• Chapter 5

    “Der--” I start to say, spinning around, expecting him to disappear, to be just an illusion.

    “Shh, Tay.” He stands there, with a finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet. He steps forward and glares at the invisible thing now holding me still. “Let her go, now.”

    There’s a darkness lingering in his deep, crystal like eyes, and it scares the hell out of me. I’ve never remembered seeing Derek like this before. He was always so sweet and calm.

    Derek. Oh my God, it’s really Derek.

    Whatever was holding me disappears and I stand there, free, but not moving. I only stare at him, and he softly whispers my name, asks me if I’m alright.

    My knees give in and I fall forward into his arms. He holds me there, comforting me, until I feel reality slipping away and the doors of the cafeteria open and people start calling my name.

    ***

    My eyes slowly open to see the white ceiling of a hospital room. Bright, ghost-like lights shine down on me and I blink a few times, then sit up.

    Yup, hospital room. Familiar faces swarm around me, but the world is too blurry to really make anything out. Shouts form, calls and cries of “she’s alright!” and all of a sudden, I got a hell of a bad headache.

    “Are you okay, Taylor?” A teenage boy’s voice asks. For a second, I think it’s Derek, and my heart skips a beat. But then, I make out the face of John leaning over me.
    “Oh…um, yeah, I’m…I’m fine…”

    “She’s okay, everybody! No need to panic!” He calls to the people behind him.

    Jamie’s face appears next to his and she starts speaking incredibly fast. “Oh my God, are you okay, Taylor? You had us all scared to death. You were just lying on the floor and--”

    “Lying on the floor?” I repeat, cutting her off. “No, Derek--” Now I cut myself off.

    “Derek…?” Jamie’s voice trails off, and then her eyes widen.

    “Who’s Derek?” John asks, confused.

    “He…Derek…nobody. Derek’s nobody.” Jamie gives me a ‘what!?’ look, and I see Selena across the room, staring at me like I was crazy.

    You are crazy. You’re in love with a figment of your imagination and you thought you actually saw him. Crazy as hell, I’d say. And by the way, I can’t believe that you…

    This time, I don’t even bother trying to shut the voice up, because it was right. I thought I saw him. I actually thought I saw him. What the hell was happening to me!?

    “Miss Lynn, when you are ready, a lot of people and I would like to talk to you.” A policeman stands in the doorway, talking to me, and I see a camera crew, newscaster and a psychiatrist standing behind him, looking over his shoulder to me. A nurse pushes through them and walks up to me.

    “Here, take this medicine.” She shoves a little cup filled with a pink liquid into my hand. I take a look at everybody before hesitantly drinking it, and then, all of a sudden, I get really tired. “There, there. Go to sleep now.”

    ***
    I dream of music playing, the lyrics to songs by Three Days Grace--my favorite band--flying around me, along with memories.

    “You’re sick, of feeling numb, you’re not, the only one, I’ll take, you by the hand, and I’ll show you a world that you can understand.” Lyrics to Pain. There’s a memory of me just sitting there, doing nothing, bored out of my mind. I fell asleep and Derek shows up, smiling and laughing with me, and something swirls behind him, something I do understand, another world…

    The hospital swirls around me in a memory, the school, the mansion, and then the words, “If I stay, it won’t be long, ‘till I’m burning on the inside.” Get Out Alive.

    Then Derek again, me daydreaming about him, Selena talking about how he’s not real…Over and Over. “It brings me down but I’m the one to blame…It’s dragging me down and I can’t pull away…”

    “And now you’re dead inside, still you wonder why, (it’s all over).” It’s All Over. Once again, me just sitting there, feeling much worse than bored. Feeling dead. Then Over and Over again. “So many thoughts that I can‘t get out of my head, I try to live without you, every time I do I feel dead. I know what‘s best for me, but I want you instead, I‘ll keep on wasting all my time…”

    Then, Take Me Under, the whole song fitting me, every memory flying before my eyes until I can’t take it anymore.

    My eyes flash open and I’m surrounded by the darkness of the hospital room. Rubbing my eyes, I sit up, then jump and let out a yelp when I see a figure looming over me.

    “Relax, it’s just me.” A voice laughs.

    “Derek!” I growl. I lean over and flip the switch on a lamp on the bedside table, and dull light fills the room. And, sure enough, there he is, black hair, green eyes, muscles and all. “What are you doing here!?”

    “What do ya mean?” His grin turns to a soft smile as he strokes the side of my face and says, “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

    I sit there, set in a trance, staring into those eyes and-- “No! Stop it! Derek, you need to cut it out!”

    “Cut what--”

    The door opens and bright lights fill the room. My eyes flash from the man standing in the doorway and back to the spot where Derek sat, but, like usual, he’s disappeared.

    “Who were you talking to, Miss Lynn?” The psychiatrist asks.

    “N-nobody.”

    “Really? Because I thought I heard you say the name Derek.” He takes a seat in a chair next to me, then introduces himself. “Hello, Taylor. I am Dr. Bones, and I am here to help you.”