WAKE ME UP (continuation of last chapter)
Warm hands rush over his numbed body. He wonders what is happening and then realizes he's back home and everyone's there. The hands he feels are those of his friends and voices he hears are all welcome.
"Is he waking up?"
"Is he okay?"
Am I okay? His mind asks itself.
He feels the hands leave his body and he takes in a deep breath and sighs.
He hears ringing and wonders if he's going crazy, but then the ringing stop and he hears someone say 'hello.'
There's a conversation and he's doesn't what's going on. Hushed voices and a worried tone fill ears with unknown words. He thinks about it for a little while, but lets it go as he falls asleep again.
When he wakes up again it's different. There's silence all around he. He wonders if he's finally died and hears breathing beside him.
Someone's talking to him and crying their eyes out again. He knows the voice, but can't quite place it and realizes he knows it's his fault.
"Brother, oh brother, please wake up. We're glad you're back, but everyone's so worried. Pleaseā¦"
The voice is begging him to open his eyes, but he's not sure he can do it. He tries to pry his eyes open, but it's just too difficult to do.
It feels like his lids weigh a hundred pounds each and lips are all frozen together. He groans and the voice speaking hitches. The breath halts and the person squeals. "Brother, brother!"
"Are you awake now?"
The eye lids lift.
And the heart pounds.
He sees for the first time, in such a long, his dearly beloved family.
"You're awake! You're awake!"
The younger boy squeals and runs down the hall to tell everyone else in the house. "He's awake! He's awake!" He screams for awhile until everyone rushes back into the room.
And now it's a chorus of singing people, screaming "He's awake, he's awake!"
This chorus is different from anything he's heard. So happy, so worried, so scared. But there's the fact that there's love in every word that makes him feel so alive.
Now, as he stares at all in the room, he smiles and knows he's loved. There's no reason for him to want his dream back, because all he needs is right in front of him.
There's the blonde haired girl with a wrench in her hand, who has tears running down her face. And then there's a blond haired man beside her smoking and trying not to cry. The black haired man is missing his usual smirk and it's replaced with a real smile. A gun toting woman is missing her gun and his holding a smile on her face. There's an old woman standing beside her a cigar in her mouth and a smug look on her face. There were more people there, but he could place them yet because he only had eyes for one.
There was a young boy who looked like him, who stared him in the eye. The boy called him brother and he smiled again, because this boy was his Alphonse.
"Al," he whispered and knew it was true and tried not to close his eyes. He was getting tired again, but he refused to go back to sleep. He feared sleep, too scared to rest, fearing that all would be a dream.
"Brother, you're okay. I know you're tired, you can take a rest. Go back to sleep."
He frowned and the boy laughed a little.
"We'll be here when you wake up."
He closed his eyes and smiled.
"It's not a dream you're in."
He fell back into sleep without a dream because his dream was in the world of the waking.
Not too long ago, he used to say "Don't wake me up. Because in my dreams, I'm happy and all my pain disappears."
But now, as he falls asleep, he realizes that he no longer believes that's true. Now all he says to everyone in the dreams he once had is, "Wake me up."
