Free One Kiss: An Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy (Transmissions from The International Council for the Exploration of the Universe., #1) by Emily Kimelman, E.J Kimelman

did?" I said.
    "Yeah, aren't you listening to me? Someone stabbed him through the eye," he said.
    "Oh," I said.
    "Don't you realize what this means?" he said, leaning toward me, the oxygen tube straining against his upper lip. "It's starting."
    "What?" I asked.
    "Alright, that's enough of that, Mr. Combers," a nurse said as she walked through the door.
    He looked over at her. "You're on the front lines," he told her. "I'll probably be gone by the time it really begins."
    "What begins?" I asked.
    But the nurse pulled the curtain between our beds. "Don't be listening to him, Darling."
    "The end," he yelled through the curtain. "The end is coming!"
    "Alright, Mr. Combers," she said, placing her fists on her ample hips. "That's enough out of you."
    A half-hearted grumble was the only response. She turned her attention to me and smiled. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
    "Sore," I said with a smile. "And embarrassed."
    She waved a hand at me. "Oh, sweetheart, don't worry about it. Everyone is affected differently."
    "I've never been affected that way before," I said. While I knew in the logical part of my brain it was impossible for Megan to be bending over me, her hair rich and lush like before she got sick, in my heart I wanted to believe, wanted to have proof she was not really gone. Maybe it wasn't a hallucination. Maybe none of them were.
    "Things change," the nurse said. "Dr. Tor wants to keep you overnight." She picked up the blood pressure cuff next to my bed and reached for me. I let her take my arm and wrap the sleeve around it.
    I shook my head. "No, I'm going home," I said.
    "You'll have to sign out against doctor's orders," she said, pumping the cuff with one hand while she put her stethoscope into her ears with the other.
    "I'm fine with that," I said. She listened to my heart and looked at her watch. I waited until she released the pressure on the cuff. "Where are my clothes?" I asked. She sighed but gave them to me. I dressed quickly and checked myself out. Rushing onto the elevator, I felt a swell of relief that I'd gotten out of there.

<<<<>>>>
    " Why were you so happy to have left?"
    "Well," Darling smiled. "I'd made a real ass of myself, hadn't I?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "Calling out my dead best friend's name. Imagining her."
    "You thought it was a hallucination?”
    "I didn't know. But I couldn't stay there. I had to get out of there."
    <<<<>>>>

CHAPTER NINE
    I had serious trouble sleeping that night. It seemed I was at war with my sheets. One minute I was burning hot, throwing my blankets to the side, and the next a chill ran through my body and I pulled all my coverings back over my body, up to my neck, sometimes even dipping my head under the folds.
    Dreams came to me as whispers; not sure if I was awake or asleep, I heard Megan's voice saying my name in her singsong voice. It was the way she'd wake me after staying up all night writing, creeping into my room, planning on roping me into her arrangement. I felt her hand on my shoulder. "Come on," she said and laughed, a tinkling sound that made me smile.
    "Just five more minutes," I mumbled, my lips hardly parting, my eyes keeping closed, nothing but darkness across my vision.
    "Be careful," she said, and I felt her breath right on my ear. My eyes popped open and I flipped over expecting to see her sitting there, but I was alone. The window was open, the curtains shuffling in the breeze.
    I crossed the room and looked out onto the back courtyard. It was early, the sun just peeking over the buildings, casting a gray pink on the empty space below. I heard a rattle and then a cat bolted into the middle of the courtyard. The feline's back was arched, its teeth barred at an unseen opponent. I waited but nothing else happened. The cat eventually stalked off, its fur slowly unfurling as it disappeared into a shadow.
    I climbed back into bed, pulling the covers up to my chin. I fell back into a fitful sleep. Finally I got out of bed around noon, realizing that