DABBY:


    I woke up with a huge headache on Monday morning, and it felt like I was probably dying. The pain was too much to handle, so I swallowed arge amount of painkillers when I woke up at dawn.


    My body was burning so hot, and my head was banging so bad. It felt like my body was ripped to pieces, and soaked with a dosage of pain. It was so bad.


    ‘How could I not get that sick?’


    The thought of what I had seen at our old home surprised me, and I wondered what the shredded piece could be about. I had gone there with the hope that I would feel better from the trouble I had left with, but came back even with a worse concern.


    I picked so many pieces of shredded papers that I could find, and packed them into my bag with a big question mark in my head. When I returned back home, I didn’t even mind if I would run into Damien and just stormed to my room.


    I brought out every piece from my bag and scattered them all over the floor, to see if I could arrange them and make sentences out of it. It was quite difficult to pull off, and it was harder than they usually did in the movies I watched.


    Realizing that it would take more time than I thought, I packed every piece into the down space in my wardrobe and locked it. I had to face reality and start something reasonable with my project assignment.


    It was more tiring, exhausting and time taking than I thought, because I had to do Damien’s part too. I had to check the inte for ideas so that our own view wouldn’t collide, and just choose a random movie that I could remember every detail of.


    By the time I was done with everything, it was night already and everywhere was so silent at home. There was no sign of Damien, and I was all alone by myself in the huge house. I had no appetite to eat and justid on my bed after having a bath.


    ‘What kind of contract? What was that about? What was Mr. Anderson and mum up to?’ I pondered all night and was unable to sleep.


    I developed a headache too, and it became hard to breathe because my panic disorder kind of picked up pace at midnight. And by the next morning, which was meant to be school day and a new week, I was unable to move from my bed.Belongs to (N)?vel/Drama.Org.


    Hours passed and I couldn’t even lift up my body, talk more of picking my phone from where I put it to call the only person who would be bothered about me. My eyes just watched the clock move its hand into minutes and hours that passed by.


    It was almost time for lunch break at school, and I knew that I couldn’t just remain in bed for the rest of the day. I had to do something because no one would do it for me.


    From my bed, I rolled slowly to the edge and supported my body toe down, with my hands on the floor and head upside down. I was on the floor already and my entire body was burning in heat, as I crawled slowly from my bed to the dresser.


    I switched on my phone and immediately dropped a message to assure Mason that I was okay, and then opened the first cab attached to the dresser to take out another pack of painkillers.


    After swallowing another handful of drugs, I crawled to the bathroom to sit in a tub of cold water. We were to submit the project in thest period before school ended, and I knew that I had to be in school one way or the other. Mason was trying to call, but I had put my phone on airne mode.


    It took several minutes to dry myself and wear clothes, and certainly more minutes to get downstairs after dressing up. I had called a cab toe and pick me up in front of the gate, as I curled up shakily to the pole in front of the house so that I wouldn’t take anymore time.


    The moment I got into the cab and settled tiredly on the chair, Mum called in and I couldn’t even pick it up. Her husband tried to call in, but I was picking neither of their calls up. They were probably going to ask why I was absent in school, but I wasn’t ready to talk to any of them.


    ‘If they really cared that much to know why I wasn’t in school, they should know that they had overstayed wherever they went.’


    By the time the car dropped me in front of school, I was finding it hard to breathe well in difort. It was just a few minutes to the time sses would start, and I was just in time to get to the school building. My body was shaking real bad in weakness.


    I found out ss quickly in no time as fast I could, and stormed inside to see if Mason was still around. The looks I was getting were really suffocating, but I didn’t care because the joke was on them. I was too tired already.


    I brought out my phone to call Mason quickly, because I couldn’t stand being in the school premises for more than ten minutes. I had to return home.


    Quickly, I rushed to the huge ss that we normally use for social sciences, and quite a number of students were sitting with Ms. Davison in the ss already. I didn’t care about how strict she was, and entered immediately.


    “Yes, who are you?” She demanded almost immediately she saw me, and all eyes were in me. If it were before, I would have been so confused and scared of the hundreds of eyes that were looking at me. But it didn’t matter.


    “I havee to submit my project,” I barely answered audibly, and she had a bewildered look on her face. I was feeling funny already.


    “Youe into my sste, disrupt the ss and you are submitting your project to my face?” Ms. Davison looked so pissed as she continued to rant, and I wasn’t sure if I heard everything. I just wanted to leave her presence, because she usually blew things out of proportion.


    “I am sorry foringte to your ss, and disrupting your teaching. Can I submit now?” I persisted with my already weak hands that wouldn’t stretch forth the paperwork again. I could feel my breath as hot asva, and it was harder to talk.


    “Who… is your partner?” She almost stuttered, “You are definitely not a good pair!” She spat furiously and maybe excessively, and I smiled wryly at her words. She wasn’t wrong. We were a terrible pair.


    The ss had be silent, and they were probably waiting for my partner toe out, as my eyes locked with Mason’s own the moment I looked into the crowd. He was having a very worried sick expression on his face, andmunicated in signnguage to ask what was wrong with me.


    ‘I was too tired already.’


    “Who is this youngdy’s partner here?” She asked the crowd of students again, but no one answered. They didn’t even like her already.


    I was already sick and tired of waiting on that spot. There were murmurs from the crowd, and they were looking around like they knew exactly who my partner was.


    ‘Was she going to take the project report or keep wasting time on irrelevant things?’


    “If you do note out to defend your partner’s actions now, you both are getting a ……….”


    And loud I hit the floor, as my weak limbs failed me. I was already too tired, and it was exhausting for my body at that point. I knew I couldn’t see again, but I heard Ms. Davison startled screams. I would have probably loved to see the terrified look on her face.


    ~~


    The bed was reallyfortable and really cushy, and I felt like sleeping longer than the longest hours I had slept for. It wasn’t so difficult to open my eyes, but it was hard to move my arm. IV had been passed into my body, and the syringe felt like it was hurting so badly.


    The ceilings of the room I was in were white, but not the same patterns with the one at home or the one in school. It made me realize that I was in a totally different ce.


    ‘Where was I?’


    “Oh my goodness. You are finally awake!” I heard that very simr voice, and I thought I had lost my mind finally.


    ‘Her voice should be thest to hear when I was close to death.’


    “Dabby. It is me,” I heard the voice cry to my ears again, as two figures hovered around my body that was on the bed. It was really mum and Mr. Anderson.


    Tears slipped from both of my eyes, and rolled down the side of my face down to my ear. I was really d. I could be free from Damien’s ws now.


    ‘They were finally back?’