"God, Carmen, wake up!" She felt her body being shaken and she groggily sat up, squinting through bleary eyes to make out the person before her.

"Jody?" A relieved sigh was heard in the room.

"Dammit, Carmen! You were scaring the shit out of me."

"Wha-What I'd do?"

"I've been trying to wake you up for the past few minutes. I couldn't even tell if you were breathing! God dammit! Give me a heart attack this early in the morning!"

"Jo, I'm sorry. I guess I took a sleeping pill or something," she mumbled, lying back down and covering her face with her covers as Jody turned on the bedroom light. "When did you get in?"

"I was over at Jamie's. The fucking storm came through and blew out the power. I tried to call to see if you were okay and there was no answer. God, I was so fucking worried Jody! I thought the doctor told you to keep off those pills!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry Jody. I don't even remember taking it. Stop shoutin,' will ya?" Jody raised a brow and regarded the lump before her.

"I'm going to go make coffee – don't even think about going back to sleep!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," she muttered, burrowing deeper into the comforter. Curses could be heard over the sound of the sing over the sink running in the kitchen and the clinking of ceramics on the countertop. But Carmen wasn't up long enough to smell the grounds being brewed.

.....

She opened her eyes, only to find a beige world around her. She was lying prone and the ground was soft beneath her. She breathed out, and the beige world moved slightly. She rolled over, only to find herself wrapped within a gossamer fabric as she went over the edge and fell to the ground below. She disentangled herself from the shroud and came to her feet. She was in a room – a stone room, perfectly square with no windows, a few standing candles and one arched opening that was partially covered by a drape.

Still dragging the gossamer shroud, she took a few cautious steps towards the drape, the sound of conversation a little way beyond. She pulled the curtain to one side and found a dirt passage way. An alcove had been cut into the wall opposite the portal in which she stood, a small torch lighting the ground at her feet. She could hear the sound of men down the hall off to her left. They were laughing, conversing merrily about their lives. She walked towards them, her footsteps as unheard and leisured as those in dreams. When she found them, cutting away at the end of the hall, carving the passage way deeper into the ground, they still did not realize her presence. She watched them in silence. They looked like woodsmen, dressed in work tunics of brown and green. The torches flickered as a gust of wind breathed down the corridor. The men laughed, breathing deeply and turning towards the fresh air. Their shouting is what alerted the guard.

She was not touched, but gathered about, swords at the ready as more and more were called to observe her. She stood silently, taking it all in. The people were moving slowly and their questions sounded sluggish and drawn out to the point where she could no longer make out the words. She staggered back to the room she had seen before, the crowd forcing themselves out of her path with something akin to fear. Heavy lidded she pulled aside the drape and dragged herself and the gossamer fabric she still clutched like a security blanket up and onto the pillow-laden stone tablet and fell to sleep.

.....

Carmen awoke to the sound of sirens. Her body was being jostled about, but she could feel harnesses around her upper torso and strapped across her thighs. As she came to, the rolling board that she was on halted and the paramedics began to speak to her.

"Do you know where you are," an attendant asked, opening an eyelid and shining a light onto her pupil.

"An ambulance," she stated blandly, trying to extricate her hand to shield her eyes.

"What is your name?"

"Carmen Desoto."

"How are you?" She laughed, unsure how to answer. The last thing she could remember was Jody and the promise of fresh coffee.

"Um, I'm fine. Seriously. Where's Jody?" The attendant shouted and Jody hurried over, her cell phone in hand.

"Carmen?! You're awake! Fucking hell!"

"Ma'am. Please."

"Sorry," she said unapologetically to the paramedic. Turning her attention to Carmen, she resumed her inquisition, if not a little more restrained.

"Carmen, I – I had to call the cops. I couldn't get you awake. They thought you'd gone into some sort of comatose shock shit."

"I told you, I was just tired."

"No, you said you had taken pills! For fuck's sake, Carmen, I'd thought you had overdosed on something!"

"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to restrain yourself," the paramedic stated over her shoulder, while taking Carmen's blood pressure.

"Um, no offense or anything," Carmen said, unstrapping herself from the gurney. "But I'm really quite fine. I just overslept is all." An apparatus appeared in from of her face.

"Breathe into this please."

"What is it?"

"I just need to check your blood alcohol level."

"Okay...." She blew hard into the device and it was withdrawn from her view. She hopped to the concrete below and walked to observe the scene. The siren of the ambulance had been turned off, but the combined lights of the police patrol car and ambulance lit the faces of her neighbors standing in various states of disarray along the stairs and from the doorways of the apartment complex. Many were still in their pajamas and robes, their morning wake up call a bit earlier than they had planned. A policeman had called Jody over and was taking her statement while the second paramedic had begun packing his equipment. The first kept trying to escort her into the ambulance, worried that she might still be under the influence of narcotics. She batted the woman away and hurried over to Jody.

"Jody, I think you just misheard me. Officer, I'm okay. I just had an exhausting day of activities. My body was so worn out, I doubt Mt. Vesuvius would have woken me up." The officer smiled, his faced confused, while Carmen dragged Jody close.

"Jody. Really... this was a little over the top, don't you think?"

"Damn it, Carmen. I left you to make some coffee and when I get back, you're the definition of a vegetable. Nothing. I screamed, I shook, I poked with sharp sticks and you didn't wake up! I fucking had to do something!"

"Yeah, I understand. Just take care of this. I have got a major headache." Seeing the questioning look of her friend, she sighed. "Bad dream." She smiled, clutching the side of her head and she made her way up the stairs and into the apartment. What a weird freaking week.

.....