Page 5 of The Voices are Back

Separately, they were absolutely horrible. Together, they were a goddamn nightmare.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d woken up with someone else touching me.

At least, this time, I was being touched by someone that I knew.

Or at least, had known.

Sometimes, the memories of Aodhan would sneak up and suffocate me, like right now.

Just the idea of him so close…it brought tears to my eyes.

And this time, the crying when I woke up wasn’t just the stupid shit I had to deal with on a daily basis. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d woken up from passing out, crying my eyes out, because this stupid disease was a freakin’ horror show.

But this time, it was because I smelled Aodhan.

The woodsy, pine-and-cedar scent was enough to make my heart physically ache.

I hadn’t smelled him in so long…

“Come on, gorgeous, wake up.”

His deep, dark, sensual voice woke up even memories.

Are you awake, baby?

How many times had he uttered those words?

When we were younger, I used to sneak into his house, and he used to sneak into mine. One or the other would have to wake up before school the next day and go home, so we weren’t caught.

God, those were the days.

“She’s okay,” I heard Theresa say. “She has a disease and everything. This is totally normal for her. You can go.”

Please don’t.

But also, please leave so I don’t have to make eye contact with you, and make this any harder than it has to be.

A long time ago, I’d found out that my brain came back online faster than the rest of my body did.

So I’d hear the conversations going on around me. Meanwhile, I was useless to do anything about said conversations.

“No way am I leaving her here,” I heard Aodhan say.

“I think Theresa can probably handle it,” I heard another female say. His ex-wife, maybe. “Are y’all sisters?”

I heard Theresa snort. “No, we’re not. Just colleagues.”

Theresa wasn’t a bad person. Honestly, she was a good, hard worker. She didn’t have the best bedside manner, however. Likely, had she been alone and I’d passed out—like many times before that—she’d have probably given me a pillow of some sort after making sure I wasn’t bleeding, and leave me to it.

“I’ll stay,” Aodhan said. “You can head out. You’ll be late to pick Bowie up.”

Bowie.

His son.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot,” Danyetta replied. “Shoot.”

I felt my lips twitch despite being unable to move the rest of my body.

---