And so are you [path abandoned]

Your eyes blink open. You find yourself lying face down under a pile of miscellaneous things: books, crumpled notes, an empty wooden box, and an upturned ladder under the intense yellowy glare of incandescent lights. You have a splitting headache, and you generally hurt all over, but otherwise seem surprisingly unharmed. Then you try to move and it’s nothing but soreness and pain. You rest your head on the linoleum floor for a moment, wondering what exactly you did to deserve this fate. You lay there just focusing on your breathing. Is that crying you hear? You try to listen over the whine of the lights overhead. Somebody is definitely crying, you think to yourself. Oh Alice, that’s right. She’s in here with you. Why’s she crying you think, furrowing your brow.

Eventually you gather enough strength to wiggle out of the debris dropped on you from your fall. Things clatter off of you as you get up on your hands and knees and crawl the rest of the way out of the destruction. Once clear, you sit down again, your back to the shelf and your head in your hands. You don’t know how long you were out for but you were pretty sure you wandered that forest for hours before finding that woman, who or whatever that woman was.

“Was that a dream?” you whisper to yourself. “Is this the dream?” You say looking up at the stained asbestos ridden ceiling of the archive. You sure know which one you would prefer to be in right now.

“John!” You hear Alice cry, charging at you down the aisle.

“Hey Alice how’s it―” Is what you get out before she tackles you, hugging you, shoving against your very sore chest. Then she lets out a long, loud cry and you feel tears wet your very very sore shoulder. You can feel her shaking like a leaf against you. You have to bite your tongue to not shout out in pain. You, harshly grimacing, pat Alice’s back.

“There there.” You gasp out as Alice continues to cry on you, hard and loud. Eventually she relents, sitting in front of you on her knees with her glasses cockeyed on her face.

“I tried to call the paramedics.” She warbles out. “But the phone line in here is dead and I couldn't get reception and the whole floor was empty and I was so scared because I didn’t want to move you if you had a back injury and I didn't want to leave you and you weren’t moving or breathing and and and―” You can tell she’s about to launch into more very ugly crying.

“Alice!” You shout at her. “I’m not great. Can you give me some space please?” She looks at you with her big bloodshot doe-in-the-headlights eyes and then scoots back from you, sitting there on her knees like a scolded child. You sigh. You sit there for a moment collecting yourself.

“What time is it?” You ask, rubbing your suddenly very strained eyes.

“9:15” She says, wiping her nose and pulling out her phone.

“Great. Cool. Perfect.” You groan. You were out for a half hour. How does that work? Did you pass out, was the whole forest thing a dream? You try getting up and Alice nearly lunges at you again. You shove her away, catching her straight in the tit.

“Sorry.” She whimpers, rubbing her arm nervously and turning away from you. You look back down the aisle and see the right mess you made. Glass is everywhere. Paper is everywhere. A couple books lie on the ground, their spines broken. Dead. It's a very big mess. You sigh. It is tomorrow's problem.

“Do you drive to school?” You ask, painfully waddling down the aisle towards the entrance.

“Yeah?” Alice snivells, following closely behind. You stop and look back at her.

“Can you give me a ride home tonight?” You groan.

“Yes!” Alice gasps, her eyes lighting up a little bit. She nudges her smudged glasses up the bridge of her nose.

“Cool, stay still.” You say, grimacing. She’s motionless as you take her under your arm and position her to be a living crutch. She stares at you. “Walk.” You deadpan. She walked with you up and out of the library. It is a slow and awkward walk to the parking garage on campus. You howl in pain when you climb into her car. It is a quiet ride from campus to your student housing complex. She parks her car outside your apartment stairs with the engine running and then helps you up and through the door to your dorm.

“Thanks.” You grunt as you finally let go of her in your living room. You feel like shit.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Alice asks.

“I’ll live.” You fake a smile.

“Do you mind if I maybe come check on you?” She asks, rubbing her hands together.

“Sure. Whatever. I’m going to bed.” You grumble as you hobble your way to your room. You kick your shoes and pants off and wriggle under your sheets. You are asleep the instant your head touches the pillow.