A/N: Thanks to Kira Tsumi, Pagan mama, SatanSprinklesxx, and Guest for commenting on the last chapter. I'm trying to back into the rhythm of updating more frequently than I have been, but it's hard seeing as I feel the story is coming to a close. This is, honestly, the longest story I have written up-to-date. I am going through re-boots of old TV shows, new TV shows, and so forth right now so it's kind of hard to really sit and write. YOU GUYS are the reason I keep pushing through to see this story to the end, because you are all amazing and wonderful. Thank you for commenting on the chapters and sticking to me when all hope seemed lost. Again, thank you so much!

Chapter 20

Drowning.

One minute she was aware of drifting off to sleep, and the next she felt the world just bottom out from under her and plunge her into the icy waters of her mind. She couldn't hear anything, she couldn't wake up, she felt a tremendous weight on her chest like she could barely breathe, and she felt as if she could feel nothing but coldness.

At times she saw the flash of a perfect pair of brown eyes staring back at her in the darkness with a look of everlasting sadness before turning bright red that held the hunger of a monster that shouldn't even exist, but did for the sake of existing. She knew those eyes, but she couldn't exactly place who they belong too, but, she knew, that they were too familiar to forget just because she wasn't aware of anything around her.

She was scared, she didn't want this to be happening, but she was way too far gone for treatment. It all started with the migraines in her head, then it progressed to Epileptic seizures before, finally, her father took her to the doctor last year to see just what was going on with her. What the doctor said shocked them all speechless.

Catherine had developed a brain tumor in her parietal lobe.

The Parietal Lobe, in it's basic understanding, controls motor function. Her family was shocked - well her mother and siblings were shocked her father looked like he didn't give a shit (pardon her vulgar language). Her father was a hard man to actually crack when he didn't want to be broken in the first place, and that's why it took two years of migraines and seizures for him to realize that this could be something really serious and not her playing around trying to get his attention.

Now, Catherine is drifting in the ocean of her mind not knowing if she'll ever wake up at all. The fear is gripping her, yes, but the sway of the water is nice and soothing so her emotions are coming from two totally different directions. Those same eyes appear once more, and she reaches out for them - trying to grasp onto something in the waking world.

"I love you" came the whisper of a male voice that Catherine knew all to well. "I love you too Jerry" she muttered back before she placed her hand back down beside her as her body rose to the surface of the water and floated on top of the water - she felt like Rose Dewitt Bukater from Titanic as she floated on the door that was keeping her from the icy Atlantic Ocean.

She knew that time has an odd way of passing while one is within their own mind; seconds to her could be hours or months to the waking world. She could turn 18 before she even knew it - it hurt her knowing that could happen and she had no control over it, but what could she do about it?

"Written on the stars, a million miles away a message to the main ooh. Season's come and go, but I will never change and I'm on my way..." she mumbled as a song she heard from a teenagers phone started playing in her head. It was a catchy tune that she could dance to, but she never did try to learn some of the provocative dances that teenagers go in this day and age, because they never seemed to fit the way that she knew the song should feel like to her, but it didn't stop her from being curious.

She sighed as she kept looking up into the emptiness that was her mind; Jerry's eyes had stop flickering into her mind and she was now left with nothing really to think about or do. The water kept her nerves soothed while she just floated there.

She wanted out, she wasn't ready to die yet. She had people she cared about in the waking world, but if God wanted her then he could have her. She knew her mother would take her off life support if she didn't wake up after a month - she'd donate her organs to help those that needed them more than Catherine did, but her brain would have to be used elsewhere, because the brain is the person, the waking consciousness of someone else, and no one would want another person inside their daughter or friend.