It was the pain in the back of her head that woke Lotte up. The pounding seemed to increase, as she slowly moved from her dreamless sleep until she couldn’t take it anymore. With a small groan, she lifted her head from her hands – a makeshift pillow from the evening before – and reached back to feel the bump on the back of her head. A voice in the back of her mind immediately criticized her, as the pain increased. Her hand fell more in dismay then the pain. Christine was still there and she shot up to her knees, looking around the room wildly.
She was still in France during who-knew-when. Christine was still in her head. She was still here with Lucas and Brian – and Bran who at least was on the other side of the room. Memories came back, a bit unclear from the day before – at least she didn’t remember anything happening from the night, other than crying herself to sleep over the situation. Nothing had happened then, right?
That was nearly enough to make her start crying again, even though her eyes were still dry from the night before. Dirty hands rubbed under her eyes, as she scooched further back against a wall on the other side of the room. There wasn’t far too go, but she still wanted to be away until she knew what to do, because at this rate she was going to hear other voices-
No, wait. She wouldn’t. Because he’d lied and she wasn’t crazy. Even if Christine was still trying to calm her down.
“I’m not crazy,” Lotte muttered, catching only a word from Brian as he spoke to Bran. A beat and then she looked up, face tear-streaked and dirty. She started to say something, else before looking to Bran. “Even if Christine won’t stop.” It didn’t matter, he already knew – tried to make her more crazy. At this point, she didn’t care if Brian or Lucas knew either – she was tired, hungry, and her head killed. “And I heard her before they hit me.”