Wide Awake - Academy of the Fallen Series (7 page)

ELEVEN

“Get your hands off me.”  I warned Justin.

“Oh, okay.  I see you just wanted to use me and now we are done?  Fine with me.  All I wanted was to get him back for yesterday anyway.”

I walked away from Justin before I completely lost my mind.

I ignored everything and everyone that day.  Jess even made some remark about me spending like three seconds with Hunter and starting to act like him…socially challenged, as she put it.  I told her I was just having a bad day and she finally left me alone.

Same thing at home… I told Kelly I had too much homework and that was enough to be left alone.

I was in my room watching TV when I finally started to doze off.

The sudden temperature drop and his finger running through my hair were enough to startle me.

I quickly got up and moved to the other side of the room,  “What do you want?”

“Ah, Kayla!”  That was the first time he had ever said my name, and I hated the way he said it.  “Un-patient just like your daddy…”

“Andrew is not…”

He laughed.  “I’m not talking about your adoptive father.”

I froze in place.

He came closer to me and I took a few steps back.  He kept moving forward until I was trapped against the wall.  He stopped inches away from me… looking as if he was able to see right through me.

“Don’t worry, we will talk more about your daddy....  Just when the time is right.”

He vanished and I just sat on the floor and started to cry.

Another night spent fully awake.  Only this time, I couldn’t even think straight.  I was just afraid of seeing him again. 

I drank coffee, a lot of coffee.

I didn’t go to school the next day.  I told Kelly I wasn’t feeling well and with the lack of sleep, it sure seemed believable.

I wandered around the house, trying to find things to do that would keep me from sleeping. 

I wasn’t sure how long exactly someone could go without sleep before they started having hallucinations, but two days and nights with no sleep were enough to convince Dr. Moulder that I needed serious help.

That afternoon I had my second session.  I tried to get out of it, but Kelly insisted on me keeping that appointment.  She drove me there herself and I was too tired to fight it.

I sat on the couch across from Dr. Moulder as she asked if there was anything in particular bothering me and if I wanted to talk about it.

She didn’t hide her smile when I said there was something bothering me and agreed to talk about it.

Her smile quickly faded when I told her that the something that I wanted to talk about was, well, that I thought he was a ghost.  Benjamin never showed up; he never materialized anyway, he was probably just watching us somehow and laughing.  Overcome by exhaustion I told her everything.  I told her that Benjamin had mentioned my dad, my biological dad, I told her about the threats to Hunter.

“Kayla, do you see Benjamin right now?”

“No.”

“Why do you think he shows up when you plan on talking to Hunter about him, but not while you are talking to me about him?”

I shrugged.  Eventually, after I got some sleep I would have realized that was because Hunter believed me and no one else would.  Unfortunately I would come to realize that a little too late.

We talked.  Dr. Moulder took lots of notes and after finding out that I wasn’t getting any sleep she prescribed me some sleeping pills and more frequent sessions to get a better diagnosis.  Honestly, I think that the clear lack of sleep and what that was doing to me, was the only reason she didn’t try and have me committed.

Kelly didn’t say much on the drive home, but it was clear that she was concerned.

“You shouldn’t worry about me this much, Kelly.  It is probably not good for the baby.”

We had just pulled up on the driveway when I told her that.

“Oh, Kayla, honey!  You know you are just as important as the baby and worrying about your kids is part of being a mom.”  She pulled me into a hug.  “I just wish you would have come to me or Andrew if you were curious about your biological parents.”

Clearly, Dr. Moulder must have come to that conclusion.  “I didn’t say I was…”

She cut me off.

“Kayla, this is clearly bothering you, especially if you are actually losing sleep over it.  We will talk about it some more after Andrew gets home.  Right now I want you to go inside and take one of those pills that the doctor prescribed.”

Too tired to even think about it, I went inside, took the pill and slept like a baby.

I actually slept for over 12 hours. Luckily that was a Friday and I didn’t have to worry about school and seeing Hunter, at least not until Monday.

The weekend was actually as normal as it could get.  I went to the movies with Emily and Jessica, after they both agreed that Hunter and Justin should not be at all discussed on our day out.  I went shopping with Kelly for baby stuff…my suggestion.  Kelly actually had not mentioned anything else about my biological parents, but I could tell she was avoiding it.  Yet, she was just waiting for me to ask, and I was curious to finding out what all Kelly and Andrew knew about them, but it just didn’t feel right bringing it up.

I did have to keep taking the sleeping pills
…
Kelly insisted
on that
.

It had been days since I had any contact with Benjamin.  I also hadn’t had any contact with Carolyn and after a while I just thought that was for the best.  With Carolyn gone, if Benjamin didn’t show up again and I hoped he didn’t, I figured my life would go back to normal in no time…
Looking back, I wonder if denial was a side effect of those pills…

TWELVE

One week had passed and I went from being awake all day and night, to sleepy all the time.  That was how I spent the day on Sunday, sleeping.

Monday came around and I could barely get out of bed.  Kelly had taken the day off and she made me breakfast.  When I mentioned stopping by the coffee shop to get something to wake up and keep me awake, she literally flipped out.

She put me on a caffeine-free diet until my sleeping conditions were back to normal with no assistance from sleeping pills.

“I’ve always said that you are too young to drink that much coffee, Kayla.”

I rolled my eyes and agreed to everything she was saying.

I went to school and again, avoided everything and everyone.  Two things I noticed though and they both bothered me.  One, Emily and Jess were back to talking to Ashley, and second, every time I saw Hunter hanging around, he was staring at me and I felt an urge to go and talk to him, try to make sense of it all.  Only I didn’t want to take the risk of Benjamin showing up again.

When the day was finally over I rushed to my car to find there was a note on my window.  The note was from Hunter.

Kayla,

Carolyn contacted me again.  We need to talk.  Meet me at my house this afternoon.

I didn’t go.  Carolyn was talking to him now and that made her his problem.

I went home, did my homework, and fell asleep.

Unfortunately me not showing up at Hunter’s didn’t stop him from coming to look for me.

Kelly came to my room and woke me up.

“Kay, your friend Hunter is here.  You must have forgotten to tell me he was coming over to work on your project.”

I was still disoriented from having just woken up.

I got up and followed Kelly downstairs to find Hunter sitting in the living room.

“Hey.  What are you doing here?”

“Kayla!”  Kelly looked embarrassed.  “I apologize for her, Hunter.  She just woke up…”

Hunter looked at me.

“Group project, remember?”

I didn’t exactly respond in any way.

Kelly excused herself by saying that she was going to be outside, working on the flowerbed if we needed her.

As soon as she left, I asked, “What are you really doing here?”

“You got my note.  We need to talk.”

“Umm, no we don’t.”

He acted as if he was annoyed.  “Look… whether you want to or not, I’m going to talk and you are going to listen.”

“Whatever.”  We went to the kitchen where I could keep an eye on Kelly to make sure she was still outside while he talked.

“Fine.  You want to talk, talk.”  I snapped.

“Carolyn is not trapped anymore.  But she needs to talk to you, I just get bits and pieces of what she is saying.”

“Okay, well.  I haven’t seen her around, so apparently she can’t talk to me anymore.  Problem solved.”

Hunter shook his head and laughed.  “What are you on?”  He asked.

“Huh?”  I asked, confused.

“You know… drugs? Medication?  What are you on?”

“Nothing… I mean, sleeping pills.  What does that have to do with it?”

He shook his head as if I had just asked something dumb.  “Medications or drugs sometimes intervene with the part of your brain that allows you to communicate with … you know…
them
.”

I clasped my hands over my mouth. 
That is what he wanted; keep me from helping Carolyn, keep her away. 
Apparently that also kept me from seeing him and that was a plus.

“Why are you taking those pills anyway?” he asked.

“None of your business.”

“It has something to do with him doesn’t it?” he said as he looked into the living room.

I looked around.  “Who?”

“You know… the same one that was at school the other day.”

I shivered.

“That answers my question,” Hunter said.

“I – I ca--can’t talk to you about it.”

“Why the hell not?”

I was so afraid… knowing that Benjamin was there, but I wasn’t able to see him… Before I knew it, I ended up spilling out the truth… reverse psychology, I guessed.

“Because he will hurt you if I talk to you about it.”

Hunter looked at me, puzzled that I was concerned about his safety.

“He can’t hurt me, Kayla.”

“Yes, he can.  He can touch things…people.”

Hunter walked toward me, putting his hands on my shoulders and meeting my gaze.  “I know he can.  Listen Kayla, he cannot hurt me.”

I don’t know if I felt vulnerable, afraid, safe, or what, but I did something that I had never done in my entire life.  Sobbing, I said, “I need your help.”

“I know.”

I thought Hunter was about to pull me into a hug, but what he did was pull me behind him.  For a split second, I was confused by what happened, but as soon as I remembered him looking into the living room where Benjamin seemed to be, it all made sense.  Watching Hunter, it looked as if he was grabbing Benjamin, who I could not see and throwing him across the room.  The only reason why I knew that he went across the room was because a chair on that side of the room was flipped over.

Hunter faced me again.  “He is gone.”

“How did you do--?

Kelly came in.

What was that noise?” she asked.

“Sorry about that Mrs. Gallagher, I can be a klutz sometimes.  I tripped over the chair.”

“Oh.  All right kids, I’m going to go pick up dinner.  Hunter, will you stay and eat with us?”

“No, thank you, Mrs. Gallagher.  I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Oh please, it is no problem at all.  I insist.”  Kelly smiled and I knew that because Hunter was so polite, she really liked him.  If that had been Justin, she would have never left me alone with him.

As soon as she left I asked him how he had done that.  “It doesn’t matter.  We need to figure out how to keep you safe.  He will come back.  And you need to stop taking your meds or you won’t even see him coming at you.”

“I shouldn’t have told you.  That only provoked him.”

“Trust me.  You did the right thing.  Whatever it is that he wants, it can’t be good.”

I met Hunter’s gaze.  “What is he?”

“What do you think he is?”

“Well, I thought he was a ghost, but he is strong and he can touch things… he is just different than Carolyn.”

“Lets just say that you are on the right track.  That is all you need to know for now.”

“He is more than just a ghost, isn’t he?”

Hunter hesitated.  “I will take care of him.”

“Why are you helping me?”  I asked.

He shrugged.  “Many reasons.  One is because I didn’t have anyone to help me…. Well, not at first anyway.”

I felt so awful for him going through whatever he did alone.  It just made sense why he distanced himself from everyone.  I just felt really bad for him.

I nodded, not sure what to say.  I actually felt relieved to talk to him, but I was now even more afraid of what Benjamin would do.  And I also had no idea how I would get away with not taking those pills and still be able to sleep.

We heard the front door opening.

“Kayla, can you go grab the food from the my car?” Kelly asked, as she bolted for the bathroom.

“Sure.”

“Is your mom okay?”  Hunter asked.

“Yeah, just pregnancy stuff, I guess.  She doesn’t really get morning sickness.  It is more like before dinner sickness.”

Hunter looked pale.

“What is wrong?”  I asked him.

He didn’t say anything. 

“I will just go get you some water,” I said.

He grabbed my wrist pulling me closer and whispered “I think I know what he may want.”