Dream King by Elise Knight
Epilogue
The sound of urgent banging on my door woke me from sleep. I’d not dreamed about him, or at least, I couldn’t remember the dream. Maybe that would come someday.
Dragging myself out of bed, I quickly pulled my robe around myself and answered the door, glad of the excuse not to think about Dream. It was already excrutiatingly painful enough.
“Oh, Em, gee. I thought you were dead. You look like shit, girl.”
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes as Chris darted past me into my apartment.
“What are you doing here?” I asked blearily. The clock on the wall told me it was nearly seven am. I’d never seen Chris out of bed before midday, even on a non-work day. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping off last night?”
He gave me a withering look. “It’s hard to sleep when your phone is on fire. Look.”
He passed his phone to me. It had thirty-three missed calls, all within the last two hours and all from one number. A number I recognized very well.
“My sister called you?”
“Er, yeah!” he said, grabbing his phone back from me. She told me that she’d been calling you non-stop, and you didn’t answer. I told her that you were a lazy bitch and were probably asleep after getting fired, but she was having none of it. How did you get back here anyway? Your car is still in the parking lot at work.”
“I was pulled into the body of one of the subjects,” I whispered aloud, trying to remember back so long ago, although, to Chris, it had only been a few hours.
Chris shook his head dramatically. “Noooo. That’s what I thought I saw, but obviously, I can’t have because then we’d both be heading for the loony bin. Right?”
“Huh?” My brain was fuzzy with it all. “Oh, yeah, right. I ran out of the room and ran home after jumping on whatshisname. I knew McGee would fire me.”
Chris eyed me curiously for a second. “Yea, that’s what I thought. I need to take fewer party drugs. My mind was tripping. McGee did fire your ass by the way.”
I didn’t care. It was a stupid job anyway, made all the more pointless by the fact I now knew why the people weren’t waking up, and no amount of money or sleep trials was going to change that.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m going back home.”
Chris scrunched up his nose as though I’d just told him I was going to live in a cow patty. “You are going to Winnipeg?”
“It’s not Winnipeg. It’s a small town outside of Winnipeg, and yes. That’s where I’m going. I need to see my momma and sister. It’s been too long.
“Yeah, maybe you should like...call her back.”
I took the offered phone from Chris’s hand and hit return call on one of my sister’s billion phone calls.
My sister picked up on the first ring. “Chris, did you find her.” I’d not heard her voice in months. Not since she’d called to chew me out for not visiting mom. My breath caught in my throat. It was so good to hear her voice. We might not have been the best of friends since I’d left, but I loved her with all my heart.
“Hey, Ari, it’s me,” I choked out.
I heard the long sigh down the phone. “Ana! Why didn’t you answer my calls? I had to get your friend’s number from your boss. He told me you were fired last night. What’s going on?”
My eyes prickled with tears. This was all too much to deal with.
“Nothing,” I lied. “I’m fine. What’s happening with you? Why the urgency?”
“She’s awake, Ana,” Ari enthused. “She woke up last night.”
My heart, already bruised from emotion, decided to do another lap around my chest. I let the tears fall as I took in the news.
“She’s awake?” I croaked. “Is she ok?”
“It’s a miracle. She’s completely fine. She’s been asleep for over a year, so the doctors will have to set up some physiotherapy for her. She’s not used her muscles for a year, so she’ll need to build them up. But apart from that, she’s good. Really good. Hang on, she’s just finishing up with her doctor. I’ll put her on the line.”
Dream had done it. I didn’t know how, but he’d gotten my mother back for me.
My mom’s voice came on the phone. “Hey, Ana, my darling.”
“Mom!” my voice choked with emotion. It had been so long since I’d heard it. Tears flooded my eyes and fell down my cheeks.
“My mom’s awake!” I mouthed to Chris, who was bouncing up and down with excitement. The grin that cut his face showed me just how much he cared for me.
“I’m here,” my mom continued. “The doctors are telling me I was asleep for a while.”
I snorted, sending both tears and snot flying toward Chris’s clean t-shirt. “Yeah, just a while. I’m coming home, Mom. I’ll be there as soon as I can pack my apartment up and get a flight.”
“It will be good to see you again, baby girl. I’ve missed you so much. I even dreamed about you once. It’s the only dream I remember. I was in a room and could hear your sister reading Alice in Wonderland. You were there beside me.”
I nodded, unable to get any more words out. “I was Mom. I was with you. And from now on, I’ll always be with you.”
Chris pulled me into his arms and held me tight, and in the cool light of morning, I let myself surrender to the agony of grief and the thought that I was finally, after all these years, going home
The end
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