The Cost of Knowing

Alex sees himself and Isaiah listening to music in Alex’s bedroom and realizes that he’s lucid dreaming. He hugs Isaiah tight and tells him that he loves him. Alex wakes up in a hospital bed with Aunt Mackie asleep in a chair beside him. Through tears, he asks a nurse if Isaiah is dead, but she gently tells him that she should wait to discuss that when his aunt is awake. Alex considers the irony of the implication that he isn’t mature enough to take the news considering all he’s been through. Talia comes to visit him, and he allows himself to sob into her shoulder and hold her close. She apologizes for getting mad at Alex and leaving him at the concert, and he apologizes for not being honest with her about his visions, his emotions, and Shaun’s death. He promises to be open with her from now on and asks her to tell him if she ever sees him lapsing into his self-isolating habits.

Aunt Mackie wakes up, and Talia leaves so that she can talk to her nephew. Alex expects his aunt to be furious with him and hold him partially responsible for his brother’s death because he took Isaiah to the concert, but her expression holds only exhaustion and sorrow, not anger.