Chapter 21:Waking
Jonas awoke. Startled at the dream he'd just been having. He heard the dull beeping of the various machines around the infirmary and sat up in bed, looking blearily around. He felt a bit better than previously, for that he was thankful.
His gaze drifted to the next bed, where Sergeant Siler slept soundly. Jonas felt a pang of guilt grasp his throat, and turned his eyes away from the sleeping form. He reached to the bedside table, where he'd seen his water glass before falling asleep again and grabbedthe small, plastic container, which he found was still half full. He drank the remainder of the warmed liquid quickly, and set the glass back.
From the far side of the infirmary, he saw Dr. Fraser coming toward him, a cautious smile of welcoming setting on her lips.
"Feeling better?" Janet asked, her voice was warm.
"A bit, yeah." Jonas answered.
Fraser smiled again, and reached a hand out to brush over his forehead. She drew back her hand with a satisfied noise and spoke.
"Your fever is practically nonexistent at the moment. I don't know how long it'll last though." Janet replied simply.
"Do you feel up to eating?" Janet asked him.
Jonas nodded eagerly. "Please." He replied, he hadn't realized just how hungry he'd been.
While Janet left him to wait, Jonas's mind drifted back to the dream he'd just awaken from. A feeling of disgust settled in the pit of his stomach, and suddenly, food no longer appealed to him. In his dream, he'd seen at least five people murdered, and in each case, he felt as though he were looking at the scenes through the murderer's eyes. The thoughts of this caused Jonas to feel slightly sickened, and when Fraser brought him a tray of food, he took one look and decided otherwise.
"On second thought, I'm really not that hungry." Jonas said, his voice uncharacteristically dark.
"A moment ago, you were starving." Fraser stated, setting the full tray aside.
"I don't know if I could eat anything right now. I keep thinking about this dream I had before I woke up." Jonas said.
"Do you feel like talking about it?" Janet wondered.
Jonas thought for a moment and then nodded. "You know, that might make me feel a little better."
"Good then, explain away. I'm listening." Janet assured him.
"It sounds crazy." Jonas replied quickly, before even starting his tale.
"I'm sure I've heard worse." Janet smiled. Jonas returned the smile and began.
When Jonas finished, he saw that Janet was silently regarding him with suspicious eyes.
"I told you it sounded crazy." Jonas replied simply.
"You're right. It did sound a bit off. You say you saw, or rather murdered five people?" Janet asked, her eyebrows raising in curiosity.
"That's right. It seemed as though I were actually looking through the eyes of the murderer, so in a sense, I was that person." Jonas said carefully.
"Jonas, I don't see how that's possible. You've been here the entire time."
"I know that, but like I said, it was just a dream. Although, in some ways, it felt more real than anything." Jonas murmured quietly, his eyes locked onto Janet's and they exchanged silent gazes.
"Eat something, Jonas." Janet replied sternly when Jonas turned down her second offer of food.
"I don't think that I can." Jonas replied, the thought of food only making his stomach turn over uncomfortably.
"At least try. You have to eat, Jonas." Janet ordered softly.
Jonas nodded distractedly, and pulled the try onto his lap. He began absently pulling the crust from his bread and eating it, stopping to take small sips of water along the way. Janet seemed satisfied, for she made her way to where Siler had just awoke, and was gazing warily at Jonas, eyes clouded with confusion.
Jonas caught Siler's eyes and offered a small smile.
"I'm sorry about last night. As you've probably already guessed, I wasn't exactly acting like myself." Jonas replied softly.
Sergeant Siler smiled in return. "Yeah, I guessed that when you were yelling, and looking at me as though I were something out of a nightmare." Siler said simply.
Jonas laughed to himself and returned to chewing on the bread crust. When Janet had left, he pushed his tray aside and lay back on the pillows, turning his head toward Siler.
"How are you feeling?" Jonas asked, attempting to start casual conversation. He needed something to keep his mind off of the dream that he'd had.
"Aside from the massive headache, not too bad. How about you?" Siler questioned, his eyebrows raising suspiciously.
"Uh, well, I've been better, but I can't say I feel any worse than I did last night. What I remember of it, anyway." Jonas replied simply, he grasped his glass of water and drank from it slowly.
Siler watched Jonas in silence. "You should probably finish eating, or Dr. Fraser will practically shove whatever you have on your plate down your throat."
Jonas looked to his sandwich, which was lacking crust, and sighed.
"I suppose so." He replied and took one of the sandwich halves.
Siler smiled in approval, and returned to sleep, his steady breathing floating through the room as one of the more human sounds of the infirmary.
Dr. Fraser dropped in to be sure that Jonas was eating, and when she saw that he was, she nodded and returned to her office, where she was no doubt doing up some paper work. Medical files, perhaps.
When Jonas had about three quarters of his sandwich gone, he pushed the tray aside and lay back with a tired sigh. Before long, Jonas found himself drifting somewhere between sleep and full alertness. In those short minutes, Jonas got an overwhelming sense of hatred toward something and was soon bombarded with flashes of screaming people, and three jagged scratches that seemed to be burned into his unconscious mind. Scratches that symbolized the mark of the shadow. Those who suffered the mark, more often than not were killed. All except one, at that moment, he got a flash of his battle with the shadow creature.
Before passing completely into sleep, Jonas recalled thinking that he was the only person who'd ever survived the mark, and he found himself wondering why, while strong feelings of hate came crashing down on him . . .