Kai was hiding in the back of Logan's mind when he felt the clouds stir around him. Surprised, he was pulled from his temporary hibernation only to see a familiar face.
Projected onto the screen in Logan's mind… was Ashleighe.
Kai felt the energy deep within him begin to stir, as if a part of himself was disconnected from his very being.
'What the hell!?'
It almost felt like a piece of himself wanted to become a part of Logan's mind once again.
Exhausted from the previous ordeal, Kai decided he'd just take his chances elsewhere.
Flitting through the veil that separated him from the outside world, Kai flinched as he felt the chill once more.
With a slight shiver, he pulled away from the somehow disgustingly affectionate display between the two amnesiacs before making the split second decision to escape the cold.
Despite all of the easily accessible minds of the students in the hallways, Kai chose to search for a more familiar mind instead.
Second on the list of Kai's least favorite sensations was the feeling of drowning in the barriers surrounding untouched minds. Only the feeling of the energy lost during the time it took to force his way through the barrier could be considered worse.
Resolute in his unwillingness to suffer the consequences of an easy target, Kai passed through the walls of the school and returned to the alleyway from before.
The scene before him was straight out of a soap opera. If the scene he were looking upon hadn't been so terrible for his plans, he might've laughed.
How the actual HELL did Kyle interpret 'RUN!' as 'Help up the teacher!?'
The teacher was exactly the thing he was supposed to be running from! Surely Kyle wasn't as dumb as the stereotypical 'dumb jock.'
With what could be interpreted as an exasperated sigh, Kai borrowed control of Kyle's body once again.
He blinked, nearly dropping the smile on his face that was already beginning to show signs of strain.
Thankfully the teacher seemed to be too out of it to notice, instead mumbling out a "Thank you, sonny," before dazedly wandering away.
With that hopefully taken care of for good, Kai was finally ready to take Kyle home.
~~~~
Dinner that night was uneventful. The real excitement came afterwards when he received a text from Sophia asking him to help finalize their project.
He logged onto the presentation only to be greeted with some lovely comments plastered all over his work. Notes saying things like 'Maybe try reading page 418 of the notebook sometime.' or 'Can you even read? This is the wrong form of "they're." What is this, second grade english class!?"
Kai wouldn't've typically cared about these things, but he had been making the effort to actively work on this project himself instead of letting Kyle drive. The comments he stumbled upon while editing almost seemed to sting him slightly.
Not to mention her green cursor, blinking as she edited away his grammar mistakes and other imperfections he left behind.
Kai would never admit it, but he was fostering a slowly growing sense of disheartenment…
…at least, until he scrolled to the final slide.
The final comment.
'Hey, dumbass. You did a nice job on this assignment. Looks like I lost my bet with Ethan after all…
Got five bucks you could loan me to help me escape some debt??'
Kai let out a chuckle despite himself.
Not until they placed the finishing touches and logged off did he realize he would miss her spunk.
~~~~
Becca woke up in the hospital feeling a cold nothing below her hips.
She didn't realize what that cold feeling meant until she tried to sit up. Instead of the expected stability the instinctual responsiveness her body would normally display when weight shifted from one location to the next, she felt herself falling.
Confused and disoriented, she was too late to react. She felt the memories of the fall coming back to her, clouding her mind. By the time she tried to move her arms to catch herself, her upper limbs were tangled in a mess of cords. Her shoulder thudded against a hard piece of plastic, certainly hard enough to bruise, when the mechanical beeping that had permeated the background suddenly intensified.
Doctors swarmed into the room in their medical scrubs. To Becca's unfocused eyes, it seemed as if she were being swarmed by creatures in a fuzzy nightmare.
The next thing Becca could remember she was sitting up in her hospital scrubs, propped up by some straps and guard rails. In front of her sat some surprisingly bland soup.
Maybe surprise was the wrong thing to feel when hospital food tasted as bland as the monotonous hallways and endlessly repeating rooms of the hospital. And yet, it seemed that the utmost care had been placed in presenting the food in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
Perhaps that was another parallel that could be drawn between the food and the hospital.
The meal gave her time to think, to remember the things that had happened. By the time she was finished robotically consuming the soup she felt comfortable in her analysis of the situation.
The spoon clinked against the bottom of the bowl as Becca moved to place the empty dish to the side. This time she was awake enough to catch herself as she began to tip to the side.
After regaining her balance, she slid her fingers out of the soup in the bowl and wiped them on the sheets next to her before finishing the motion of placing the bowl to the side.
Pushing herself up, she noticed her mother beginning to stir from her slumber on the cushioned bench by the window.
"Hey mum."
Her mother rolled over to face her, clearly groggy from what must've been multiple stressful days prior. A few slow blinks later, her child's awakeness seemed to finally register.
"Oh my god! Becca! You're awake!!"
She rolled off the couch with her arms wide, clearly intending to give her child a hug, when she froze.
Her eyes wandered down to the cast around Becca's waist.
"Oh my god… I'm so sorry he did this to you, Bex… I'm so sorry…"
Becca looked up at her mother, clearly confused.
"What do you mean? Who did this to me? I did this to myself."
Her mom looked up at her, clearly distraught.
"Kyle! Kyle Whitaker! The damn boy invited you over and then shoved you out his window before LEAVING YOU THERE! For HOURS!"
Becca could see the tears streaming down her mother's face shining in the moonlight. She clearly did not know the whole story. And so of course Becca told her. She told her of her guilt, of Kyle's clear innocence, and even of the heinous crime she had planned to commit.
For some reason, Kyle's existence didn't seem to bother her anymore.
Her mother's stance on the situation, however, did not change.
"What did he do to you!? Did he threaten you!? Did he hurt you!? Bex, what are you not telling me!? Clearly this is his fault!"
With a sigh, Becca began the process of refuting her mom. She was unfortunately aware of exactly how unwilling to change her mind this woman could be.
Needless to say, Becca didn't get any more sleep until the nurses respectfully informed the woman she needed to leave, as she was becoming detrimental to the patient's health.