Part 3


A mist had rolled in across the cliffs, adding to the over all feel of it being an entirely different world. I called out to Alex to wait for me, but he was too far ahead, and the mist seemed to muffle what I said. It was like outdoor soundproofing.
I stopped when I lost sight of him. Turning round to return to the café, my chest tightened when I realised the mist had turned into a fog, and I could no longer see anything behind me. I started to panic. Disorientated I planted my feet, not daring to try and find the path back to either the café or the house in case I accidentally walked right over the cliff. I couldn’t see further than I could reach.
Close your eyes, a voice whispered at my ear. I whirled round, but no one was there. It was the same voice that had spoken to me before on the way here. Deciding I had nothing to lose, I obeyed the command.
Relax your body and your mind, it coaxed. I took several long, deep breaths, calming my nerves. I stopped thinking of possible dangerous scenarios such as falling off the cliff or getting lost forever in this fog, pushed those thoughts away. I concentrated solely on the voice and its instructions.
Think of where you want to go, or who you want to go to. I pictured the house, Alexander’s house. Our house, if he’d meant his invitation for me to stay there. When I had a clear image of the patio between both our bedrooms, the voice returned. I realised it was actually speaking in my mind, and not at my ear. The jolt of that realisation distracted me from my concentration, and I lost all thoughts of the house.
Focus, the voice urged. I worked to re-immerse myself in the scene of the wide flag stones, with the flower bed border and smooth stone bench. Now put your will into wanting to be there, needing to be where you are imagining. That wasn’t exactly a great feat for me, as I’d have given anything to be anywhere but here. I willed it. After what felt like a year but was more realistically maybe thirty seconds, my mind started to drift, bored with the exercise. I thought of other things I wanted. I wanted to find Alex and properly talk about this issue he has with my death. And maybe yell at him a few times about letting me get lost in the fog. I also wanted to sit down, as a wave of fatigue slid over me suddenly. You haven’t regained all your strength yet, you’re still new. It irked me slightly, the way it new what I was thinking. I resolved to file that idea away to be properly considered later when I was fully alert.
I brought back the image of the patio with a new sense of urgency, not wanting to linger out here on my own much longer. Suddenly the air changed around me, giving the quick sound of a light rush of air. A few strands of my hair flew around my face. I heard a gasp.
Opening my eyes, I discovered I was no longer on the cliffs in the middle of the fog. Alex was sitting on the stone bench, his elbows resting on his knees. His face was like an open book; as the seconds ticked by I noted shock, confusion and relief pass over him, before returning to shock. I broke eye contact and looked at my surroundings. Sure enough I was on the patio, at the house.
“Um… What just happened?” I asked. Exhaustion crashed into me, like a brick wall. I swayed on my feet, nearly falling backwards down the steps. Alex was at my side in an instant, an arm wrapped round my waist and a firm grip on my wrist.
“I was just about to ask you the same question,” He said, guiding me to my room, so I could sit on my bed. I fell back onto the duvet, my legs still hanging off the end of the bed. I sighed happily. He fussed over me, placing a pillow under my head and making sure I was comfortable.
“Stop it,” I mumbled, sleep dragging at the edges of my mind. I flapped a heavy hand at him, batting him away as he tried to tuck a thin blanket around me. “I’m meant to be angry at you.”
“Oh, really?” He sounded amused.
“Mmhm. So stop being so nice.” I realised belatedly that somewhere along the line of me stumbling from the patio to the bed I’d closed my eyes and my shoes had been taken off. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and snuggled down.
Giving in to the overwhelming tiredness, I vaguely thought I heard him mutter something like “Never,” Huh. He was turning out to be a stubborn one. I was drunk with fatigue, or else I would have confronted him right then on the leaving me behind incident. I only let him tuck me in and start humming to help me sleep because I couldn’t function well enough at that moment to stop him.
Or at least that’s what I told myself, before consciousness left me.