Page 14 of Insidious

Not just beneath me—

Around me.

Closing in.

I swear, something moves under the surface.

Or maybe it’s just a dream—all of this.

But the water feels too close.

And on that final free fall, it’s lights out again.

***

Footsteps move across the room.

A beloved voice whispers my name close to my ear as a warm hand holds mine and squeezes.

Lily’s voice when she is furious and trying not to shout. It makes me want to smile.

“I told you she wasn’t okay.”

A silence followed by—

“I know.”

His voice sounds rough, sandpaper dragging across stone. Isaac.

“Where were you?” Lily snaps as she tries to keep her voice down. “She was alone with a newborn. How did you not notice?”

“I know.” His voice is barely a whisper, like that time he missed his best mate’s funeral because he dislocated his ankle.

The words come out again, as if forced out of a reluctant throat.

I want to tell them to stop, to lower their voices.

My head aches faintly now, a sharp pain pressing behind my eyes. I hear someone tell them to keep it down.

“She will wake up soon. She is breathing on her own,” says Manon. Isaac’s mum sounds sure.

A thin cry suddenly cuts through the room.

My heart stutters. Amelie.

“She’s hungry again,” my mother whispers. “I’ll take her.”

The crying moves further away. I don’t want her to go. Come back. I try to open my eyes, but it’s useless.

Somewhere close by, a chair scrapes.

Warm fingers wrap around my hand again.

Isaac.

I know it before he even speaks.

“Luna?”