”I can’t. I should have gone with you. If I had you wouldn’t have come home so late, I would have made you leave early.”

”If you had gone, we both would have died. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop my death, it was meant to happen that day. We all have a number and when it’s up, you go, no fighting.”

”Is my number up,” I sobbed, ”Am I supposed to die today?”

”Your body is fighting, but your heart wants to give up.”

”How do I convince my heart that I want to live?”

”Rid yourself of the guilt you feel. Let. It. Go.”

The voice disappears and I hear the sound of a heart monitor beeping. I can hear Bette kissing my cheek. I miss her lips, her smell, her beautiful face, I need to wake up. I whisper I love you and I hear her talking.

”Oh Tee, please fight. If not for me, fight for Jackson, fight for our unborn child. You’re pregnant Tee, we’re having a baby and it’s thriving, it’s a fighter, just as you should be. Baby, I love you. Please come back to me.”

”Dr. Kennard-Porter, um, the results are back and they look fine, great in fact. But for some reason she’s lost the will to live.”

”What’s that supposed to mean?”

”If I may, I have been researching and writing papers and performing studies as to the affects of people in acoma and it seems while they are sleeping, they’re in a battle. A battle with themselves. A battle to get back to reality, while I’ll never know the battles of those who have passed, the ones who have awoke, have had to fight to get back. They describe seeing dead relatives, a specific time in their life which had great impact or loosing a child or spouse.”

”Tina hasn’t experienced any of those things.”

”Are you sure?”

”I…I don’t know.”

The sound got jumbled and then I was back in Angelica’s room, the sun shining through the windows and she was staring down at me. I’ve got to get back.

”You got mad at her because she kept a secret, but you’ve been keeping me locked up inside your heart for ten years. Set me free.”