-Chapter 8: A Real, Live Boy-
Davis.
I had no idea I could feel so lethargic – so lazy. I was aware and awake, but I could not open my eyes. It was all I could do to hold on and not fall back into unconsciousness. I took in a breath, and it felt wrong; it felt blocked.
Davis.
More and more feeling came back as the fog cleared in my head. I was lying down on my back in a dark room, and there was a slight pressure on my arms and chest. My throat bobbed and I sucked in another breath. I almost gagged. There was something in my mouth – something down my throat!
"Davis!"
My eyes opened fully as the thing was removed from my face. It scraped and slid as it exited my mouth and I let out an involuntary gurgle. A hand pressed down lightly on my shoulder and I turned my head to stare at the silhouette standing in the room with me.
"Are you in there, buddy?" the man asked me, concern obvious in his tone. He gave my shoulder a squeeze but didn't remove the hand. I took in an unobstructed breath.
The movies, the crash, body snatching, figuring out I was inside a book universe – it all flooded back into my mind and I flinched under the onslaught of information. It was nearly too much to bear, but underneath it all was a small bubble of hope that had slowly been dying since I landed in this place.
I blinked. I…blinked. Me; not my host. Me. I clenched my hands around the covers and curled my toes. A small laugh escaped my throat – which was scratchy and enflamed, making me want to cough – and I relaxed my muscles, just staring at the dark ceiling above me.
"Kid?" Matt questioned, shuffling a bit closer to me. I planted my elbows in the hospital bed and propped myself up. Or, at least I tried to prop myself up. My muscles were so sore and out of shape. My arms shook with the effort as I inched myself up in the bed so I could get a better view.
"Matt," I whispered, causing him to immediately let out a breath I hadn't realized he was holding in. He dropped his hand and started to unplug me from the machines – ripping out the IV and removing the sensors on my chest and arms.
"Welcome back," Matt muttered playfully. "Had me going there for a second, kid." I felt myself crack a smile as he helped me to my feet.
I stood shaking, unsteady on my feet and using my arms to hold onto Matt. I took a step away from the bed and was suddenly shivering from the cold draft in the room. I reached behind my back and grasped the edges of my hospital gown.
"Shit," I cursed under my breath. "We didn't bring any clothes." I could barely see Matt's face frown as he considered my lack of clothing options. He squinted his eyes and glanced around the room, probably looking for any clothes that would fit me. But of course, there wouldn't be anything – this body was supposed to be a vegetable, why would there be clothes?
"Damn it!" Matt whisper-cursed as he ran a hand through his thin hair. He maneuvered me onto the bed in a sitting position and moved to the small window on the door, peering out into the hallway. After a moment, he walked back over to me and helped me up again. "I don't see a guard, but we're going to have to make a run for it when we get to the lobby."
I hesitated, thinking about Matt's "plan." It wasn't much of one. Sure, we could run past the receptionist and make a speedy getaway, but surely the hospital had cameras in the parking lot. Matt would eventually be arrested. My heart started beating faster in my chest and a cold chill went down my spine.
He already would be arrested.
Matt would be the last visitor in the hospital where a catatonic patient woke up and ran out of the hospital. And that's only if they didn't assume Matt was kidnapping me – which was likely to happen because Matt would have to practically half-carry me out the door.
I looked up at where the faint light disappeared over where I knew his eye's would be and gave him a nod. Matt wasn't a genius, but he wasn't stupid either. If he wanted to risk his freedom helping me get mine, I wasn't about to say no.
I slung an arm over his shoulders and he wrapped one of his around my back and helped me stand up. With less awkwardness than I thought there'd be, we opened the door and sped to the elevators. Matt shifted his weight as he repeatedly pressed the call button, frantically glancing around and looking for guards. Luckily, there were none in sight. The elevator dinged and we shuffled inside, where Matt hit the ground floor button and started to breathe hard.
"You think you can run out of the lobby by yourself?" he asked me, removing his arm from my back, but keeping it close.
"Maybe," I cringed, but put weight on my legs. I was shaky, but much sturdier than I was when I first woke up. "Yeah, I think so." Matt moved his arm down to his side and I swayed slightly as the elevator stopped. We both took deep breaths as we exited the elevator, but didn't move any further into the lobby.
The elevators were around a corner that the receptionist couldn't see around – and for that I'm grateful – but the only way out of the hospital from where we were was to walk directly in front of the desk toward the sliding glass doors. There was no way she could miss us – much less miss me, with my hospital gown on and nothing else.
"OK," Matt took another breath. "I'll walk out first and start the car – it's freezing outside. Can't believe I forgot to bring clothes," he started to mumble to himself. " I'll pull the car up to the doors so you can make a run for it."
I nodded and leaned against the wall, trying to conserve all the energy I could for my sprint to freedom. Matt nodded back and walked through the lobby. I suppose he was trying to look nonchalant, but his calm stride through the lobby was interrupted by his unwavering gaze, which was locked on the doors that led outside. I couldn't risk a look around the corner to see if the receptionist suspected anything, but no alarms were sounded and everything seemed OK, so I stayed put.
The doors opened for Matt and he walked through. A bone-chilling breeze swept through the lobby and reached my hiding place by the elevators, ruffling my gown and the fake-looking plants that surrounded the otherwise-bleak-looking area.
I heard the distant starting of an engine and saw the quick swipe of headlights as the car angled and moved out of the parking spot. I pushed off from the wall gently and flexed my muscles. I would not fall. I would not fall. I repeated the mantra in my head as my heartbeat thudded in my ears. And then suddenly, the car was there in front of the doors and I was running.
I didn't look at the receptionist and I only slowed down to allow the automatic doors to open wide enough for me to slip through. The doors opened wider as I was running over the ice-cold concrete, barefoot. I heard a thumping sound, and rapid movement from behind me.
It wasn't the time or place for laughing, but as I was nearly to the car, I smiled. I had to be a sight: a patient sprinting toward the exit, hospital gown exposing his bare ass for the entire world to see.
"What the…Hey!" The receptionist shouted. I still didn't look back. On numb feet and shaking knees I opened the car door and threw myself inside. The car took off and the momentum closed the door before I had a chance to.
Neither of us said anything for several minutes as we drove down the highway and away from the hospital. Matt would check his mirrors every few minutes and I would tell him to slow down – he would gradually speed up until I scolded him. It was a tense ride, that's for sure.
After fifteen minutes of silence – thankfully without the dreaded red and blue police lights in our rearview mirror – we both seemed to relax. We weren't home free, but with every mile we put between us and the scene of the crime, we relaxed further into our seats. I took to staring out the window and looking at the glowing lights of stores and restaurants pass us by as we sped on. We pulled into a Walmart and I glanced at Matt, cocking an eyebrow.
"We need to get you some clothes and some food," Matt told me. "Uh…you should probably stay here."
I snorted and gave him the are-you-fucking-kidding-me look. Matt's eyes flickered to my bare-assed hospital gown and he smirked slightly, though I could tell he put in a solid effort to conceal it from me. He nodded and got out of the car, slamming the door and walking toward the building.
I put my hands under my legs, trying to keep warm in the seemingly arctic temperatures of western Missouri. I let out a sigh and grimaced when I could see my breath. I really should have asked Matt to leave me the keys so I could run the car's heater.
I must have zoned out, because I didn't feel Matt's pulse or see him coming when the driver's door was abruptly opened and even more frigid air seeped into the inside of the car. My teeth chattered as Matt handed me a plastic bag full of clothes and placed another one in the back seat. He also handed me a bag of chips and a bottle of water. I put the water in the cup holder and the chips on the dashboard.
"You'll have to change here," Matt said. "Can't have anyone seeing you running into a bathroom dressed in a hospital gown." Matt chuckled lowly, but I could see the dark circles building up under his eyes from the exhaustion. I would be glad when I could get out of Matt's hair and leave him to his own, normal problems. I just hoped he didn't get into too much trouble for 'kidnapping' me.
"Thanks," I said in a shaky voice as I opened the bag. I pulled out the contents and dumped them on my lap, pursing my lips at the selection.
I had been expecting some jeans, a t-shirt, and some socks and shoes. Instead, there was a pair of dark grey sweats, moccasin-style brown slippers, and a Batman t-shirt. It looked like what I would imagine an unemployed bum would wear around the house on a Sunday. Then again, even I didn't know my new size for clothing, and these were probably cheaper than normal-people clothes. At least the t-shirt was acceptable.
"I'll just…" Matt gestured behind him and leaned out of the car and closed the door. He turned around and put his back to the window. I supposed this was my que to get dressed. After the awkward in-car dressing, I tapped on the window to get Matt's attention. He opened the door and got inside with me.
"Thanks for doing this, Matt," I said softly.
"Yeah," Matt said, looking out the windshield. He started the car up and drove toward the highway. "Let's get you to your vampire buddies." His words startled me and it took me a moment to recover from my shock. I nodded to him to let him know I agreed, then went back to staring out of the side window.
The reality of it all – if you could call it that – hit me in a different way this time. I thought I had accepted my strange situation of living inside the world that only existed inside a book series, but I found my mind slipping in its grasp. The gas station we passed looked no different than the ones in my world. Walmart, the car I was in, the clothes I was wearing – they all seemed so similar to their counterparts in my own world.
Everything seemed so similar that I found myself doubting that vampires even existed here – that the Cullens and Volturi and Quileute wolves lived and breathed the same air I was breathing. The world outside the glass window didn't seem any more sinister or monstrous than the world I came from, and that – I think – scared me more than any difference could.
I glanced down at my hands and flexed my fingers. It was then that the reason for my disbelief reached me. Before, when I was nothing more than a mental hitchhiker, everything was surreal and distorted by my backseat perception. But now, with no other presence inside my mind – with me driving – I was forced to wake up and accept that this was no dream. I was here.
It was real.
End notes: I got this chapter done sooner than I expected. I had planned on skipping this chapter completely and just having a sort of flashback to his escape, after all, it's been 7 (now 8) chapters without any actual Twilight characters showing up. But it didn't flow right - it seemed rushed - and it felt needed to have Davis have this last interaction with Matt.
And indeed, it will be the last real-time interaction with Matt. The next chapter will probably start up with Davis on his way to Seattle, so stay tuned.
