I'm Wide Awake. [hellion]

They were dull flashes. Disjointed and dizzying. Hard to decipher until almost after they'd finished. Broken by long spells of a heavy darkness. Not fearful, exactly, but not entirely restful either. The first flash was Julian. Julian in a metal room that was rushing with wind, telling her to fight it... What was she fighting? She remembered the struggle, and that the only reason she prevailed was because Julian was there, urging her, reassuring her. Then a flash of darkness, and Sofia next saw a different room, but with a similar atmosphere.

Faces, familiar, though she couldn't place them - a furry blue, cat-like face looking over her thoughtfully, a redheaded woman with white golden eyes who reached out a finger to touch her brow - then peace. Now, Sofia opened her eyelids now, and the image might have been blurry, but it wasn't as stuttering as the last few. The room had a sterile atmosphere, but it was definitely more cheerful looking than the last two places she had witnessed. Sofia sat in a bed beneath clean covers in a white/wood paneled room.

One wall held two doors, one of which was open onto a small bathroom, the other sported tall windows that were open, allowing in a fresh, spring breeze and bright golden sunlight. Sofia inhaled the scent of blooming flowers, and for a moment all else was banished from her troubled mind. She leaned back into her covers, and that was when other objects reached into her peripherals. Mechanical things. Sofia turned her chin, and saw that they were an assortment of futuristic monitoring devices.

Slowly putting two and two together, the Brazilian drew her right hand up, and saw an IV running into her arm. Her breathing picked up slightly at the unexpectedness of it all. Where was she? That was when the sound of air being stirred by more than the outside breezes caught her ear. Sofia turned slowly again, too afraid that if she moved quickly, or tried to take in too much, she'd overload. That was when she first registered that there was a chair between her and the window.

Propped up, looking disheveled and worn, purple bags beneath closed eyes, was a young man with black hair, sleeping uneasily. Sofia's alarm faded. Her features softened and she leaned back into her bedding again. Julian.