False Awakening Novels & Stories

Chapter 38 Alex's POV In the realm between dreams and reality, Alex slowly emerged from the depths of unconsciousness. The gradual return of sensation began with a tingling awareness in his fingers, like tendrils of life creeping up his limbs. A dull ache resonated through his head, as if his mind were struggling to break free from the shackles of slumber. As he fought against the weight of darkness, the world around him remained shrouded in obscurity. His breath came out in short pants, anything more would make one of his broken ribs puncture his lungs. Turning into a wolf was sheer agony for him, but it didn't hold a candle to the unearthly pain he was feeling on every part of his body.

I tried to run, but my legs wouldn't move. He had drugged me in the car. My consciousness blurred; I had to focus just to stay awake. I was done for. If anyone could save me now, it would have to be my phone. But it had been smashed by Thomas and left behind on the road. Despair consumed me… until the distant roar of a car engine reached my ears. Thomas frowned, hid the knife behind his back, and warned me to stay quiet. Then he went to check outside. What happened next, I don't know. When I woke, I was lying on the side of a road. The sky was completely dark. No one was around.

Before I could finish, he cut me off impatiently, "Yeah, work's calling. I have to go." He rushed out the door, and I didn't press him further. However, my doubts grew heavier. Was he really that busy? I followed him, and that was when I saw the happy family scene I had just described. I lifted my numb fingers and hit record, capturing the entire scene in front of me. When I returned home, I locked myself in my room and played the video on repeat. While I lay unconscious, someone else had quietly taken my place. What was the point of waking up at all?

Just the quiet edge of something awakening. And I knew— Whatever waited next, it wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

It sort of felt like she had always been there. After I had shifted she had woken. Explaining to me that she had waited for a long time for me. When I asked her why now. She told me it’s because my true self had been locked away. She needed me to be free. Where had she been when Alwin had tried to kill me? Blood gave us freedom. The thought sits uncomfortably. With Tala came something else. My senses had been heightened further. I could hear Elijah and Simons conversation from the bedroom, well some of it. Simon was fleeing because of me.

Every part of my brain hurt, like it was being pulled taut from every direction possible, and the worst part, there wasn't a lot I could do about it. I was barely coming in terms with that when I picked up something else. It was faint, but then came the awareness of voices. They were muffled and thick, like they were speaking through water. I didn't know what to expect after that, but best believe I didn't think a cold cloth being stabbed at my forehead to be the next thing that followed. “She’s waking.” Someone spoke up. That voice… soft, too soft, I just had to force my eyes open. White light burned into my eyes, all around me, shadows sharpened into shapes, and then I saw them. Although,

Blood trickled down on her forehead, and she looked rather scary. "This is your retribution, Suzanne. I was only revealing the truth, anyway. Don't tell me you became so immersed in the fake image you've portrayed for so long that you thought it was real. Fakers will always be fakers, and there will come a day when their true colors are revealed," I said coldly.

“Only if you do not need me to help,” Martha chuckled and softly slipped her arm into mine, so we were walking, not as guard and prisoner but as companions. “Only if you tell me all about it,” causing me to giggle as the huge double doors opened and the wall of steam greeted us. Once she had attended to two other girls she helped to wash my long blonde hair with a water jug. “Martha, what is the Awakening?” She sighed, “you’re obviously a bit older than most but you’ve been sheltered. It is the period when you first meet and eventually are accepted by a wolf spirit. Normally happens when you’re a teenager.”

The last minutes in which I would remain complete, with my Ember. I could feel that her end was soon; the sun that had never set in my dreams, not even once in all these years, was lowering itself to meet the flat line of the horizon. I breathed deeply as my heart clenched painfully. Many unsettling thoughts swirled into my mind. “Henry, what if I can’t wake up because I am not good at being awake? What if I don’t know how to do awake-things?” I thought out loud. Maybe my doubts about it were what was keeping me asleep and preventing Ember from healing. Maybe I was afraid? In the middle of this windwhirl of emotions, I didn’t know anything anymore.

I reached the cherry tree first, jumped up to pick a cherry, and held it up triumphantly. "I got it!" But as I turned around, I realized I was alone. The others had vanished, and I was enveloped by a thick fog. "Mark, James, Jericho, I got it! I'm first! Where are you? Don't leave me! Don't leave me alone!" No matter how much I shouted, only my echo answered. When I woke, I found myself staring into Julian's eyes. His face was so close that I could feel his warm breath and the fluttering of his long eyelashes.