have to find something in the pantry for yourself. Also don’t forget to feed Molly.” She looked down at her feet, shoes still on. She reached down and took them off.

“Yup.” Ayalet sighed as she turned toward her room. That was her aunt, she thought to herself. In all the years she’d lived here, never once had her aunt asked about how she was, where she was or how she was doing.

The first few years, Ayalet attempted to have those kinds of conversations. They always ended with her aunt pursing her lips and babbling on about town gossip or criticizing some aspect of Ayalets existence. God forbid she’d show any form of emotion around her aunt, she had learned that quickly. Day three after moving in with her aunt, a week or two after her parents disappearance, her aunt had found her crying in the bathroom after a hard day at school. This was promptly followed by a disgusted facial expression and her aunt yelling, “That is enough! I can’t take this constant sobbing from you; my god Ayalet, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an ugly crier. I have GRACIOUSLY taken you into my home young lady; the least you could do is not make my life a nightmare and get over yourself. Bad things happen to everyone, it’s time to grow up.” That day forward, Ayalet came to the conclusion that her aunt and her would never have a relationship; or at least not one that resembled a family.

Her room here was completely different from her real room at her parents’ house. This room was as plain as plain could get, the walls were completely bare, the bedspread was a solid neutral color, and the only other thing in here besides her bed and dresser was her desk. She felt miserable every time she walked up the front stairs, so she tried to avoid coming here as best she could. Which became easier as she got older. Then again, she never spent much time here anyway. Who’d want to spend all of their free time around ‘her.’ An aunt that didn’t care if you fell off the face of the planet, except for the loss of someone she could bitch at and attempt to control. She honestly felt sorry for her mother for having to put up with Aunt Krista for so long.

Falling face first onto her bed, she sorted through all of the things that had happened since earlier that morning. Her head felt like she’d just been on an emotional roller coaster. It had been such a strange day, all these unfamiliar memories, and emotions. And then there was Jaison… What in the world was that all about? God what was wrong with her, boys had never been an issue. She simply never felt any interest in them, now all of a sudden he walks in and she can't even think straight. But then again he didn't help the situation; he didn't let her breath, he was just as interested as she was. Heck, maybe more. She wanted to scream in confusion. Taking in a deep breath and shaking the thoughts from her mind, she sat up as a different thought rolled into her head, making her heave a sigh of exasperation and grumble, “Of course, I forgot all of my books with Jaison.” Stretching her arms up into the air, she stared at her now unscathed arms, fell backward onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling as she slowly felt herself drift to sleep and into a childlike dream.