Forkanna awoke from what felt like nothing more than the deepest, darkest slumber a soul could endure.
She blinked her opaque eyes, feeling stiff, yet empty at the same time.
"What in the — " she began to say, feeling her crusty lips hardly able to emanate a noise. It was like her mouth was made of porcelain — something that had been shelved, accumulating dank dust in the dark cold air for six years or so.
She jolted straight up.
She stared down at her hands.
She moved her pale hands. The skin was all paper-white, but her veins were poking out in the moonlight: thick strings of dark-blue, almost black.
"I'm alive!?" she said.
"Indeed, you are," replied a calm voice.
Forkanna blinked in utter confusion, gazing around in the dark. She felt cool grass beneath her legs. Soft cicadas rang their throaty noises in the background. The moon swung bare on its black cord through the night. Forkanna could discern that indeed, she was alive, and here she was, trembling with awareness in an empty, grassy field.
"It's been a while," the voice said, growing closer.
And then a hand touched gently on Forkanna's shoulder.
Forkanna turned around and said only one word, barely whispering: "Elsa!?"
Elsa took a step back, the corners of her eyes twinkling. "Forkanna!"
The next thing was simple: a tight embrace, a hug so close it was as if the two women were clinging to each other on the edge of a cliff.
Soft coos, fingers running through hair, little whimpers, tiny kisses on the cheeks, the foreheads, the hands.
What was once a sudden moment of bliss quickly turned in a blur. Forkanna felt herself drifting in and out. In and out. Fading into the feeling of being carried by Elsa through the field, and then back into the black nothingness, and then again, in her arms.
"You had an accident," Living Lamb told Forkanna, hours later, in their apartment.
Forkanna was lying on the couch, wrapped in a flannel blanket, holding an ice-pack to her head as candles lit the living room.
"An accident?" Forkanna asked, blinking, still confused.
Elsa stood at their apartment's door, crossing her arms, glancing back and forth between Forkanna and her roommates. She was quiet, but looked greatly concerned.
"Yes, clumsy," Celery Sticks said, reaching over to hand Forkanna a tall glass of cold water. "Elsa had to call campus police and an ambulance. It seems like you hit your head after you fell into the water fountain."
"And that's my fault," Elsa quickly interjected. "I bumped into you -"
"And then you went back to the dance, Fork," Celery Sticks said. "But then you started acting all weird."
"We thought you were on shrooms, honestly," Lamb said, chuckling. "We've never seen you act that way. You were fine one moment, and then you started screaming about the Magic School Bus, and lava, and a nude professor!?"
"And then you ran off," Celery said. "Elsa and the student union started a search party for you. The news stations were posting up in the parking lot for their next big story."
Elsa's seriousness suddenly shifted into a fit of giggles, which she suppressed daintily with her hand; she turned to distract herself by peering intently at Forkanna's artwork on the wall.
"I did?" Forkanna asked. "Holy crap. Well, honestly, I feel like I got hit by a train."
"You have a concussion," Lamb said. "Elsa - on top of sending out a search party - also emailed the faculty and staff. You can take a few days to lie down and relax. But try not to sleep too much."
Forkanna rolled her eyes lightheartedly. "You know how I need my naps, Lamb."
"Then that means we'll have to take turns keeping you awake, on account of your concussion," Elsa said, still facing the wall, her finger touched upon Forkanna's painting of a snowman. "There's lots of things we could do."
A hot blush crept into Forkanna's cheeks.
"Lots of things," Elsa said, after the pause. "Board games, Netflix, reading books aloud."
"Oh, yeah, for sure. That's totally what I thought you meant."
Lamb and Celery glanced at each other. The room went quiet again.
"Well, it's late," Elsa said, sharing their glance for a moment. "I hate to invite myself over, but I rode back in the campus car, and the last time I walked alone in the dark, I saw some creepy men ..."
"You can stay here!" Forkanna said, a bit too quickly.
Lamb and Celery bit their tongues to avoid the look.
Forkanna curled herself up, albeit weakly, to make room for Elsa's spot on the couch.
"Have a good night," Lamb said, winking at the Forkanna and Elsa — who were now avoiding eye contact — as she grabbed Celery's hand and led her out of the living room.
AN: To be continued.