I know, I know, it's a boring chapter. But hey, I need to develop the friends. Try. To. Have a very. Fun. Time. =)

I don't own the Night World series.

Oh, and "Rachelle" is pronounced as "Rachel". I just like the spelling better. =)

Warmth in the Darkness, Chapter 3: My Brain's Gone Dead. Enter mysterious guy

Vivienne's P.O.V

"Outta the way! Outta the way! Hey you, step back. To the wall. To the wall! THE WALL!!!" Through the fog that was clouding up Vivienne's brain; she could easily recognize Eliza's shouting over the murmurs in the room.

Taking a deep breath, she kept her eyes closed, and said as loud as she can, "Shut the hell up, Eliza. You're bothering me." It sounded like a hoarse whisper, considering this was the first time she spoke, since… since… what had happened again? Whatever, she thought, pushing down the confusion and panic.

She heard everyone stop talking at once, and felt them lean over her. Which was seriously awkward. She opened one eye and tried to use that to glare at everyone, warning that she will kill whoever that still stares at her. But the amount of people there snapped both her eyes open and forced her to let out a blood-curling shriek. "Holy shit!" Then she immediately yanked the covers over her head to protect her from staring zombies.

"All right people! Move back! Away from the innocent child! You! Get your masculine organ away from the girl. Away! To the corner! The corner!!" She heard Eliza order everyone around like a drill sergeant. "Move, move, move! Don't touch her with your disease-infected hand! Your fingers!! Don't make me force you to!" Vivienne couldn't help but start laughing under there. Sometimes, Eliza's over-protectiveness was really annoying, but at times like this, it was hilarious. She felt someone gently pull the covers away from her face, so she immediately covered up her face with both hands. The lights were too bright.

"Get the light awaaaaay from me!!!" Vivienne yelled unhappily.

She waited for it to turn dark, but nothing happened. Something felt very wrong here… she stiffened, nerves on hyper-alert. She slowly uncovered her face, and warily opened her eyes. Which made her shriek again. She was staring at Penelope's eyeballs, small and dark brown, and it scared her like hell. Everyone in the room was laughing, even Eliza. Vivienne gritted her teeth and fake-laughed along with them, but in her head, she growled, Damn those people. Won't they go away? Ungrateful bitch, a little voice said in her mind. True enough.

"We're here to visit you Vivienne!" Penelope gave her a big hug. "Your parents called us… so we're here. Are you going to school tomorrow?"

Vivienne nodded, trying to make her smile look bright and happy. After all, they came here especially to see her, and it would be rude to not show at least a little enthusiasm. Kristina pushed Penelope off the bed, earning a look from Penelope, and she passed a bouquet of flowers to Vivienne. A bouquet of lilies. How did they know…? She smelled it happily. Mmm.

"We bought flowers for you," Kristina stated the obvious. "And I hope you get better…" she sounded like she was reciting something.

"Thanks guys." Vivienne hugged her, and then opened up the card. Inside, it read, "Vivienne, hope you get better! We need you. Love, Kristina, Penelope, Naomi, Rachelle, Darrion and Eliza." It had lots of doodles of their usual jokes. Vivienne felt touched, and actually had some tears in her eyes.

"Thanks again." She squeezed Kristina for a long time and shut her eyes, trying to make the tears go away. Stupid emotions, she thought. "And thanks Eliza!" She hugged the pushy girl around the hips, sniffling softly.

Eliza pulled back. "Aww, is my little pudgy-wudgey crying?" She pouted mockingly.

"No!" Vivienne crossed her arms defiantly, cheeks burning.

"Vivienne!" Darrion burst through the door, smile on his face once again.

"What do you want from me?" Vivienne narrowed her eyes mockingly at him.

"Your life," Darrion joked in a deep voice. He was trying to make it sound menacing, but it didn't really work. Vivienne grinned.

"Are you okay?" He asked, as he gave her a big hug.

"Yeah, I'm good." Vivienne leaned back to the wall behind her.

"Get away from the child!!" Eliza quickly grabbed a thick book, but paperback, from – the stack of books?! – On the shelf. Vivienne caught a glimpse of the title, 'The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Ninth Grade Slays'. "You're putting the moves on her, aren't you?!" She accused. "Well it won't work, as long as I'm here! Now shoo! Go!! Go away! To the corner!!! The corner!!!" Eliza shrieked, slapping him everywhere with the book. She probably brought it for me to read, instead of using it as a weapon, Vivienne thought amusedly.

"Oww!! Eliza!!! Stop!!! Owww!!!" Darrion yelled, trying to protect himself from the attacking maniac.

Everyone was laughing at them. Vivienne was laughing so hard, her stomach hurt. In fact, the hall rang with the noise, and she was sort of nervous the nurse would come and force them to leave. Oh well. Screw the nurse. Finally, Eliza was done with the ordeal and she turned around with the book held at her chest triumphantly.

"Sorry about that," she said breathlessly while placing the book gently back.

"Eliza," Darrion boomed, taking a giant step forward. "You wanna die?"

"Shut up Darrion. And move." Naomi swatted him away, earning a look from him. "No one wants you here."

Darrion opened his mouth to probably retort, but Naomi quickly said, "Vivienne!! Here." She handed Vivienne a card.

"It's so pretty!!!" Vivienne hugged her hard.

"And this is for you too!" Rachelle stepped in front of Naomi, and gave her a tight hug as well. "Of course Penelope did the drawings and stuff, you can tell by the look of them. But I did the writing!" she sang.

"Thanks Rachelle. I love it!" Vivienne's smile was wavering. She could tell. "Well, I can't give you guys anything… there's the crappy hospital food here… and Tim Hortons. And I'm sorry Darrion, but there are no "wing tongs" here." She added. Darrion was so funny, because he confused "wing tongs" with wontons. And they weren't wontons either; they were dumplings. But the fact was that he loves those things, and he always threw a fit if he didn't get one.

"Aww…" Darrion pouted. His cell phone beeped. "I gotta go," he said apologetically. "My dad's here."

Vivienne couldn't help but sigh. Even though it totally contradicted what she had thought before. "Alrighty. See you tomorrow." The others said their byes and soon, Naomi had to leave too. One by one, her classmates either "hoped she gets better" or gave her a present. Life is sweet, Vivienne sang in her mind. But the down side was that there were so many smiling people that it made her sick. And that she had to smile so much that her cheeks hurt.

A few minutes later, only Rachelle, Eliza, Penelope and Kristina were left.

"So what happened?" Penelope asked, perching on the edge of the bed. Vivienne scratched her forehead absently.

"What do you mean?"

"You know. How did you end up… here?" Kristina didn't seem to want to say "hospital".

Her fingers paused before dropping to her lap. Fogginess crept up in her brain. The panic and confusion washed over her, as she struggled to remember. "I… I don't remember." Even she heard her own voice small and bewildered.

"Did you hit your head?" Rachelle asked. "I heard that it's normal to have a temporary memory loss if you did."

"Oh my god." Penelope's eyes were wide.

"Yeah, I read about it in a book before." Eliza looked thoughtful, but her hands were giving away her emotions – they were playing with her sweater zipper harshly, zipping it up and down frantically.

Vivienne just shrugged. It would come back later. Whatever. She could live without those moments. But her gut wasn't telling her the same. That those moments did matter to her, very much.

"What… what the… it's temporary right?" Kristina's voice was full of shock and horror.

"I guess so…" Rachelle exchanged a glance with Eliza.

"You'll get your memory back." Eliza's voice sounded determined. There wasn't even a negative tinge and her hands stopped fidgeting.

"Well, what was your last memory?" Penelope asked, voice hushed.

Vivienne screwed up her face, trying to think. "I went to swimming, and then the coach gave us a really hard practice. After practice, I took a shower, changed, then waited for my dad to pick me up. It was cold, actually. I remember zipping up my coat all the way up." Images came flooding back to her. "I finally went in the car and complained that my dad was so late. Then the next thing I remember was having a really creepy but cool dream about vampires. And I had it like seven times, and it was the same each time. When I woke up, I saw you guys here," Vivienne crossed her arms, staring at the white sheets. What she said made perfect sense… but it sounded odd. She remembered cold gold eyes and… pain? Then there was this weird tingly feeling that made her shiver with pleasure every time she thought of it. Like now.

"That's weird," a bright voice said at the doorway.

Vivienne groaned internally. It was Melissa. She really didn't want to deal with her swimming friends right now.

"How is it weird?" Penelope asked.

"Who are you?" Eliza asked, point-blank. She casually pulled a book out from the stack. Probably to defend me with, Vivienne giggled mentally.

"I'm Melissa, from her swim team, and it's weird because I remembered something totally different." She came in and leaned against the wall opposite of Vivienne.

"By the way, here you go." She handed a square present to Penelope, who handed it to Rachelle, who shook it a little before passing it to Kristina, who tossed it to Vivienne.

"Thanks. So how is it weird?" Vivienne asked, brow furrowed.

"I remember you acting all emo when you went to swimming practice. Then I was telling you about a new guy –" Vivienne's body gave her a strange tremor that echoed around her body in a deep thrum, and it made her clench her jaw to keep from giving any hint about what was happening inside her. "– and then you went all weird when you were looking for your goggles and stuff. All of a sudden, you like, jumped up and started running at top speed around the pool. And when I called your name, you stopped for about a millisecond, but then continued running, and you were heading for this really wet area. Then you slipped, and thank god the new guy caught your arm, or else you would've hit your head. Then you fainted in his arms." Her voice turned jealous. "And he held you there for like, almost a minute, before throwing you at Dmitri and then running off. And thanks to you – no offence intended – practice was cancelled, so we didn't even have to swim. I never saw him again, like not even at the later practices. Anyways, I heard you went to the hospital, so I went, but you were sort of in a coma or something, 'cause you were sleeping for about two days." Her voice turned worried. "It was really scary… and I hope you're okay." Her delicate voice trembled as she went forward to give a very dazed Vivienne a hug.

Vivienne vaguely noticed that her school friends kept quiet, even though they must've had a thousand questions in their mind. And she appreciated that very much. When Melissa went back to the wall, Eliza's quiet voice was strained. "The first day I came to see you, everyone was outside the room. They weren't allowed to go in. I heard it was because you had this seizure thing, when they had to slap you a lot to make you relax. And your mom said you had that three to four times a day." So that explains the creepy dreams, when she felt the stings on her cheeks every time.

But the coldness outside the pool felt so real… and the hard practice… she even felt pain in her muscles right now. Or was that from the sprinting and the seizures she had? Her head was so confused. There was also a sickening pit in her stomach, because she recognized the truth of Melissa's words, and the new set of images proved it true. But how did the memory she just had, the one with the hard practice, end up in her brain? She couldn't have possibly unconsciously made it up.

Finally, Kristina stirred. "Well, anyway, we gotta go. I've got Sunday school. Penelope and Rachelle are with me." Kristina hugged Vivienne again and stood up. "We'll see you tomorrow right?"

"Yeaa. You think my mom would let me skip school?" Vivienne replied sarcastically, pushing her feelings into a corner.

Rachelle frowned for a second, pretending to think. "Nah, not a chance." She shook her head, grinning.

"So Asian!!!" Penelope snickered.

Vivienne hugged Penelope and Rachelle one last time, before saying bye.

"I have to go too," Melissa confessed. "I didn't know you were awake, so I was just planning on dropping by. My mom's outside waiting for me."

"Yea, me too. And I was just dropping the books off," Eliza said with a meaningful look at the stack of books.

Vivienne's mouth quirked up to a smile unintentionally. "Thanks guys. You're the best. I'll see you tomorrow?" She asked, as she hugged both of them tightly.

"Yea. See you."

"Bye Vivienne."

Vivienne's smile disappeared the moment they were out of sight. Everyone just left at the same time, leaving her alone to deal with the thoughts and memories clouding up her mind.

Alone, once again.

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Vivienne kept her face expressionless as she strode to her locker, backpack swinging behind her back. It has been at least a day since her friends had visited her, and all her thinking had only lead to more questions and mysteries. Her head hurt just to think of it. But seriously, what was happening to her? Maybe something's wrong with her brain. A clogged up vein? A cancer cell? But then again, she remembered everything perfectly fine before and after "the incident". And there was the problem that she couldn't get high to act all happy. The doctor had told her parents that she was just suffering from a loss of sleep, and the seizures were just a side effect. What a whole lot of crap, she thought disgustedly again. The moment she had free time, she Googled side effects to loss of sleep, and seizures weren't even in them. Well sure, there was death. But isn't that what she wanted? With that thought, she smiled, and knew that everyone would be creeped out by the way her eyes would light up feverishly. Anyhoo, she didn't have that option anymore, because her parents made sure she was asleep before they were. And since Vivienne didn't want her parents to suffer, she had no choice but to do as they say. So now she could only hope her fake smiles and chattery voices would pass the test. This time she grimaced.

All the other students swept by her, oblivious to what she was feeling. Can't they see what was happening inside her? Oh right. She was supposed to be acting. But… that was the point. She wasn't. They didn't even notice her. That was so self-centered, she scolded herself mentally. But still… if they didn't notice her un-acting, then would they notice if she were gone for an hour? A day? A month?

… Forever?

Probably not. They would just continue on with their lives, ignorant, like how a drug addict would ignore the side effects of drugs.

Finding herself drifting to English for first period, she dropped the depressing subject and made a mental note of what had happened earlier on in class. It was something about book talks – See? I remember everything else perfectly fine, she thought to herself. – So the book talks were due like next month, which means –

"Watch out!"

Vivienne looked up sharply, causing her to slam right into the double doors guarding the hallway.

"Oww!" She yelled at the doors, rubbing her forehead. "What's your problem?!" She narrowed her eyes at one of the doors unhappily before kicking it open and sweeping past it coolly. Damn the doors. How embarrassing. In front of the whole school. The main hallway. Everyone watching. Damn the fricken doors.

"Are you alright?"

Vivienne spun around, eyes narrowed at the ground, still in a very pissed off mood.

"What do you want from me," she said through her teeth. She still didn't look up.

"I saw what happened… umm… before and I wanted to see if you were okay."

It was a guy voice and he sounded as if he were smiling. Huh, too bad Eliza wasn't here, she thought. She would've beaten the crap outta him. Vivienne took a deep breath; ready to fire a thousand insults at him the moment she opens her mouth. But she took a step back unconsciously at the sight of the boy. He was Asian, by the looks of him. His eyes were a soft dark brown, which she knew would look defensive at any moment, and his black hair was highlighted with gold streaks.

It was the mysterious Asian guy from her creepy dreams.

LOL cliffhanger. Just in case you guys don't know what the hell the last line was talking about, in Chapter 2, Vivienne dreamed of TWO guys. One was the guy who saved her from slipping, and one was someone she'd never met before. Your welcome. xD

REVIEW PLEEEAAAASE? I give you a cookie. =)