Waking Up

“Andrew!” Andrew wasn’t entirely sure what the hell was going on as his brain was struggling to wake himself up from his state of unconsciousness or the voices above him that were calling out to him. The boy gave a grunt as he shifted his body on whatever the hell he was lying on, head slowly twisting to one side then the other in some odd sort of headshake. His fingers and toes twitched without his command then his arms responded next. Okay progress, not much but still some progress.
“Hey, he’s moving! Sweet mother of God, he’s moving!” Andrew groaned as he shifted his head some more on the ground, something his blurred mind was starting to recognize as his awareness started to kick in more and more with each passing second and the boy’s dizziness slowly began fading. Andrew shifted some more then slowly moved his arms on the ground, scraping them against the hard material that was now cold, hard concrete, till his palms were resting flat against it.
Taking a few deep breaths, Andrew slowly and carefully leveled himself into a sitting position, opening both eyes rather wearily only to be met by a blurry mess of colors, darkness and shapes in front of him. The blond boy shut his eyes as quickly as he opened them, blinked, rubbed his eyes then blinked a few more times for good measure. When his vision finally cleared, Andrew took notice of both his friends, Bram and Ronald standing on either side of him, a hand resting on each of his shoulders to help him stay upright and the fact they were in an alleyway, not the same one they had left from obviously, but a completely different one.
“Oh thank God, you’re awake!” came the voice of Bram, his normally brash and cocky tone was filled with worry and concern. A little out of character for Bram Andrew admitted both out loud and to himself without any shame. But considering all that’s happening in the last hour or something like that, Andrew couldn’t really blame him completely for worrying about him like he did. “Ronald and I were worried that you would never wake up!” The former in question placed his free hand up against his head in some worried type of face palm, shook his head for a few seconds before his concerned gaze back to Andrew.
“How are you feeling?” Ronald asked softly, voice filled with deep concern but the redhead did a much better job at masking his worry and fear then Bram did. Andrew heaved a deep breath in through his nose and out his mouth, shook his head to clear himself of his thoughts before answering. “I’m fine, just simply had a fainting spell upon seeing that man again,” Andrew replied, head bowing like he was ashamed of being afraid in front of his two friends and voice calm, maybe a little bit too calm for both Bram and Ron’s liking.
However, upon finishing that sentence, Andrew’s half-opened eyes widened to the size of dinner plates with fear and he whipped his head all around the alleyway, looking for any signs of the man who had, a few minutes or probably an hour, been standing a few feet away from them. Fortunately or rather unfortunately, the man was nowhere in sight, only several trash cans or black bags lining the walls and the darkness that still was layering a thick as hell blanket over the atmosphere of the city. Andrew swallowed harshly as his eyes shrunk till only the whites of his eyes were revealed, knowing full well that he should feel relieved that the man was gone.
But he couldn’t, not just because he was a nervous wreck who couldn’t calm down if he ever got himself worked up or found himself in a stressful situation. But also because of the situation he found himself and his friends in and the possibility that the man was still out there, hiding in the shadows and waiting for them to come out of hiding sent chills running down his spine in a way Andrew had never felt before in his life and he sure as hell didn’t like it one bit. Bram and Ronald both watched with worry as they watched their friend almost sprint around the alleyway at a feverish speed that they had never seen from Andrew before in their lives, like he was frantically searching for something or rather for someone, someone who meant worse.
Admittedly, despite having seen Andrew freak out or sometimes have nervous breakdowns whenever he was scared and/or stressed to no end. The two boys couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy watching their friend have probably the worst stress attack of his life minus the nervous sweating and trembling so badly like he was standing outside in the middle of winter butt naked. Those two things didn’t always come right away, but either Ronald or Bram knew

Imprint

Publisher: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Publication Date: 09-22-2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-2114-6

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