The Dream Cages #14

"Jesus," said Gansey.

Ronan's body had pitched itself from the chair onto the floor, and as the blue eyes opened, rents appeared in the back of Ronan's shirt, in his flesh, copious amounts of blood spilling onto the scuffed hospital linoleum.

"Henry, no!" Blue shouted as Henry dove for the emergency call button.

"But..." said Henry, gesturing broadly to the expanding puddle.

"It's fine," Gansey said, "he'll be fine." Though, truth be told, it sounded a bit like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

"This is normal?" Henry asked.

"None of this is normal," said Blue.

"And all of it is," Gansey added.

Henry threw his hands up in defeat. "Okay, man. You the boss."

"We need to clean it up, though," Blue said. "Henry, go get some paper towels from the bathroom."

"Why me?" Blue just looked at him. Gansey had bent to check on Ronan, though he was careful to stay outside the margins of the gore. "Fine," Henry muttered, and again, "Fine," before disappearing into the hallway.

"What happened?" Gansey asked Ronan.

For a little longer, Ronan didn't move. Couldn't, Gansey suspected; Ronan always came back paralyzed from dreaming. Only the blue eyes roved in the direction of Gansey's voice. And then, suddenly, Ronan was bolt upright. It happened so fast Gansey didn't even see it; Ronan had been flat out on his stomach, then he was sitting up, then he was on his feet and next to Adam's bed.

"Where is he?" Ronan asked.

"He's right there," said Blue.

"No," Ronan told her. "He was at the Barns. With Matthew."

Gansey's brow folded into confusion or concern; the two looked the same on him. "The Barns?"

"Dream Barns," said Ronan. "That thing..." His words came fast and his hands went to his head in the universal sign for someone who is overwhelmed and doesn't know where to start. "I need to check on Matthew."

Henry reappeared with two fistfuls of paper towels. He looked to Blue, then Gansey, neither of whom noticed him. With a sigh, he dropped the towels over the blood. "That's all I'm doing," he announced. "I'm not scrubbing this stuff. I've got both my shoes."

When no one answered, Henry said, "Hello? Cinderella? Shoes? Is this thing on?"

But Ronan and Gansey just stared at each other until finally the latter sighed and pulled out his cell phone. "I'll call Dec—"

Ronan took his phone out, too, and swore. "Don't bother. I have about fifty messages from him." He handed the phone to Gansey. "I can't."

Gansey pocketed his phone and took Ronan's. "Speaker?" he asked and Ronan shook his head. So Gansey hit play and held the phone to his ear. Ronan watched the way Gansey's throat moved as he swallowed. The way his hand shook just a little as he looked at the screen, moved to the next message, on and on through about five of them before he stopped and handed the device back.

"Same," Gansey said.

"What does that mean?" Blue asked.

"As Adam," Gansey clarified. "Declan found him in his room this morning. Breathing but unresponsive."

Ronan swore in a long and impressive stream before demanding, "Why? Why didn't they come back with me? Adam said—"

"You saw him," said Gansey, and when Ronan just stared, "We weren't there, remember? I think you'd better start from the beginning."

"It was dark, and there was a hall, and a voice, and then I fell to the Barns—"

A high-pitched noise cut Ronan's Cliffs Notes recap short. For a moment, he thought it was Matthew screaming again, somehow. Then he thought it was Adam. Because it was coming from the bed, this sound. He turned, expecting to see Adam's eyes open, to hear Adam trying to speak, even if it only came out as this thin stream of sound. But Adam was as still and silent as ever.

And still he didn't understand until Gansey said, "Shit."

Adam wasn't screeching, and it wasn't an errant night horror, and it wasn't some PTSD memory from the dream he'd just had. The equipment was shrieking. One long, ear-piercing blast.

Someone grabbed Ronan and hauled him back away from the bed.

"What?" Ronan asked, but feet coming down the hall like troops distracted him. Suddenly the room was full of people in coats and scrubs, one of them skidding precariously on the paper towels strewn across the floor, more wheeling a cart.

"Out!" one of them shouted. "All of you, out!"

"What?" Ronan asked again because it still hadn't sunk in. Too much had happened, and he was no dummy, but his brain just could. Not. Keep. Up.

Gansey dragged, Blue pushed, and then they were out in the hall.

One more time, the only word he seemed to be able to summon: "What?"

"Ronan," Blue said, and she used that soft and gentle voice that people used when they were about to give you bad news. Ronan glared at her, but she had become immune to his particular brand of venom.

"Ronan," she said again. "Adam just flatlined."