"Hey…hey yes…I'm…I'm awake, I think." Liz struggled to make sense, she felt like a piano had been dropped on her head, and she was both desperate to communicate with the real world again, as well as trying to get her head around things.
"Well, at least you can skip your beauty sleep for a few days." This unfamiliar girl was in some ways perky, but in other ways inconsiderate, which Liz didn't like at all, even though she was automatically thankful to her for her help.
"Oh my God…what happened…I mean after the shooting and everything…why am I here?"
"Well luckily for you, I'm a real giver, my parents always noted that quality about me, but I just can't help myself. Anyway once I found the opportunity, when nobody was looking, I brought you here, to the hospital and they mended the simple wounds you had and gave you a teensy blood transfusion, no big deal. Apart from that, you just had a mild concussion, which is just like a deep sleep you don't get the choice to initiate. And here you are…all sewn up and awake."
"What about my parents, they must be worried sick."
"Don't worry, they heard about what happened, they're on the way over right now."
"I feel like I've been sleeping for days. You're not from around here are you?"
"Just arrived today actually, how did you guess? Was it the shoes? No it had to be my lipstick, that's usually a dead giveaway."
"None of the above…I've just never seen you before…and you're not like the people around here. Anyway…thank you so much for saving my life and everything, but from what I remember, you put yourself at great risk to help me out back at the Crashdown. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I mean why would you do that? I mean you don't even know me?"
"I know what you mean, it is strange…and the truth is I'm not sure why either. It's almost as if I saw what would happen a few seconds before it did. Somehow I knew I could change things and I wasn't about to let somebody die, when I had the chance to stop it from happening, whether I knew them or not."
"Well saving somebody's life on your first day in a new town isn't a bad start at all. If there's anything I can do to repay you…" Liz's sentence was cut short.
"Don't even think of it Elizabeth, I would have done the same thing for anyone…but if you really wanna do me a favour, just watch my back OK? I mean it's hard fitting in to a place where everybody grew up together and you stick out like Calista Flockhart in Fubu. All I'm saying is, if you really wanna repay me, then I could really use a friend around here y'know?"
"Of course, consider it done…I mean yes…but look, I hate to seem unappreciative or anything, but I really need some sort of rest right now, my head feels ten times bigger than usual."
"Don't worry about it, I mean if you feel the way you look, you definitely need some time to heal."
"Well anyway, as soon as I get back home, come and see me anytime, I'm sure my parents would like to thank you for everything, they'll probably give you free meal coupons or something." The dismissed girl head towards the door, "One thing before you go…how did you know my name?"
The girl turns back around and throws Liz's Crashdown nametag, lightly, on the hospital bed, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist."
The girl achieved her exit and Liz sank in to the hospital bed, closing her eyes and gathering her thoughts. After her parents came and gave her affectionate and caring support, they left with her and Liz had returned home safely. It was late and although Liz wanted nothing more than to see and hear from her friends after her ordeal, she was completely devoid of energy and found that all she could do, was go to bed, and sleep.
Liz was dreaming. She was in the Crashdown, dressed in her waitress attire. There was nobody else there…except for the new girl, the one who saved her life, standing at the door. She was smiling and invited Liz over to look at something she could see on the other side of the door. Liz went over and looked and was uncomfortable with what she saw. The door was also an entrance to another Crashown, in which very unsettling events were taking place.
It was the incident, only not the incident as it happened earlier. Liz watched as she saw herself be shot, the new girl was nowhere to be seen, and then quickly as the fighting men flee, Max approaches her. Max the boy of her dreams rushes to her, after having that same look of sadness in his eyes that she witnessed before. She feels herself die. Then he places his hand over the wound and she feels him fill her with life and with parts of himself. A tear trickles down from one eye as she watches, because in his eyes, she is beautiful, and it's something more astonishing than her heart can resist caving in over. Then she is alive again.
She takes a few steps back from this alternate event and everything around her darkens. She is so touched by what she felt from Max, so shocked at what she just saw, so confused and the main reason is…because she didn't only just witness part of a dream…she remembers it. Then a series of flashes force themselves to be, images from a different time, a different place, but that are familiar to Liz. Then they stop and there is nothing but darkness. Liz looks on worried and she sees first Max, then both Isabel and Michael standing behind him. Each have their own spotlight focussed on them. Each looking down towards the floor with an impression of desolation inflicted upon their faces. Then that girl appears again, the stranger, she too has a spotlight of her very own. She looks to Liz.
"They're all hiding from you, you know?" The girl says.