3

Alex blinked. The doors to his closet stared back at him. He was sitting in his bed, his sheets all over the ground, probably as a result of his abruptness in getting up. His first thought was… that he didn't know what to think. The pale grey carpet, the white walls … he was obviously in his room. Alex was quiet, feeling unusually groggy and slow. So I'm back, he thought uncertainly. Only… was it possible he had never gone anywhere in the first place?

Had everything simply been… a dream?

Groaning, Alex put his head in his hands.

"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat.

Alex whipped around to face the noise. There, in the corner of his room, on a blue chair, sat Lucas. Alex felt bemused—how had he not noticed Luc earlier?

"Lucas?" Alex hadn't intended it to sound like a question. He wasn't sure whether or not he was angry at Luc. If only his head didn't feel so heavy and thick...

"Alex." The other boy's voice was uncharacteristically sombre. He tried a smile, although it looked like more of a grimace. "How are you feeling?"

All of a sudden, Alex felt quite angry. A dream. He had honestly been trying to dismiss what had happened as a dream. No way would it be that easy—and why else would Lucas be in his room? Last Alex remembered, they hadn't spoken since… since his spy status had been exposed.

Alex shook his head, but the grogginess wouldn't go away. "Honestly? Not good. Terrible, actually. You see, I have no idea what's going on." He narrowed his eyes.

Lucas seemed to wince. "Hah, you don't say." His light, breezy tone sounded a little forced. "Well, I'd expect no less—you did have a pretty bad concussion after all! I still can't believe you stepped in like you did… Those thugs were pretty scary." Noticing Alex's confused look, he added, "In the alleyway. Remember?" Lucas said the last word slowly, as if Alex was mentally impaired.

Alex hesitated. He wanted to snap at Lucas that he did remember, but he didn't have any memory of thugs. He did, however, recall seeing a giant monster in an alleyway… Alex frowned. "No." He paused. He had so many questions, but didn't know where to begin. In any case, Lucas didn't give him a chance to add anything.

"No?" Lucas repeated, brow furrowed, sounding concerned. "Maybe the doctor should check you out again—in fact, I should probably tell Mr. and Mrs Pleasant that you're awake. Sabina would want to know too; she was pretty worried…"

Alex shook his head. None of this made any sense. "Luc, I don't understand, or believe, a word you're saying." Lucas's head snapped up. "What about the monster thing?" There, he'd said it. "And my arm—you, I don't know, burned my arm… or… something." Alex raised his arm and noticed, belatedly, that he was somehow dressed in his pyjamas. He shuddered, wondering how that had happened—not that this was the first time he'd woken up in a different place than he remembered being in last. At least he wasn't in any danger this time. His arms bore a few bruises, but no red blisters, or anything else that indicated a burn. Yet he wasn't looking for red patches in the first place. "I swear," Alex breathed, more to himself than Lucas, "I saw some black mark on my arm earlier."

"Earlier?"

"Yeah, earlier. In the Alleyway. After the monster exploded and my forehead had the slime on it. And yes, I realize how stupid that sounds."

"Err, okay, buddy." Lucas quickly got up, talking in a slow voice, which he probably intended to be soothing. It came across as condescending. "I don't know what you think happened, but what I recall is that there were some thugs trying to mug me, and you stepped in.

"I was running away from them, and decided to duck into an alleyway. It was a dead end. You saw me, followed me and asked what was up. I told you to call 911 and you did, but, well, then they showed up. The thugs. They weren't going to let you walk away once they saw you, not that you planned to leave me anyway." Lucas sounded rueful. "You were being stupid. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was brave of you to stay and try defend me, but by the time the police came we'd been pretty badly beaten. You worse than me." Lucas pointed to the bruises on his face and arms. Now that Alex really looked at Luc, he saw Lucas wasn't looking completely healthy either. "Six against two. Not great odds. You had a concussion, after this one guy clocked you badly. We took you to the hospital."

"'We?'"

"Me, and a police officer."

Alex shook his head again. "I still don't believe you," he said, but his conviction of this, and his anger too, were beginning to leave him. "I…"

"Listen." Lucas stared intently at Alex. "I'm not sure what exactly it is you think happened. For some reason you're convinced something to do with slime and monsters apparently occurred, but I can assure you that none of that is real."

"You seem to want me to believe that pretty badly," Alex pointed out.

Lucas threw his hands up, exasperated. "Because it's the truth!"

"You were saying something else before. You went on a rant about… I don't know. Humans?" Alex knew he must sound crazy. Then something clicked. According to the Lucas of… last night?—Alex didn't actually know how long he'd been asleep for, it couldn't have been more than a day, but he didn't feel sure of anything just then—the slime had been fatal. It must have left a mark.

Alex got up, just as Lucas was in the middle of saying, "I'm going to go get the others—like I said, everyone's been worried about you." Ignoring him, Alex went out of the room. "Alex?" Lucas said loudly, in alarm, behind him. "Alex! Where are you going? Alex, wait!" Alex went down the hall and into the bathroom, Lucas following closely behind him. He stood in front of the mirror above the sink, and glanced at his reflection.

His blonde hair was a mess; his face was bruised at the forehead, and full of cuts and scrapes that were already beginning to heal.

But no ominous mark. Nothing inexplicable, like a green stain or anything. If he was being honest with himself, Alex realized he hadn't been sure what to expect in the first place. It was then it struck him how insane he was acting. Monsters? Slime? But he had been so sure... He met the gaze of Lucas's reflection in the mirror.

"The bruises are from the punch. You then fell on the ground, and hit your head on the concrete, which, probably, is why your concussion was so bad," Lucas said quietly.

Alex didn't know what to say. Was it possible that Lucas was right? After all, monsters simply weren't real, and Lucas's explanation did make more sense. Alex sighed. He had no idea why he was working so hard to prove that he and Luc had fought a monster.

It was silly, and now, in the face of reality, obviously nonsense.

~o~

They went back to Alex's room and Alex sat down heavily on his bed. Lucas pointed at a glass of water on the bedside table. "At least get some fluids in you. And food. You feel hungry?"

Alex drank the water, but declined the offer of food, choosing not to comment on how weird it was to have Luc offering him food in his own house. He moved toward the door and Lucas stopped him. "Sorry, you're on bed rest for the day."

"I should probably tell everyone I'm awake," Alex objected.

"I'll go get everyone to come to you." At Alex's accusing look, Lucas shrugged. "Doctor's orders. Not my doing."

Alex studied Lucas. Despite everything, he still felt something was off about the other boy. By the time the police came we'd been pretty badly beaten. You worse than me. "Your face looks worse than mine," said Alex finally. "No offence. Are you sure I gotten beaten worse that you?"

Lucas laughed. "Who ended up with a concussion?"

"Why were the thugs mugging you in the first place?"

"Maybe I looked like an easy target? I don't know. Who ever said people who feel the need to steal from others have rational motives." Lucas shrugged it off. "At least no one was stabbed. Not that any of them had a knife—but, you know, you hear about muggers with blades and guns… at least this group was relatively unarmed." Alex raised an eyebrow at that. "One guy had a small blade," Lucas explained, "but you knocked it out of his hand. I, err, didn't mention that part to your... to Mr and Mrs Pleasure. I didn't want to worry them. Anyway, you're okay, and that's what counts." Then he left, to go get Sabina and her parents.

~o~

Sabina was glad to see Alex awake, as were her parents. Lucas left half an hour later, mumbling about homework and his own family to get home to. Edward and Liz thanked him again; it turned out that Lucas had been the one who'd brought Alex home the day before. Apparently, Liz and Edward hadn't known about what had happened to him until he'd been brought home, as Lucas had no mobile. Also, it seemed that Alex had actually been conscious when he'd arrived home. According to Sabina, Liz and Edward, he'd fallen asleep as soon as he'd hit the bed.

Their words were meant to be comforting, but Alex was bothered by the fact he had no memory of this whatsoever.

For the rest of the day Alex was urged to stay in bed and 'just relax'. Alex, surprisingly, found he was still exhausted and quickly fell asleep again, not long after Lucas had left.

He woke up in the early evening, feeling energetic and ready to move around. Liz immediately squashed that idea and insisted he stay in bed until at least the next day. As a consequence Alex felt extremely restless for the rest of the day.

"Well," Sabina pointed out, later that evening, grinning at him, "at least you don't have to go to school tomorrow." She was sitting on the same blue chair that Lucas had sat on, although she'd moved it closer to Alex's bed. "You know, I almost feel like I'm in a hospital, visiting a patient. You're getting the complete luxury treatment here."

Alex laughed at that. "That's true. Although, to be honest, I wouldn't really mind school," he said. "I need to move around and be get out of bed, and it's always a good distraction."

Sabina shook her head. "Please. You're just saying that because you're in your bed and relaxed and comfortable and don't actually have to wake up early tomorrow."

"Hm, you're right. I think I'll spend tomorrow just watching TV all day long. After waking up as late as possible, that is." Alex grinned.

Sabina laughed. "Are you teasing me?" She shook her head. "So, what do you remember about the attack? Lucas told us his version, but…" she let her sentence trail off.

"Not much." For some reason, it was hard for Alex to admit this. He didn't like the idea of gaps in his memory. "I remember waking up, and Lucas reminding me about the thugs. I can't remember the actual thing. I also vaguely remember a dream I had—of monsters and slime, and of discussing that dream with Lucas."

Sabina looked torn between amusement and exasperation. "So you wake up, after having a pretty scary previous day, full of thugs and mugging. You see Lucas and the first thing you do is discuss a dream about slime?" He doubted it had been exactly like that, but he couldn't remember many details. Alex shrugged, once again uncomfortable with the vagueness of his memory. "Sometimes I don't understand you." But she was smiling. She stopped once she noticed Alex's troubled look. "Well, let's take our minds off that." Alex nodded, more than ready to change the subject. "Remember when I told you about mum and dad's plans about,, visiting New York?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the fact that we're going to New York just hit me again. And I've got to say, I'm pretty excited." Sabina's blue eyes were alight. She really liked to travel, and it was one of the things they had in common.

Alex slowly smiled as he said, "Yeah, me too."

"In less than week we'll be in New York."

Alex supposed that after everything weird that had happened to him lately, he should be looking forward to going to New York and just having some fun. "Yeah. Really soon… but that's good. That's great, actually," Alex added.

"I'll say," Sabina agreed. "Days of just wandering around a foreign city and basically having a good time. It's probably just what we all need."

"Kind of like a vacation," Alex said.

After all, it wouldn't be such a bad thing to get away from the recent strangeness of Sans Francisco for a while...

N: So this took a while to update. Months, actually... Sorry about that-really, I am! I will try much harder to update more frequently. Thanks to the people who reviewed-I had no idea reviews could be so motivating, but they sure were! So thank you. Okay, cool, and I hope you like the story.