CHAPTER 3

When Alexis regained woozy consciousness, the world around her was rocking back and forth almost lulling her back to sleep. Then she realized she was lying in a moving vehicle and in a flash, the last hour came flooding back. She jolted up so fast her forehead hit the front seat. Collins swore under his breath. He was hoping not to have to deal with her until he could get her medical attention. He was a hundred percent sure she will not agree to visit a hospital no matter the situation. Alexis looked around bewildered and only relaxed a little when she realized it was just her and Collins in the car.

"Where are we going?' her voice was patched. She probably needed water but trust Alexis to ignore her most immediate needs and worry about where her friend was driving to. The girl had serious trust issues.

"Good morning sleeping beauty", Collins answered playfully.

They were almost at the hospital and anything to delay her realizing that fact was welcome seeing that he couldn't just straight up lie to her. Knowing her, it would do a number on the trust he had worked his ass off to build.

Alexis glared at Collins who was watching her closely through the mirror.

"That's not what I asked you goat. Where are you taking me?"

"So feisty, just how I like you darling", he had a satisfied smirk plastered on his handsome face as he watched her squirm.

"Stop the car".

The smirk was wiped clean off his face when he realized that she was serious. With a resigned sigh, he got off the road and stopped the car. They both got off. Alexis swaggered suggestively towards Collins as she smiled seductively at him. He was taken aback because that was not something Alexis could be caught dead doing. Unless . . . could she have developed an unknown trauma when she fainted? Let's call it post – faint disorder. If anything like that existed.

"Hello, handsome. My name is Sandra. What's yours?" Collins jaw was on the floor by the time Alexis finished talking. It didn't look like his friend was joking. In fact, that didn't sound like Alexis at all. Then she pouted and it was all he could do not to freak out.

"It's not nice to ignore a lady you know. What is your name handsome?"

How he managed to croak his name past the rock blocking his throat, he had no idea. And then, Alexis, scratch that, Sandra mistook that for his seductive voice, she squealed.

"Oh! So romantic. I love your nasal voice", jaw, officially back on the ground. His eyes were like saucers as he practically stared at the stranger standing before him, playing with her hair and shamelessly seducing him. This was not his friend. Not the girl he fell in love with the first day he set his eyes on her. No. This woman smiling and winking at him now was not her. Something was definitely wrong.

She moved closer so she was now rubbing her body on him. Collins moved back. She pouted, moved closer again, he moved back again. Somehow, he came back to his senses when it hit him that this was a mental complication. If only he had known how true that thought was and to what extent it was, maybe he would have put a stop to the endless horror that followed this first episode and we wouldn't be here recounting this tale.

"I am taking you to the hospital", he declared only for her to flutter her eyelashes at him and giggle.

"That's a very cute name for your bed handsome. I can't wait for the treatment you will give my body once we get to 'the hospital' my dear. Will you worship every inch of me with your tongue?" she was moving closer again.

"I am serious Alexis. I am taking you to an actual hospital for medication. You are sick," he tried a stern approach hoping to penetrate whatever was clouding his friends' judgment.

"No hospwital pwease", a panicking child's voice. What the actual fuck!

"Jesus! What the hell is going on? Who are you?" Collins was shocked. What the hell was happening?

"Mommy, I want Mommy. I want to go home", the child's voice again.

Collins froze in shock. He gaped at his friend whose demeanor had switched from a seductress to a scared child in less than a second. He pinched himself and confirmed he wasn't hallucinating when he felt the pain. Unfortunately, he still needed to deal with the bizarre situation he had found himself in. Softening his voice to match the child's voice, he asked her who she was but before she could answer, Alexis grabbed her head and groaned in pain. She stayed like that for one long moment before opening her eyes and blinking at him in confusion.

"What in the name of what you hold dear are we doing at the side of the road?" she asked, confused. Collins peered into her eyes to see if her confusion was genuine and to his dismay, it was. He decided to test her.

"You told me to stop, so I stopped."

"What for?"

"Maybe you wanted me to meet Sandra?"

"Who the hell is Sandra?" she was genuinely confused. He decided to drop that line of conversation for now. He would investigate later. In the meantime, he needed to take her to the hospital.

"Relax, I am joking. Let's go to the hospital".

"What for?"

"You fainted Alec, you need to see a doctor".

"No I don't. I need to go home".

"You really need to see a doctor".

"Please Collins, just take me home. I don't want to go to the hospital", she pleaded, scared.

"Alright. Home it is then". She looked relieved as they hit the road again and drove home, and this time she did shotgun.

The trip home was silent and uneventful, with both of them lost in their own thoughts. Collins was trying to understand what the roadside episode could possibly mean. The entire thing played on a loop in his mind, from the moment they arrived at the farmers' house to the moment they had started the drive home from the roadside stop. It wasn't making sense to him at all. Was his friend possessed by demons? Wait! Did demons even exist? Collins felt like he was losing his mind. He needed some answers, and he needed them fast before he lost it completely. But that apparently would have to wait since a quick sideways glance showed Alexis' scrunched up face. Apparently, she was in so much pain.

Alexis on the other hand was trying to remember what had transpired at that roadside unsuccessfully. She remembered telling Collins to stop the car but everything after that was a huge black void that no matter how much she tried, she couldn't fill. She really wanted to know but was afraid to ask Collins for fear of him forcing her to go to the hospital. The car stopped and she panicked again. Collins shot her an exasperated look and she shot a questioning glare right back at him.

"I know you have a headache. I am just getting you some painkillers," and he was gone.

Alexis exhaled the breath she was holding and relaxed back in her seat. At least, he had stopped forcing her to go to the hospital. Alexis tried to remember again but her headache worsened to the point she was feeling like her brain was being fried. The world swam and her vision blurred. She didn't argue when Collins shoved a pill in her mouth and swallowed dutifully when he pressed a water bottle to her lips.

By the time they got to her apartment building, she was feeling much better. So she smiled and assured Collins that she would be fine and will call him in case of anything. He walked her in, hovered over her like a mother hen, fetched things so she is comfortable until Alexis couldn't take it anymore, and threw him out but not before him telling her that they spend exactly twenty-eight minutes and fourteen seconds at that roadside in which she was acting weird the whole time. She really wanted him to explain what he meant by weird and he promised to tell her at some other time when she wasn't 'unstable'. He had to promise her to keep that whole crazy episode between them and with the knowledge that she was safe for now, she went to sleep and dreamt of blood everywhere, too much blood, a man's unmentionables, and a single clean knife stab to the heart.