Chapter 15

            I was late to Biology, but I didn't care.  Everyone was up by the teacher's desk checking his or her grades, so I slipped into my seat unnoticed.  I took notes like a perfect little student, and aced the quiz, but it wasn't me, I wasn't there.  I was numb, stupefied, dazed, in shock, and oblivious to everything but the overload of information that had changed my life forever and that small bottle of pills still clenched in my left hand.  While walking to class, I had realized I would never be the same, that this was serious, and I couldn't tell anyone.  Now I was really alone, more alone than ever before, or ever after.

            I turned my simple chemistry experiment into smoking foam that choked the other kids, ate through the table in a matter of seconds, and severely burned my forearm.  We vacated the room quickly and the teacher clicked her tongue in disappointment, then she saw my arm.  "Oh my, we better get you to the nurse right away before that does anymore damage." She said, and I looked down at my arm, bleeding profusely and a sickly green color, but I felt nothing.  I let Ms. Davis lead me down the hall, around the corner, and to the nurse's office.  The nurse looked pale, and possibly sick when she saw my arm, but she gently washed my arm and wrapped it up and sent me home. 

            "Take these when your arm hurts again, no more than four a day, and change the gauze every two hours, wash it with alcohol first.  I want to see you once a week, every Monday after school, to check on that arm.  Okay?" The nurse requested gently.  "By the way, I'm Mrs. Beachly." I nodded and shuffled down the hall, thinking about her.

            Mrs. Beachly was a big, curvaceous black woman, with her hair parted on the side and slicked back and clipped up.  She wore the classic nurse uniform and nearly popped the buttons down the front of the white blouse.  Her white skirt hung lightly against her knee and her stockings shined slightly against her midnight complexion.  Her white tennis shoes weren't very white anymore and were worn to a soft shuffle when she moved.  She had a high forehead, big, warm brown eyes, and the friendliest smile I'd ever seen, and without a second thought, I liked her.

            Ms. Davis walked me as far as the dining hall, and then Cara took over and she left without a word.  I shuffled along, led by Cara, who mumbled soothing words I cared not to hear.  She took me back to my room, and, fully clothed still, except for shoes, tucked me into bed.  "Now, get some sleep, and I'll be back in a minute with a glass of water for you." Cara promised.  I nodded listlessly and awaited her return.  Every inch of my body ached and it hurt to keep my eyes open.  I listened as Cara ran water in the bathroom; shut it off, and the clink of glass against porcelain.  She set the glass down on my nightstand and I opened my eyes to look at her.

            She turned to leave, but I whispered, "Cara, your plan, what was it?"

            "It doesn't matter now." She replied.

            "Yes it does.  I want to know." I insisted.

            "Alright, but it sounds stupid now." Cara sighed.  She sat down on the edge of the bed and began.  "Okay, first of all, have you seen Nightmare on Elm Street?  You know, the Freddy movies?"

            "Of course, those are my favorite scary movies ever!  They don't make 'em like they used to, I mean, how many different ways can you kill someone?" I gushed.

            "Okay, that's a big yes.  If you're such a Freddy expert, this is going to be easier than I had hoped for." Cara laughed.  "Well, in one of the Freddy movies, I forget which one, the girl gets a hold of Freddy and pulls him out of the dream and into the real world where he can be killed.  I was thinking, maybe, you could do that, and when you pulled him through, the girls and I could be waiting and we could beat him to a bloody pulp." She finished.  "What do you think?"

            I laughed, softly at first.  I felt as if I were falling into the bottom of a deep cavernous hole, and even though I tried, I knew there was no way out, ever.  Now I was laughing, half-hysterical, while Cara gave me the funniest look.  I had snapped; my mind had left me to fend for myself without it, and I couldn't stop laughing.  I probably would have laughed forever, had that sharp sting of a slap across my cheek not brought tears to my eyes, switching laughter to sobbing.

            I buried my head against Cara and sobbed breathlessly while she patted me gently on the back and shushed me.  After the longest time, she forced me to sit up and in a moment of weakness, I blubbered out all the day's events, including every agonizing detail Evy had given me.  She looked solemn, sad, and paler than I'd ever seen her before.  "Liz, is all this true?" She asked me.  I nodded and sniffled my nose loudly.  "Does Ms. Evy know you've told me about everything else?"  I nodded again.

            "She doesn't want me to tell anyone else though, but you said I have to tell the girls, but I really don't know what to do!" I whined.

            "Shush, shush, it's alright.  Before we do anything, I think we should see the cave again; Ms. Evy too." Cara decided.  "That's where you were when you experienced a real life piece of your dream.  I'll go find her while you get the statue and Dane." She said, standing up and walking to the door.

            "Dane!  No, no, we can't involve him." I whined.  "Ms. Evy doesn't know about him.  As far as she knows, you're the only person in the world I've told."

            "So we'll tell her when I find her.  Why didn't you?" Cara shrugged.

            "Because he's not supposed to be here and I don't want to get him tossed out."

            "Liz, if Evy is trusted enough for you to talk to, and she to you, I think the secret of Dane is safe with her." Cara assured me.  I nodded again in agreement.  With that, she left.  As soon as she was out the door, I threw back the covers and hobbled to the bathroom.  I flipped on the light and examined both my arm and my neck.

            My neck was healing fast, and it made me quite nervous to see that the holes were skinned over already.  My arm stuck to the gauze as I peeled it back and the sight made my stomach clench, and I barely leaned over the toilet before the contents came back up.  I flushed the toilet and washed my face and mouth.  I looked at myself in the mirror, but that couldn't possibly be me.  This girl's face was pale and drawn with gray-white lips and skin, dark purple rings beneath her eyes, and a strangled look in them. 

             I forced myself to look at my arm again, and it looked alien to me.  I could see deep into it, my blood was tinged with green, and it oozed sickly.  I let the water pour over my arm from the faucet for several minutes and I wrapped it in the fresh gauze Mrs. Beachly had given me.  I redressed my neck also and pulled my turtleneck back into place.  I flipped the light off and stumbled back to bed and chased one of Evy's pills with the entire glass of water.

            I jotted a quick note to Dane and snuck across the hall to send it up to him.  T wasn't in her room, so I worked quickly so as to be done before she returned to ask questions.  I tossed the note in the dumbwaiter, closed the heavy iron door, and pushed the sixth floor button a dozen times to make sure it went straight to Dane.  I sighed thoughtfully and padded softly back to bed.  I crawled into bed, feeling nauseous, sleepy, and irritable.