Page 77 of Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea

An intense warm sensation washed over me as a familiar voice spoke my name. I wasn’t fully awake, but I didn’t feel like I was dreaming.

“Sweet Pea. Don’t worry. Everything’s gonna be alright,” Doozer said, and I opened my eyes to see him standing over my bed, dressed in white. He was smiling wide and I swear I could feel his touch when he took my hand. The moment he touched me, I felt an overwhelming peace and the urge to sleep pulled me deeper and deeper into the blue, until there was only black.

* * *

I was startled awakeby the sound of movement in my room.

“Wake up, baby brother,” Ropes said in a tone far too cheery for whatever the fuck time it was.

“What the hell?” I groaned, my head swimming. “What time is it?”

“It’s early. We had to sneak in during the middle of the night. We’ve been here for a while, but you were pretty out of it when we arrived, so we let you sleep,” he said.

“We?” I asked, picking up my only friend, the morphine button, but Ropes stopped me. “Hold on there, bro.”

I was disoriented and unaware of how long I’d been asleep or when my last dose was.

“I need my meds, Ropes,” I protested. I was annoyed enough that he’d woken me up, and now he was really pissing on my picnic. However, before I could argue further, I noticed Minus standing at the foot of my bed with Trouble and seeing her was ten times better than any dose I could have received. She ran to me, threw her arms around me and began to cry.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.

“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“If I had never left the Sanctuary you wouldn’t have come after me and this wouldn’t have happened.”

“None of that matters. The only thing that’s important is that you are alive,” I said.

“That they are both alive,” Ropes said, and I looked to see Doozer standing next to him. Instinctively, my body jolted, causing pain to shoot through my ribcage, but I barely cared.

“Holy shit,” I exclaimed. “What...what the hell? How the fuck are you alive, kid?”

At that moment, I realized that I wasn’t hallucinating from the meds or receiving a visitation from Doozer’s ghost. He was alive and standing right next to my bed.

“Shhhhh,” Doozer hushed me with a smile. “Keep it down, will ya?”

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