8 Embrace Your True Nature

“June, wake up! Please, wake up!” Cherrie’s voice was heavy with panic, and I felt her hands on my shoulders, shaking me hard to bring me back to consciousness.

I let out a low groan, trying first to move my fingers, they were numb, tingling, like they belonged to someone else. My chest was rising and falling in a jagged rhythm, and there was a strange wheeze in the air that made me frown until I realized it was me, trying to suck in air, gasping as if I were drowning.

Waking up wasn’t a clear moment, a clean awakening. It was slow, dragging, a confused struggle against the heavy fog that seemed stuck to my skin, my head, my bones. My head throbbed, my eyes burned like I’d cried all night, and there was an uncomfortable pressure in my temples, as if my brain were too small for my skull. My eyelids felt like they were made of iron, but with a trembling effort, I managed to open them, feeling the light, even faint, tear through my pupils. Everything was blurry, slightly out of focus, sh