16

Evazee crossed the hospital passage to Kai’s room and found him on the floor. He was propped up on the door, slipping sideways as if he were drugged. Her first thought was to run to the window and see if the trees were purple. Instead she knelt down and prodded him. Was this real or part of her dreams? Perspiration ran down his temples. All the bruises and cuts from his accident still marked his skin. She never saw those in her dreams. “Boy! What are you doing down there? Are you awake?” She leaned closer, peering into his face.

When he didn’t respond, she did what any concerned friend would do under the circumstances. She smacked his cheek.

He blinked and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Evazee tucked her arm around his waist, got to her knees, and tried to hoist him upright.

Kai groaned, mumbling words she couldn’t make out.

“Don’t talk, save your energy. Let’s get you back to bed.” Evazee tried to hook his arm around her shoulders, but it flopped back down. This was not working. “You have to help me, Boy.” She should call a nurse, but that would mean leaving him. She shoved at his shoulder and managed to get him vertical though his head hung, chin to his chest.

“DarKounds. Run…” His eyes were still rolling.

Evazee flinched. “Not here, Boy. Just you, me, and the gap between us and your bed.”

“Zee…is that you?”

“Yes, Boy. Now help me here. Sit up.”

“You can’t be Zee. She glows.” His head lolled back and hit the door. He stayed there, blinking and frowning at Zee.

“Excuse me?”

“She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. You’re a bit dull, you know?”

“And you’re a bit concussed. Honestly, Boy.” Her cheeks turned pink. Trust Kai to flatter and offend her in the same breath.

“Wait, what did you call me?”

“Boy.” It felt weird calling him that to his flesh-and-blood face. “Your name is Kai, though, isn’t it?”

“I think so.” With his back against the door, he managed to stay up. His pupils were shrinking, that was a good sign.

She sat cross-legged in front of him, feeling awkward. “You’re back.”

Kai squeezed his eyes shut tight, and then he stretched them wide as if trying to wake up from a long sleep. “Where is Bree?”

“Bree? Not here.”

“Are you sure she didn’t run past you? She has to be here. Why am I here again?”

She shook her head. “You were hit by a bus. You were unconscious for a few days. You had some weird dreams while you were out. It will take time for it all to settle.”

“Dreams? But you were there.”

“It must have seemed very real. C’mon, help me. Let’s get you back in bed.” She held out a hand.

He ignored it, running fingers through his hair.

TrisTessa! She needed to know Kai was awake. How typical that he would wake up during the first time she went home to clean up. “Stay here, I’ll be back.” Eva was half way down the passage when she turned and ran back. “I don’t mean stay on the floor. You can go back to bed...”

Kai frowned at her, lifting an eyebrow.

“Oh, whatever. I’ll send a nurse.”

~*~

Kai considered getting back in bed for all of two seconds. His chest stung and a trickle of blood ran down his arm from a needle puncture his skin. He must have been on an IV drip.

“Well that’s a miracle, if ever I’ve seen one!” A short, round nurse stood grinning at him from the doorway.

Her colleague pushed past her, huffing at the sight of Kai on the floor. “You picked a fine time to wake up.” She waved to the other nursing sister. “No time for chit chat. Let’s get him hooked up again, and get down the passage. We have a ward full of new patients to see to.”

The short, round one took the chiding in her stride, and carried on chatting to Kai as they lifted him onto jelly-legs and walked him back to bed. “There’s been an outbreak of gastro at the school down the road. A bunch of kids have been sent in. We are running our legs off.” She checked his pulse while the other sister unwrapped a new needle for the drip.

In minutes, they had the blankets tucked up around his neck, the IV drip back in, and monitors stuck to his chest.

The round one patted his arm. “We’ll send for some food from the kitchen and be back to check on you in a little while.”

Kai waited until he could no longer hear the clipping of their shoes down the passage. A cleaner’s trolley rattled closer and stopped outside the room next door to his. He had to get out of here.

Grimacing as the needle moved in his vein, he pulled out the IV and ripped off the monitors for the second time. He applied pressure to the puncture wound, willing the bleeding to stop. There was no time to lose. He left it to bleed, found his jeans in the cupboard, and slipped into them. They smelled clean.

Wasn’t there something he was supposed to be doing, something in his pocket? He felt around and found nothing. Thinking was like ripping down a stone wall with bare hands, painful and impossible. He shook off the nagging concern. He’d think later.

He pulled the T-shirt with the purple paint splatter over his head, and slipped his feet into trainers. Images swirled through his head, strange people in a strange place. It had all seemed so real. He couldn’t quite believe that it wasn’t.

Kai found a cleaner’s overall jacket and cap hanging on the cleaner’s trolley and slipped into it. The cleaner whistled to himself as he mopped next door, too absorbed in his task to notice Kai borrowing his equipment. Kai kept the cap down low over his eyes as he passed the nurse’s station, but no one stopped him. Apparently the stomach bug had them all tied up. He abandoned the trolley in the lift, stripping off the jacket and cap and hanging them up as they had been.

Outside the hospital, a pale sun did its best to break through a spattering of clouds.

Kai stared at it as though seeing it for the first time. The trees were brown and green, planted in neat rows, unlike the wild purple and teal he’d grown used to.

Moving was painful, as if his body had forgotten how. He pushed on anyway. Familiar roads guided his feet and he soon stood in front of his door, dripping with sweat. He patted his pockets for the key. Gone. Must have fallen out. With a quick glance to make sure no one was watching, he reached up and felt between the broken plaster above the lintel for the spare.

Riff was waiting as the door swung inwards. He wrapped himself around Kai’s legs, purring so hard, he nearly fell over.

Kai picked him up and held him against him so he could walk without tripping. The tiny kitten sat in his hand, rubbing its chin against his chest. Kai shut the door behind himself. “Raff, where are you, boy?”

It took twenty minutes to find the orange menace. He’d climbed into the base of Kai’s bed through a hole that hadn’t been there the last time Kai was home.

Raff spat and hissed, but Kai was so happy to see the animal, he ignored the drama and cuddled the ginger kitten anyway. “You make me think of Bree. All prickly and tough.” His insides pulled at the thought of Bree. If she’d been more than a dream, there would surely be nothing left of her now.

It struck him then, that his room was tidy. More than tidy, it was clean. All the scrunched-up songs he’d left, were straightened out and piled on his bed. His kittens weren’t starving either.

It was all a bit weird. Somehow purple trees seemed easier to deal with. The place he’d been had seemed so real. Strong painkillers must do that. He needed a shower. And food. Afterwards, he’d pick up the threads of real life.

He pulled off his shirt and something caught his eye in the broken mirror. Drawn in black charcoal on his chest. A perfect ladybug drawn by Runt.

~*~

TrisTessa ran her fingers through her hair, scrunching some life into her curls. “How do I look? Should I go home and change?”

Eva laughed. “You look perfect, just come!”

“He’s really awake? And is he with it?” She drew circles in the air next to her head with her fingers. “Or messed up?”

“It’s kinda hard to tell with Kai. You’ll have to decide for yourself.” She pulled the older woman down the hospital corridor, feeling more excited than she could remember.

They pushed open the door to Kai’s room and found his bed empty.

Evazee checked the cupboard but Kai’s clothes were gone.

There was an old man in the bed next to Kai’s, eating soup.

“Oh! I’m sorry to bother. Do you know where they’ve moved the guy who was here?”

The man shook his head, completely focussed on his soup spoon.

Evazee patted TrisTessa’s shoulder. “Maybe they moved him because he’s awake now.” She led the way to the nurse’s station, chatting all the way to cover up her embarrassment.

“Hi, can you tell me where the patient from 2C has been moved to? He was unconscious, but he woke up and now we can’t find him.”

“Let me check the system for you.” Her fingernails tapped a rhythm on the keys. “He hasn’t been moved. Maybe he’s in the bathroom. I’d suggest you wait for him. There’s a vending machine down the hall if you’d like something to drink in the meantime.”

Eva turned to TrisTessa, whispering, “She’s wrong. His clothes are gone. I think he went home. We can go there now.”

The older woman was looking every inch as skittish as a dog in a storm, as if she were ready to bolt.

Eva hooked her arm through hers and dragged her. She was still dragging her when they reached the top of three flights of stairs zig-zagging up the side of the condemned building. Eva knocked on Kai’s door.

TrisTessa stood off to the side, looking more ansty by the minute.

Eva took the key out her pocket. “I just realized—I have Kai’s key. He couldn’t come home even if he tried.”

TrisTessa looked relieved. “We should just go, then.”

“You’re right. I’ll just feed the kitties quick. Who knows how long it’ll take us to find him. I don’t even know where to start.” She unlocked and found no kitties waiting at the door. Odd. Normally they’d be lined up, empty tummies rumbling. There were many hiding places in the large space, but they found the kittens curled up together underneath the bed. Riff stretched out on his back as Eva stroked him. She ran a hand over his stomach, round and full.

“These cats have been fed.”

“Have you had any more dreams, Eva?”

Eva pretended not to hear. Instead, she frowned at the watery footprint on the floor at her feet. “I think he’s been here. Look.”

TrisTessa found a running tap in the basin, an uncapped tin of shaving foam, and a razor still clogged up. “Something tells me he left in a hurry.”

“How will we find him now?”