Part 1

“What do we do now?” Isabel asked quietly, her heart yearning for Alex.

Liz held her breath, knowing what Max was going to say next would break and rip her heart in two, again.

Turning to Liz, Max declared, “I have to go save my son.”

Liz closed her eyes in defeat, thinking to herself, *Save your son? What about me? Are Tess and your son all you can worry about? I told you that Kyle and I didn’t sleep together, why wasn’t that enough to stop you from going with Tess? I thought we had something, now I’m not so sure anymore. I did all this for nothing? Tess still left! What’s there to live for?*

“Liz?” Max said, trying to get her attention.

She took a step back, away from his warm embrace. The cold wind slapped her face and her hair blew around carelessly. Turning her back to him, she suddenly felt cold, as if her body was plunged into ice water. Looking over the rocks, she could see the sun beginning to awake from its deep slumber. Dawn represented the start of a new day, and the end of another.

*Alone.* Her mind whispered. She was alone, cold and alone. What a bad combination.

“Will you help me?” Max asked, looking at her with eyes full of hope and … love.

*Help you? Help you?* Her mind went on an angry rampage. *Sure I’ll help you, help you shove that stick up your ass where it belongs! Hah! For all the ungrateful things you…*

“Liz, are you all right?” Max’s gentle voice broke her out of the trance she didn’t know she was in.

“No,” her voice came out clear and hard as steel.

All activity ceased as silence settled upon the group.

“No?” Max croaked. His nervousness was apparent; he was fiddling with his shirt. “No as in you won’t help me or no as in you’re not feeling all right?”

She avoided his attempts of making eye contact because if she did, she knew that what she was going to say would go down the drain. She prayed that she would be able to stick with her desired speech and not fall into Max’s soulful eyes.

Plucking all the courage and strength she could find, she walked away from the group, looking down at her feet.

“You know my answer,” she said calmly, though her insides felt like mush jelly, “don’t ask stupid questions.”

She didn’t bother to wait for their answer. She kept walking, placing one foot in front of another; hoping she wouldn’t trip.

A wave of sudden despair hit her, and a faint buzz invaded her brain.

“Prepare for war.”

*What was that?* Liz asked herself. Shaking her head and clearing her thoughts, she continued threading the dangerous rocks, away from the others.

A long distance now separated them; Liz on one side and everyone else on the other.

“Prepare for war.”

There it goes again. Who was inside her head? Tess? No. She’s gone so it can’t be her right?

The buzz now became a full-force tilted spin. Around and around her brain went, like an out of control Merry-Go-Round.

*Get me off of this!* Liz felt like screaming and pulling out her hair.

Black dots danced before her eyes. Bile rose from the bottom of her stomach and reached the top of her throat.

*Breathe in. Breathe out.* She coached herself, taking in deep breaths, trying to steady her shaking hands and trembling body. *Breathe in. Breathe out.*

This wasn’t just a normal case of dizziness, or a sudden black out. It was something much different, much worst.

*Ah, the hell with it!* Liz cursed herself for not taking those meditating classes with Maria and Kyle; it would’ve been quite handy just about now.

The black dots expanded in the short amount of time Liz used to criticize herself.

*Screw this.* She cussed one last time and promptly fell. She waited for the impact of her skin jarred against the sharp rocks, the sting that would manifest into physical pain.

But nothing came. She felt nothing. Her body was floating in mid air, or at least that was what it felt like. But she wouldn’t really know since her body and mind chose that moment to shut down first.