Maybe it was just his imagination, but Joshua could swear this headache was worse than any he''d had before.
Even now, fully awake, the pain throbbed relentlessly.
He reached up, almost without thinking, and his fingers brushed against a bandage wrapped around his head.
In that instant, memories came flooding back-rushing in like a tidal wave.
Joshua''s mind cleared, and it all returned to him.
That stubborn illness, passed down through the Gardner family like some ancient curse etched into their very bones.
When the episodes hit, he''d lose all sense of himself. Had no idea what he was doing.
But once the haze lifted, the memories always returned. Every single thing he''d done.
Some in his family, in those lost moments, had killed the people they cared about most.
And when the reality hit them-when the memories snapped back into ce-it drove them past the brink. They''d lose their mindspletely, never to return.
Others, fearing that madness, had ended their own lives before it could im them.
It seemed every head of the Gardner family was doomed to this fate.
The brighter, sharper the mind, the more likely it was to break. There were no exceptions.
Joshua''s features hardened. Instinctively, he scanned the room.
He noticed the rain outside had stopped, though he wasn''t sure when.
Sunlight streamed through the window, falling across the peaceful face beside him, bathing her in a gentle glow that made her beauty almost ethereal.
She was propped at the bedside, elbow on the mattress, head cradled in her hand. Her eyes were closed, her head nodding as she drifted in and out of sleep. Except, Joshua realized, she wasn''t just nodding off-she was fast asleep.
His gaze lingered, and he couldn''t help but notice the dark circles under her eyes and the exhaustion etched into her brow.
Clearly, she hadn''t rested well.
Joshua watched her quietly, the sleeping woman at his side, unable to look away.
He wasn''t sure how much time passed before Ste''s arm, locked in that position for so long, finally faltered.
Joshua instinctively reached out to catch her, but before he could, Ste''s eyes fluttered open and she snapped awake.
Their eyes met, and for a moment, both were caught off guard.
130
Ste was the first to recover. She picked up themp on the table a gentle voice asked Josh feeling any better?" Confent
you
belongs to s
are
Joshua caught the movement and couldn''t help but touch the bandage on his own
head, his mouth twitching with wry amusement.
If he so much as looked at her the wrong way or gave an odd answer, he was
pretty sure thatmp woulde crashing down on him.
"I''m feeling better, Star... You can put themp down now."
Ste studied his expression.
Whether it was from her blow or just the lingering pain, his face was still pale, but his eyes were clear-no longer distant and unfocused like they''d been yesterday s
She set themp within easy reach, just in case.
"Joshua, what''s really going on with your headaches?"
He lowered his gaze, longshes hiding whatever emotion flickered in his eyes.
"Probably just years of insomnia. Makes me irritable, on edge."
Ste had heard stories like this-people who, after months of being kept awake by noisy
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neighbors, finally snapped vel ret
She knew all too well howck of sleep could wear a person down.
She asked, "Isn''t there any way to treat it?"
Joshua hesitated. "There was, once. But now... it seems there''s nothing left." Ste frowned. This couldn''t go on forever.
She''d studied medicine for a few years under Dr. Burton; she understood a bit about these things.
She pressed gently, "Do you remember how it felt when the episodes started?" Joshua nodded. "Restless. Short-tempered. Like something wild was wing at me from the inside, just begging to break free."
Ste''s voice was soft but persistent, "You said there used to be a treatment. What was it?"