Chapter 6

(Note: You all want to see Riggins. Well here he is, soak him in during this chapter because he won't be back for awhile. Please, Please read and review)

The day drug on, and still there lay Jason alone and stuffy, in this room where the air conditioner never seemed to work.

"Fuck it's hot as hell in here!" He cursed, wishing he could throw the blanket from his legs. He was roasting and there wasn't a damn nurse in sight. Resigned to his fate, he slid back down into the bed and let the heat over take him. It washed over his senses, filled his already cloudy mind, and as if with the drop of a hat, Jason drifted into a light, but troubling dream filled sleep.

His eyes opened slowly, the harsh light of midday causing him to shield them. As they slowly adjusted to the glare his surroundings filled him with a sudden despair. He wasn't in the hospital. How in the hell could he not be in the hospital? Why would someone take him away from his medical care? His heart began to beat with the fury of trip hammer as he searched wildly for any signs of life.

He finally recognized his surroundings though. He was on the Dillon campus,the very same football field where he ruined his life. How? Was this some sort of sick joke? Slowly Jason began to walk towards the 50 yard line. Walked. Walked. Jason stared down at his legs. They were moving. The goddamn things were moving! But how? He dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand. How didn't matter, He was walking and that was all that mattered to him. All thoughts of hospitals, nurses, and wheel chairs faded from his mind as stopped on the 50 yard line and gazed back across the field, his eyes tracing over the stands, the press box, the bright glaring suns pouring light down from above. He smiled and was happy. This was his domain. Jason Street was back! Letting out a primal roar he turned back towards the direction of the field house and noticed to distinct shapes headed towards him.

The shapes materialized out of the fog that surrounded the field. Where the hell had the fog come from? Jason thought wildly.. Wasn't it midday? When the hell did it get dark? His mind raced.

Tim Riggins and Lyla Garrity strode towards him with a determined gait. They didn't look happy to see him. Why wouldn't they be happy? Then he remembered… Lyla had cheated on him with Tim.

"You bitch!" He yelled

"You've got some nerve even coming to talk to me now that I'm walking again, What your meal ticket is back now? I'm walking again , so I should forgive you?" He glared angrily at the shadowed apparition making it's way to him.

"Say something goddamnit! Say something!" He yelled

The two specters stopped not 5 feet away from him and stared on with deep, dark, soulless eyes.

Riggins spoke up first, and as if one cue a blast of wind blew the strands of hair back from his face revealing eyes darker than the night sky.

"You were never my friend." The phantom spat at him.

"You were never there for me, you never once cared for me. So why should I have ever considered you a friend?

A smirk came over the twisted complexion of the dark man,

"I never did. Which is why I was doing your slut girlfriend while you lay paralyzed in a hospital bed, how does that hit you jack ass? Make you feel better? While you sat there moaning in pain , Lyla was moaning in my bed…"

The ghost laughed and shoved Jason making him fall heavily to the Earth. Riggins walked over to him and gazed down.

"You were always small time Street, especially in the places it counted most," from in the distance a small girlish giggle could be heard. Riggins began to circle around Jason's body, following the outlines of his large frame. Coming back to his legs, Tim raised a spiked boot and slammed it down into Jason's thigh.

The agony was absolutely unbearable, Jason howled as his mangled leg twitched on the ground. Turning to face the attacker he once thought a friend, he watched Riggins embrace Lyla in a deep kiss. The passion was unmistakable… and it was clear to Jason that these two had been together before. But he already knew that. His white hot anger seethed anew as the ghostly couple kissed in front of him.

"You son of a bitch! I'll kill you, I swear to god. I will hunt you down and skin you alive! Do you hear me Tim Riggins? Do you hear me?!?"

The apparition turned and faced him

"No," He said solemnly, "You won't." He began to fade away, leaving Lyla and Jason.

Despite the pain, and tears in his eyes Jason looked up to her.

"Why Lyla? Why? What did I ever do to you to deserve this? Did I not treat you well enough? Did I not buy you enough things? You said were golden, together forever remember? Why my best friend?" tears streamed down his cheek as he stared up at the woman he had once loved, and part of him still loved her.

The figure turned to him, a sneer stretched across the usually beautiful face

"You just don't get it do you? Your small little insignificant brain can't seem to comprehend the fact that I might have found someone better than you? That someone out there was more right for me than you were, It just took your pathetic attempt at a tackle to make me realize it."

Her words stung like ice cold water flung across his naked body, he winced from the impact and stared down at the dirt as more tears dropped from his eyes to the ground.

"Even now you are making this decision one of the easiest of my life! You are crying on the ground like a little baby. Riggins is twice the man you are, and 10 times better than you ever were in bed! At least I don't have to fake pleasure for him!"

She kicked at Jason's side, the rounded toe of her white keds dug into Jason's ribs, He cried out in pain, "Why Lyla? Why!?"

"Because I hate you, and I've always hated you. Your perfect life, your perfect body, everything being handed to you on silver platter, never having to work for anything in your life Jason! Do you know what it feels like to actually work for something? Have you ever once not been given exactly what you wanted for no reason at all?"

He started to answer but was met with another kick to the ribs, his air escaped in a huge whoosh. Jason gasped trying to pull in air quickly.

"Don't open your damn mouth. There is nothing you could say right now that would make me hurt or hate you any less. You are nothing but a piece of shit Jason street!" In one last fit of rage she brought walked up to Jason's neck and stopped for a second to stare at him. The dark soulless eyes searched him, channeled to the depths of his soul.

"You know I thought once there might be something worth saving. Now I see there isn't." with a great heave she reared back her foot and kicked Jason right at the base of his neck, sending a shockwave down his spine, Jason howled in pain as the same old numbness crept back into his limbs, "Nooooooooooo!" He screamed into the night as the clouds circled around him, obscuring his vision and fading to black.

Without warning he came to again. He was in the same place, but there were people and he was in uniform! What the hell was going on?

Riggins was trotting in from the sidelines, Jason seethed at seeing his face again, but Riggins was cordial.

"Flag X stop route on three"

Jason finally had the dark realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

He was reliving the incident and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

They broke the huddle and he sauntered up behind center, crouching down and placing his hands in the usual spot. Maybe he could change things this time around! Maybe he could make it right! But he knew deep down in his soul that no matter how hard or how fast he threw that ball. It was going to be an interception

"Set… Set… HIKE" The ball snapped up into his hands and dropped back into the pocket, he read the defense, basic ¾ zone, nothing that he hadn't seen before. But he still wasn't going to make that throw. Drifting out of the pocket to the right he saw his tight end break open for just a split second and fired the ball from his cannon arm as best he could….

and watched in agony as the free safety undercut the route and snagged the ball beautifully from the air. All that remained between him and 6 points was green grass and Jason. Taking an angle to the ball carrier, he relied on those speed skills that often went unnoticed and made it to the safety. Still not knowing what possessed him to lunge at the guy, he did it anyway. They collided with the force of a small nuclear bomb, and Jason felt that little pop, and his body went lifeless as he fell to the turf. Not able to brace for the hit Jason watched as the ground neared and he passed through, falling into a deep void of black.

Finally he landed and hard. On the tile floor it would seem, beside his hospital bed, a warm sticky fluid pooled around the back of his head as he started to fade from consciousness

"Blood………….."