Free While You're Awake by Amber Stokes

Chapter 1
    Empty. Ava closed
the mailbox more firmly than necessary and headed back up the gravel drive. The
spring wind blew steadily while the sun shone warm on her uncovered head.
    She paused outside the
front door, wondering if it wouldn’t be nicer to bring her laptop outside for
the remainder of the afternoon. Squinting at the cloudless sky, she shook her
head. Too hot. She was bound to get uncomfortable just as she settled in at the
picnic table with its scratchy bench and sticky stains. And there could be
bugs…
    Maybe tomorrow. Today, a
glass of orange juice and her soft couch promised to be much more agreeable.
    Ava opened the door and
shut it behind her with a soft thud—a noise her ears barely registered over an
entirely different sort of sound. Her heart pounded as her eyes skimmed the
main room.
    There. The window facing
west writhed. A curtain of black rose and fell as she stood frozen, her back
against the door, hands trembling by her sides.
    Bees. Dozens of them,
climbing and falling and hovering over the inside of the glass. The buzzing was
the breathing of a monster, filling up her small place in an angry, desperate
fashion.
    Clearly the bees wanted
out. But she couldn’t set them free. That would require going near them, and
not even the pull of morbid curiosity could take her one step in their
direction.
    A phantom pinch in her
finger began to throb.
    She couldn’t tell what
kind of bees they were. Bumble bees, wasps, honey bees… All she knew was the
drone and rumble that threatened to consume her.
    A swarm of thoughts flew
through her mind. She hadn’t made any friends she could count on in this new
place. Her family was too far away to help. She needed every penny to pay for
rent and groceries, so a hotel wasn’t an option. And she couldn’t inconvenience
the neighbors, even if she knew their number. What if they were allergic?
    Nothing made sense, least
of all the bees’ presence in the first place. With dismay she realized that
she’d have to pass them in order to reach her laptop. No Google, then.
    Releasing a belated yelp,
she turned and sprinted to her bedroom. After scanning every corner and finding
it safe, she slammed the door and locked it tight, unable to hold back the
panicked sobs as she slid to the worn carpet.
    ∞∞∞
    The night passed in a
state of half-sleep. Ava couldn’t tell when or if the buzzing ended. The sound
had etched a track in her memory that played on repeat, so that she couldn’t
truly rest. She’d kept the lights on but still startled fully awake every time
she thought she saw a shadow zip across the ceiling. And now she stood by the
bedroom door, shaking and praying and hoping that it was all a nightmare.
    Sweat glued her wrinkled
jeans to her legs as she opened the door and took a tentative step forward. Her
gaze went straight to the window. A littering of black lined the sill and floor.
    She breathed out and took
another step. Nothing moved.
    She shuffled across the
expanse of carpet until she stood over the open grave of bee carcasses. Too
gentle-looking to be wasps. Too small to be bumble bees. Of course they had to
be honey bees.
    A twinge of guilt set her
forefinger to throbbing again. If she were braver, she could have released them
all last night. Out where they belonged. Far away from her.
    But she wasn’t brave,
especially not when it came to bees.
    Bzz. She shrieked
and scrambled backward, falling on her backside and scooting several inches.
    The sound paused and then
started again, and she realized it was her phone vibrating in the purse she had
dropped by the couch last night. Just my phone , she reassured herself. Just
my phone.
    She stood on shaky legs
and fished the device out of her purse. “Hello?” Her voice came out no louder
than a throaty whisper.
    “Ava?”
    “Mom.” Ava slumped onto a
cushy chair, keeping a wary eye on the black specks a few feet away.
    “Is everything all right?
You never called back last