Chapter 1
I dropped my head onto the arm of the old, brown leather lounge chair and hugged myself around the waist. After everything that happened today, my body was really worn down. I was exhausted and achy, and I was starting to get a bit of a headache. Not great timing, considering The Edison Group was still looking for us, and I had to keep up with my training. It had been a few days since the fiasco in the graveyard, and Margaret had me training really hard. I probably just needed to relax. I hadn't really been sleeping well and it had been a tiring day.
Raising wasn't easy, especially since Margaret had me focusing so hard on control. She seems to think that just because I raised a whole graveyard at once, I must be out of control, not powerful. But I am powerful, and using that much power at once apparently calls for days of slow reenergizing. Annoying, but as much as I really hate it, here I am, curled up in an armchair trying to fall asleep after an hour of failure.
I readjusted myself so I was facing toward the doors to the hallway. Just then, the doors creaked open and Derek walked in, presumably looking for Simon, based on the insulin pouch he had clutched in his hand.
"Chloe? Are you okay?"
He seemed surprised to see me, "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"
"Because, you're white as a sheet. Plus you're sitting in here alone curled up in a ball" I could here his tone of voice start to change. The protective Alpha instinct was coming out, and even though he does it with Simon and even Tori, I couldn't help but feel little butterflies at the thought of him being concerned about me.
"Really Derek, I'm fine" I tried to sound reassuring, "I'm just a little tired. Training with Margaret is getting intense. I think she's worried that I'm going to go berserk again and raise too many to handle. I almost killed her last time so she wants to make sure I'm in control. All the time".
"Okay but if you wanna...or if you feel worse..."
"-If I feel worse I'll come find you I promise". Derek wasn't exactly the nurse-the-sick type, so I tried to bail him out. He took the opportunity and left to continue his search for Simon.
After he left, I was finally able to fall asleep. For the first time in weeks I didn't have any nightmares. It was strange, because I had been having nightmares since we arrived at Andrew's. I probably hadn't been sleeping properly in longer than that, anyway.
I woke up a few hours later with a headache that practically wrapped around my entire skull. I groaned in pain and annoyance; now was not the time for migraines. I used to get them all the time when I sat at home working on screenplays for hours on end. My dad used to always tell me to drink lots of water, maybe take an aspirin, and relax in the quiet for a while. I wasn't sure what Andrew had in the way of painkillers so I went upstairs to search the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Eventually I found what I was looking for and went to the kitchen to get some water.
I was headed back to the small living room to lie down again when I started feeling really dizzy. I had to stop and brace myself against the wall so I didn't fall over. I blinked a few times to try and clear my head. I tried to remember what little first aid I knew about headaches and dizziness, but it was getting hard to concentrate. The only thing I could think to do was sit down and put my head between my knees. I think I had seen someone do it in a movie once.
I don't know how long I stayed like that, but it must have been a while because eventually I heard Tori coming down the stairs. She usually doesn't like to take many breaks when she goes on cleaning sprees, like today.
"Hey Chloe. Geez, Derek told me and Simon about how exhausted you were but I didn't think you'd be taking naps in the middle of the hallway".
I ignored her and hoped she would just keep walking. I was trying really hard not to throw up and I was afraid of what might happen if she distracted me.
"Chloe?", she hesitated before continuing to the kitchen, "Chloe are you okay?".
She knelt down so she could see my face, "Chloe are you conscious?", She started to sound more serious, "Chloe can you hear me?".
I tried to mumble out that I knew she was there but all I could manage was an unintelligent grunt.
"Chloe what's going on?"
I opened my mouth to try to answer her properly but I got hit with a sudden wave of nausea. I quickly leaned to one side so I didn't get sick all over Tori.
"Oh shit. Derek! Simon!" she yelled.
I heard lots of pounding footsteps and then Simon's voice coming up the hall, "Ew! What the hell is going on?"
"I'm not sure. I think Chloe's been sitting here for a while. Something is wrong with her."
The three of them argued for a minute and I started to get dizzy again so I put my head back between my knees.
"I would say she has a concussion but usually if you hit your head that hard there is external bleeding too." Tori muttered
"How do you know that?" Simon asked
"A few summers back my friends and I all decided to start lifeguard training. It was a dumb idea but we had to get first aid certification and I guess I never forgot it."
I could hear Derek's impatient exhale in the background. I knew that he still didn't trust Tori so I knew her being able to help one of us when he couldn't was probably bugging him.
"Chloe I'm going to lie you down on your side," she supported my head and soon I could feel the cold hardwood against my cheek.
"Sort of dangerous to move her isn't it?" Derek growled
"Maybe, but if it is a concussion then she'll probably go unconscious at some point. If that happens and she's sitting like that, she could fall over and hit her head on the floor. Besides if she vomits while she's unconscious she could choke if she's not positioned properly, which is more dangerous."
"Don't we have someone we can call?" Simon asked.
"No! It's not like we can call 911 and Andrew took his phone with him when he left, anyway.
"So we just sit here?" Simon asked in disbelief.
"Yes. We don't have to panic unless she falls unconscious".
I felt really ridiculous having everyone gawking over me. A headache and some food poisoning doesn't warrant a complete freak out. I tried to get up a few times but Tori got pissed whenever I tried to do that.
I was relieved when I started to feel better about an hour later. I started to feel less and less dizzy so I did sit up, despite everyone's protests. When the dizziness went away so did the nausea so I was finally able to talk without worrying about puking.
"You guys are seriously overreacting. I'll be fine."
"Chloe you looked like a corpse." Simon said
"And you've been lying on the floor for almost two hours." Tori added
"It-It barely felt like one."
"Yeah, well I don't think you were conscious a hundred percent of the time."
There was a glass of water at my side so I grabbed it and sipped at it for a while until I started to feel normal again.
"Chloe what happened?" Derek asked
I recounted everything that happened up until Tori found me on the floor. I assured everyone that I hadn't hit my head recently and I didn't eat or drink anything strange. It started to feel patronizing after a while. Everyone staring at me, treating me like a toddler, asking me if I had done anything reckless. I knew they thought I was the weak one in the group. I had the least impressive powers out of everyone, I was small and had the least experience with most things. But I was tired of being taken care of. I could deal with a little flu!
"You know what? I think I'm just going to go upstairs and sleep it off. Tell Andrew what happened if you want but don't worry about me. I'll be fine," then I got up and slowly made my way to the staircase.
When I got to Tori and my bedroom, I was already exhausted again. I crawled into bed and closed my eyes. Once again I was granted a dreamless, peaceful sleep.
When I woke up it was dark, which meant I slept all day. It was a little warm in the room so I went over to open the window. When I turned around I noticed a bowl of soup sitting on my side table. It was stone cold, but I ate it anyway. They must've decided to tell Andrew after all, it seemed like the sort of thing he would do.
Soon after that I went back to sleep. I slept right through the night and felt completely fine until early the next morning, when I found out I couldn't eat anything.
I had another episode on the stairs on my way down for breakfast, probably because of the soup. This time I knew I passed out because I woke up on the couch in the living room with Derek sitting in the armchair across the room. When I opened my eyes I noticed he had put a glass of water on the table, just like in the hall yesterday. He was staring right at me, unmoving and serious. I didn't want to be the one to have to break the silence but I knew he was waiting for me to ask.
"How long?"
"Three hours. I found you on the stairs when I got up," he paused before continuing, "this is serious Chloe."
"I know. It's only going to worse isn't it?" I asked. But we both already knew the answer.