If there was one thing that Jason Carew hated more than anything else in life it was the feeling of not being in control. For all of his life he had strived to achieve some semblance of control in his life and he wasn’t going to stop now. Everything had its own routine and everything had a time and place. Of course, variables were inevitable but he had planned for those down to a letter. Or, at the very least, he tried. It was important for him to regain that sort of balance within his life because he never wanted to go back to a time when he didn’t have control over his own life. His childhood had been a sharp reminder of what could happen when he wasn’t completely in control and, lately, he had felt like he had been spinning out of control.

Sometimes, that feeling of spinning out of control was necessary. Although, he was unsure if he could qualify the sudden changes in his life necessary, at least not the ones that came with the fact that he was supposedly sharing a body with some other human, some other person, who was just as smart, if not smarter than he was. It was a bit disconcerting because he knew he couldn’t always have control in those weeks, or, at the very least, he wouldn’t always remember if he had control. That was a bit of a red flag, for certain.

Yet, there was something else that he had never planned for, nor anticipated. That was the feeling of dread he felt when text messages and phone calls went unreturned. It wasn’t like her to not even send anything back, especially after a full day of waiting. He was starting to feel desperate and he didn’t like, not one bit. The last time that he had felt that way about someone... It had been a long time ago. It had been so terribly long that he didn’t even remember the right emotion that he was going for and instead he just allowed himself to panic, even though he knew that wasn’t going to solve anything.

The thought had been to check on her while she was at work but he didn’t want to come across as desperate. If there was nothing wrong and she was simply busy or something along those lines he could potentially ruin something before it began and that was not the intention that he was going for. So, in his mind, he did the next best thing, which was to reach out to her best friend, their shared friend, and the panic that he was met with worried him even more.

He was instructed where the key would be and he got there as quickly as he could, canceling whatever appointments he had for the rest of the day. Panic was an emotion that was not met lightly with him, even if it was a first emotion, he still took it very seriously, especially considering who the source was in that situation. He had seen a lot before in his day, while practicing and also while going through school, so he was certain that he could handle whatever situation was going on inside of her place. That was all different, though, because he had a very clinical approach to any other situation. Now, there were some kind of feelings involved, whatever they were, lingering deep beneath the surface that he didn’t dare let bubble up.

The key was exactly where he was promised it would be and when he entered he went straight for her bedroom and she was there, sleeping, just as it had been said she would. He tried to nudge her awake, gently sitting down on the bed and putting both hands on her. Her body was still warm, her lips still had a pink color and she was breathing, which was a good sign. Not that he was expecting her to be dead, he wasn’t, but he wasn’t quite sure and he had mentally prepped himself for the worst.

He leaned down to kiss her lips, almost as though he was some Prince Fucking Charming in some Disney movie who would wake the princess from her slumber. It was so cheesy, cheesy enough that he wanted to truly hate himself for it, but he was willing to give it some sort of try. Not even that seemed to stir her in the slightest. He had thought to perhaps get a doctor in there, he didn’t want to dare move her, but perhaps he could have a colleague solve the puzzle that was this situation.

He sat with her for hours, hoping she would wake from her slumber but it never was to be. Perhaps he needed to do some kind of research to figure out what the problem might be. He had plenty of medical journals and articles had his disposal at his home. Even though he didn’t want to leave her side, for fear of the worst happening, and god forbid she find out about that, he gathered his belongings and sent her a text message while he was still watching her. Please text me when you wake up. I’ve been concerned.

Little did he know that whatever was ailing her would strike him soon...