25 I didn’t see it at the time, but hanging over the sidewalk was a hard metal bar that slammed into my forehead and knocked me flat on my back. Pain erupted from my head and blossomed through my entire body as my vision swam, then went dark. I didn’t even have the chance for my mind to register what happened to me, didn’t even have the chance to see what I had run into, before my vision blanked and my mind went numb. The last thought my mind showed me before I passed out was of the Dealer’s infuriating smile. “Alex.” I heard a voice, which was what finally woke me out of my unconsciousness, and it was immediately followed by a grinding, throbbing agony in my head. I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t think at all, really. All I could do was let out a pained groan and squeeze my eyes shut tighter to try and block out the pain. It didn’t work. “Alex!” Despite the pain, despite the fog that hung over me, I knew that voice. It took me a few moments to realize it, but when it clicked into place, my eyes shot open and I saw her face. My Ella. There she was standing over me, with that same soft smile on her lips, the one that would make me feel like I was home and I was safe no matter what kind of struggles I was facing. Her light curls were messy and fell across her shoulders in a casual, unkempt look, the way she had always worn it before the cancer had made those curls disappear. And those eyes, those piercing green eyes that would sparkle at me when she came home from work, those eyes that broke my heart with the sadness they held when she told me she was dying, those eyes were looking at me once again. “Ella…? Is it really you?” I breathed, reaching a shaking hand up to her face. I ignored the pain now. I could deal with it, as long as she was here. I didn’t know how this was happening, this shouldn’t have been happening. It was impossible. It was beyond impossible. And yet… here she was. Was this the work of the Dealer? Was that why he was watching me?
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