Cassandra woke up and rubbed her eyes. "Nick?"
He didn't answer her.
"Baby, I had the most horrible dream." She sat up and looked around to make sure that everything was all right. But it wasn't. She wasn't in her room nor Nick's. Slowly climbing out of the bed, she realised that she was in the hospital, again. "Great." Just then, a doctor walked in. "Dr. Reynolds."
"Oh, Mrs. Carter, I mean Cassandra, you're awake! I've-"
She cut him off. "Wait, what happened? How can you see me?"
"You've been unconscious for three days after you were in a terrible fire. I've looked over your charts and you are free to leave any time you like. And the whole staff, especially me, is really sorry to hear about your husband. If there's anything that any of us can do, please, let us know. And if you ever need to talk to someone, you know where I am."
"Um, thank you , I guess." He quickly shot her a smile before walking out of the room. Cassandra was dizzy and confused and just wanted to know what was going on. Walking out of her room, she pulled out her cell phone. I'm going to take a wild stab at this, she thought. She dialed the number at her house and waited for a second.
"Hello?" Brian answered.
"Brian?"
"Oh my God! Cassandra?"
"Yeah, it's-"
"Oh my God! You're awake, you're alive!"
"I think so. Brian, w-what's going on?"
"Cass, I'm coming to pick you up right now. I'll explain it all in the car."
"But-"
Brian hung up, cutting her off. Cassandra sat down on a bench and tucked her cell phone away in her pocket, and ran her hands through her hair trying to figure out what was going on.
Brian arrived at the hospital ten minutes later. He quickly parked the car and ran into the hospital. When he saw his best friend sitting on the bench, his heart jumped. "Cassandra!" he shouted and ran to his friend. He hugged her.
"Yeah nice to see you too," Cassandra said and wiggled away from Brian and looked around. "Where's my baby?"
"You're what?" Brian asked confused.
"Where's Nick?"
Brian didn't reply for a moment. "Oh Cass, you really have been in another world these past three days."
"Why? Where is he? Is he on another level of the hospital?"
Brian felt his heart break and tears welling up in his eyes.
"Brian-"
"Cassandra...he died in the fire."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "We both died."
"No, you survived. I dunno how, but you did. You're not dead. He is."
"No he's not! Brian, I don't understand."
"Just come with me and I'll explain in the car." Brian grabbed her arm, but Cassandra yanked it away.
"No, no. This is all a dream. We're either both alive or both dead. I want some answers. There's none of this one's dead and one's not-"
"Cassandra, shut up."
"But-"
"No! I'll explain it to you in the car." Cassandra didn't say another word. She followed Brian to the car hoping for the explanation that she was looking for. The one that told her that Nick was still alive, somewhere.
Mercedes walked over to the girls' house and saw Emalia standing in the kitchen making breakfast. "Hey Emalia," Mercedes said, "do you know where Brian ran off to?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Emalia replied.
"He ran out of the house saying that he would be right back and he would bring good news."
"Maybe Cassandra is awake!"
"Or," Mercedes said, "Nick is alive."
There was a brief silence.
"I don't know how Cassandra survived," Emalia continued. "Everyone thought she was dead. Hey, do you have their wedding rings? She's going to want them." Mercedes pulled out a necklace from around her neck and pointed to the rings dangling on the gold chain. "Good."
"Yeah, I guess so. Maybe we're getting our hopes up. Maybe Brian ran out to get a new flavor of ice cream that he heard about on the radio."
"Maybe, but getting our hopes up is all we have left."
"I can't believe this. Maybe they're having Brian go down to identify the body-"
"Mercedes! Don't think like that! Maybe the good news is that Nick is still alive."
"Wait. What are we talking about?" Mercedes said. "There's no way in hell that Nick is still alive."
"Why...oh," Emalia said.
"Yeah. Yesterday."
Emalia nodded her head and sat down at the kitchen counter and rested her chin in her hand.
"Okay Brian," Cassandra said in his car in the hospital parking lot. "Explain."
"You remember the fire?" Brian asked.
"How could I forget."
"Well, what happened after the fire?"
"Well, um, Nick and I woke up in the hospital and met up with Isabella and A.J. and they told us about our death. Our death."
"You're not dead, honey, you survived." He took a deep breath. "Here goes. We heard about your death on the news and the police gave us your rings and told us that was all they could find. Somehow you got to the hospital and we got a call saying that you were there. That was three days ago. You've been unconscious since then. Every now and then you would start to mumble and we thought you would wake up, but you would fall back asleep."
"What would I mumble?"
"A couple of times you said Nick's name, you mumbled something about sparks-"
"Nick got sparks in his eyes from a light bulb that blew up."
"Okay, and something about forgiving."
"Yeah, towards the, um, end, we both forgave each other for anything and everything. Since I'm still alive, does that mean that Nick could still be alive?"
"No, there's no way."
"Isn't that what you said about me?"
"Yes, but, that was different. We buried Nick yesterday."
"You did what?" Cassandra yelled with anger.
"We had to. We had no choice."
"What does that mean?"
"We didn't know when you were going to wake up, or if you were even going to wake up-"
"Brian, please spare me. I just want to go home."
"All right."
Both of them rode home in silence. When they arrived at the girls' house, Cassandra felt her breath catch in the back of her throat. Slowly climbing out of the car, Brian helped her inside the house and into the kitchen where Mercedes and Emalia were now joined by Coreene and Nicole. The whole room fell silent except for their soft gasps as they saw Cassandra.
"Oh my God," Emalia whispered.
"C-Cass-" Mercedes said. "You're alive, oh God." She ran up to her cousin and hugged her. Without saying a word, Mercedes brought her hands up to the back of her neck and unclasped the gold chain that held the rings. "Here," she said, handing Cassandra the set of wedding rings. "You might want these."
Saying nothing, Cassandra put her ring on her finger and looked down upon the other with tears in her eyes. She unclasped her gold chain, slipped the ring on the chain, and clasped it back around her neck. "The truth guys," Cassandra said. "Is he really dead?"
All eyes fell on Mercedes and they all held their breath. "Yes, Cassie. He is," Mercedes said softly, clutching Brian's hand.
"Oh God," Cassandra breathed.
Nick sat up in Cassandra's bed and looked around her room. The shades were drawn and the room was dark. He looked over on her nightstand and noticed that the rings were gone. He was confused. Cassandra had unexpectedly left yesterday and hadn't returned yet. Where is she? he asked himself. He climbed out of the bed and walked over to the mirror. Oh yeah. No reflection. He heard the door creak so he looked over at the door and saw the doorknob turning. He watched as a person entered the room and silently shut the door. "Cass-" he breathed. "I missed you." He walked up to her and put his hand on the side of her face. She didn't move, didn't speak, she just seemed to look right through him. "Cassie, honey, what's wrong?"
She didn't respond. She walked past him, sat down on the bed and let out a heavy sigh. "Oh Nick," she whispered.
"Yes, Cass, what's-"
"I can't believe this. I can't believe you're gone. I can't believe you're dead."
"What do you mean me? You're dead too-"
"How did I survive? Why did I survive?"
"What are you talking about?"
Suddenly, Isabella and A.J. entered the room. "Nick. Oh great, Cassie's here," Isabella whispered. "I'm so glad we found you-"
"Honey," A.J. interrupted, "why are you whispering? Cass can't hear us."
"That's right."
"Isabella!" Nick said. "What the hell is going on?"
"It has to do with Cassandra." The three of them looked at Cassandra who had laid down on her bed and was staring up at the ceiling and had started mumbling to herself. They turned back to each other.
"What about Cassie?" They didn't respond. "What's wrong with my wife?"
"I don't know if you'd say there's something wrong with her-"
"What?" Nick asked very seriously.
"Nick," Isabella started. "Cassie's alive."
"What are you talking about?"
"She survived the fire," A.J. said.
"No she didn't. We were just together and she left suddenly last night."
"No. It's not what you think."
"Then why did you tell us that we both died?"
"That's just the thing," A.J. said. "We thought both of you had. But we found out otherwise last night. Boy do we have a story to tell you."
"Tell me now," Nick insisted.
"No, come up to the beach with us. We can't have you distracted. Not by Cassandra."
"But that's an hour away."
"You're forgetting," Isabella said. "We don't need to drive."
"Give me a minute alone with her."
"All right," A.J. said. "We'll be outside." With that, Isabella and A.J. turned and walked out of the room.
Nick turned and looked at Cassandra laying on her bed. He walked over to her bed and sat down close to her. With tears in his eyes, he gazed down upon her. "I love you," he said. "I have to go now and find out what's going on. But I'll be back." He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. He stood up and rushed out of her room.
Cassandra had a strange feeling. Absentmindedly, her hand reached up and touched her lips.
"Okay, we're up at the beach," Nick said to Isabella and A.J. "I don't know how we got here but we're here. Now tell me. Everything."
Isabella turned to him. "Okay. I'll start from the beginning. During the fire, both of you expected to die so much, that when Cass survived, her spirit stayed behind with yours. You two were together for three days right?"
Nick nodded.
"That's how long she was unconscious for in the hospital. The reason why she left unexpectedly the other day is because her body woke up and her soul jumped back into her body. She called Brian, he picked her up and he tried to explain to your wife that you are dead."
Nick stared at her for a minute. "I don't believe this," he said. "So it was her soul? She was just unconscious?"
Isabella and A.J. nodded.
"This is unreal."
"The only thing that we don't know is how she could have survived and you didn't," A.J. said.
"I know how," said a voice. The three of them turned around.
Nick gasped. "Austin-"
Austin cut him off. "When you were unconscious, she escaped. She ran out of the house. She left you there to die, and you did. She wanted you to die."
"No!" Nick said. "We died together!"
"Then how is she still alive?" They couldn't answer. "That's what I thought."
"Austin, get out of here!" A.J. yelled.
"Fine," Austin said. "But at least you know the truth." Austin quickly turned on his heel and walked away.
Isabella and A.J. turned to Nick.
"Would Cassie do that?" Nick asked them.
"No!" Isabella said. "Nick, Austin is a liar! That's not what happened-"
"Then what happened? Huh?"
"W-We can't answer that. Not yet at least," A.J. said.
"All we can say to you truthfully," said Isabella, "is that you're Cassie's angel now."
Isabella, A.J., and Nick walked into Cassandra's room where she was still lying on her bed and was still staring up blankly at the ceiling. Forgetting about Isabella and A.J, Nick walked over to the bed and sat down. "Baby I'm so sorry," Nick whispered. Knowing that she couldn't hear him, made tears well up in his eyes. Emotions raged inside of him.
"Nick," Isabella said. "Another thing. We can feel your emotions because we have such close ties."
"Yeah, so knock it off," A.J. said. "You're making us sick!"
Isabella slapped A.J. on the arm but Nick just smiled. "Sorry guys." Slowly, his hand brushed across her face, and he attempted to brush a lock of hair out of Cassandra's face, knowing that he couldn't. But to Nick's surprise, her hair physically fell to the side. Nick gasped and Cassandra shot up from the bed.
"What the-" She stopped and ran her hand through her hair. "Nick?"
"Cass, it's me! I'm-"
"No, it couldn't be. Cass, give it up," she said to herself. She got up and headed for the door.
"No. Cass d-" But she walked out of the door and headed down the stairs.
"Nick," Isabella said. "There is something that you can do, but it will make you extremely tired and there are risks."
"I don't care," Nick said. "What is it? Anything. I'll do anything."
"You can go into her dreams."