A/N: Glad you enjoyed, guys! Here's another chapter. Sorry for the re-upload of chapter 1, I wanted to fix that last line.
Keep reading and reviewing!
Artie awoke in the dark, face damp with what could have been sweat or maybe tears, he wasn't too sure. He felt a hard surface underneath him, not his bed, and he propped himself up on his elbows, looking around, feeling on the floor because he was blind in the dark without his glasses. His fingers touched on the familiar hardwood, travelled to his nightstand, felt the frame of his bed and he knew he was on his bedroom floor somehow. Maybe he had fallen off during the night, or maybe he had just collapsed by the bed out of exhaustion. His hand fumbled across the top of his nightstand, eyes squinting in pain because the blisters were still there and he knew it hadn't been a dream.
The realization of this shook him and robbed him of all his energy, and he fell back to the floor, not really crying but more like whimpering, hiccups in his breath and tears streaming down and he wasn't sure what time it was when he started to slow down he reached for his glasses, and his phone, and put the former on his face and pressed a button to light the latter up. He could barely see, eyes blurry from the constant tears. Then he looked up and saw Tina, and saw that she was in that ghastly dress but her face had been cleaned up like it had been there, and she was smiling, and she was leaning on his door frame, barefoot. Her leg was elegantly draped over the other, arms and legs bare, only wearing that dress which seemed now to be like only a slip, her hair was down but in waves, coasting down her shoulders, and she looked beautiful except for that dress. That dress that did not smell like her, and was black, not blue and as Artie thought those thoughts she slipped away, her hair twisting and he could see the blue. Then he stood and ran over to the door, and saw her in the hallway, still smiling that ghostly eerie smile and she said his name.
She said his name and it sounded like Mr. Schue a sort of choked whisper but she said it and it gave him strength but then his legs realized that he was, in fact, paralyzed, crippled, and all those other horrible names that Tina never, ever uttered, and he fell to the ground, smashing his chin so that it would probably bruise later, glasses skidding. He didn't fall straight, instead falling to the side so that he crashed into the wall too, getting a view of hardwood and crown moulding but no Tina. Artie let out a sob, raising his head and pulling himself forward but Tina was always just a step away, too far, out of reach, and his arms gave out and he collapsed in the hallway, crying again because it was always that or no emotion and he thought he'd rather have this though it broke his heart.
Artie saw Tina approach and he felt hope, reaching out but his hand passing through and she kept walking, right over him, steps like stabs in his back, and it was a thousand times worse than getting paralyzed. He cried out against the pain, but she kept walking, that ghostly smile still plastered on, he could imagine, as she trod over him, merciless, no sound, only sensation. He somehow felt her walking over his legs, and somehow he could feel it clearly, he was still sobbing, still crying out, it felt like she was snapping every single bone in his body, then she did it again, walking forward until she stood over his head, and she knelt down, that black dress draping over her knees and she kissed him, but it wasn't tender, it wasn't romantic, it wasn't like a kiss. It only scared Artie and he tried to open his mouth and force out 'I love you' but while his lips parted, and he mouthed the words, again nothing, and then he raised his head and found himself staring into those eyes except they were blue like his, then she was gone, dissipated into thin air and he was left to sob on the floor.
He felt himself have a separate conscious, as if he was ensnared in that fine boundary between the real world. He sensed his bedroom around him but he could not surface from his foggy state and he tried to scream, scream for help, or just scream to let the words ring out but nothing happened and he realized he was simultaneously on the floor of that hallway and in his bedroom, and he was frightened, grasping at the floor as if he could find a handhold to surface. Finally, gasping, he found himself in his bedroom, on the floor, no longer sure the distinction between the dream world and his world. Artie just kept sobbing, turning his face to the side, until he heard the creak of door and felt himself lifted back onto his bed.