Authors: Palladian
Seeing the large clock as she came into the main hall, Lex felt relieved that it read a bit after 5 a.m., which meant she'd more or less kept to the timeline. Unfortunately, although she kept blinking and blinking, her vision remained fragmented, the pain in her head now tooth-grindingly strong. The overhead lights appeared blinding, and she dropped her gaze to look at the linoleum instead.
Not long
, Lex told herself,
not long now. All I need to do is to get on the train, and then I can rest.
She looked up at the signboard, noting the train they'd agreed to take, the first one west, left in an hour for St. Louis.
An hour, just an hour
, she told herself feverishly, heading for her locker.
Lex realized as she entered the locker row that someone else stood at the other end, and as she raised her head a little, she almost looked straight at Casey before she recognized her friend, then looked away as if bored. As Lex went to unlock her locker, though, something happened. The pain spiked through her head, feeling like an ice pick had pierced straight through her skull, and she barely bit back a cry as the locker door swung open and she grabbed the backpack inside. She saw through a foggy haze as Casey turned to look at her, and Lex tried to smile reassuringly, but instead fell to her knees and immediately vomited. Nothing much came out but water and half-dissolved pills, and she didn't feel better afterwards as usual but so much worse as the pain kept growing into something that would surely drown her.
A moment later, Lex felt herself being raised up, and something about the way the person held her made her realize it was Casey.
“Leave me,” Lex said, but she realized her voice was a barely intelligible mumble before she choked altogether at another wave of pain. “I don't think I'm going to make it.”
Casey seemed to understand her anyway. “No, I'm not leaving you,” the blonde said, and to Lex's surprise, she sounded perfectly calm.
Lex's brain spun as she tried to hold onto consciousness for one more minute. “Call the Chens. Don't know why, but I put Mr. Chen's number into my new phone.”
Then the whole world seemed to flee from Lex as the pain pushed her under so far she couldn't open her eyes, and everything seemed to shrink to a single, white-hot point of screaming sensation.
- End of Book 1 -
For anyone who can't stand to wait to find out what happens for cliffhangers, please feel free to check out the next several chapters of the story on the serial website:
http://superwebnovel.livejournal.com/314.html
If you've read this book in full, you can pick up cleanly with the chapters listed under Book 2 (chapter 21, etc.).
If you prefer to read on your mobile device, I recommend downloading the Wattpad app and searching on my story number to find this story there: 9430224. Like the serial website, you should be able to pick up where this book leaves off by beginning with chapter 21.
I also created a playlist for this book, with some of the songs I listened to that inspired each chapter. Please check it out at:
http://palladian23.livejournal.com/1821.html
Table of Contents
Chapter 12: Mysteries and Meetings