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“Noah, you’re confusing me. What’s wrong?”—I reached for his face—“Why are you crying?”
“I don’t want to let you go.”
A teardrop fell on my cheek.
“… But you have to wake up.”
There was another loud crackle, as thunder shredded the sky. Had we angered God?
“You need to wake up, Aria. Please…”
“Noah, I…”
Spiraling in panic, the room was suddenly fading into darkness.
“Look in my eyes, baby.” His fingers whispered across my forehead. “Don’t be afraid. I’m with you.”
The ceiling suddenly disappeared when I looked up. An army of onyx clouds had invaded our paradise, glowing with lightning, chanting in thunderous voices. It was terrifying, but Noah stayed calm throughout the chaos. Holding my face, he demanded I ignore the surrounding danger, as if he were hypnotizing me to dissociate from reality.
“I’m right next to you,” he said. “Wake up, sweetheart.”
Fear in its rawest form was all I could feel, as it mutated within me.
“We can’t stay here forever, Aria. I’m so sorry. I just wanted to give you this night. I wanted it just as much as you did.”
Noah’s voice had become nothing but a faint echo, as if the darkness were swallowing him whole. Soon I’d be alone, facing my biggest fear: abandonment.
“Noah, I’m scared!” I stifled a cry as his voice became inaudible.
Beep… beep… beep…
Where is that sound coming from?
It sounded like a heart monitor. Nothing made sense. I called out to Noah, but even the sound of my voice had faded.
That’s when it happened… Everything faded to black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ARIA
My body was sucked violently through a portal. I was no longer in our haven of paradise. I had fallen deep into an abyss of nothingness. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry out at the top of my lungs, but nothing came out. A random flicker of memories flashed before my eyes as everything went in reverse: making love to Noah, walking backwards to the elevators, sitting by that fountain, watching the dollar flip out of the water, finding the note, dancing with Ryan, dancing with Evan, kissing Evan, arriving at Prom, Noah unclasping my necklace, writing in my diary, and…
I couldn’t rewind any further. That’s when I realized I’d lost a huge chunk of time. Having written some key events in my diary, I couldn’t remember them taking place, as if it were a dream.
“Aria, can you hear me, angel?”
Noah’s voice echoed in my mind, but I still couldn’t see him.
I was falling in the darkness; the way Alice had fallen through the rabbit hole.
“Aria?”
Metal scraped against metal, tires screeched to a halt, and then the startling sound of shattering glass splinteredinto shards, scattering over the pavement. My body suddenly stiffened with a jolt, and I found myself strapped into my passenger seat… upside down. Car horns were blaring as the never-ending siren of an ambulance got louder. I wanted to cover my ears, but I couldn’t move.
“Hold on!” a man shouted. “We’re gonna get you out, hon! Stay conscious!”
I couldn’t recognize that voice.
