Paresthesia Pt. 07

Noise, there is noise ringing in my ears that seems to come from ghouls. My throat is dry and clogged until I can no longer breathe. And even if I could, there is only the foul stench of my own rotted insides to greet me.

I slowly rouse myself from the tried quagmire of my slumber. I was asleep and that was nice. But I am awake that is terrible. There is a Hannah on me and that is nice. But she has somehow rolled halfway onto the floor, still snoozing, and that is terrible. Really, really funny, but still terrible. I can't even imagine the crick in her neck.

And my phone is going off. That is somehow the worst part, and I don't quite understand why. My phone goes off sometimes and that's fun. Someone apparition drags my corpse from the embedded repose to find the little doohickey and hit the green button that says I am here and alive.

I mumble some noise that hopefully the magic glass square picks up and carries.

"Hey, Evan," says what the glass thinks is Alessandra.

I am quiet for a moment while the words register. Then the person who says the word comes to mind. Then the two meet and confusion comes. And finally, something akin to a slight panic works its way through all the fog in my mind, making me sit upright. Hannah comes to lie on the floor. She is still mostly asleep.

"Alessandra, hey, what's up," I mumble, "Sorry, I was asleep."

"I figured. Sorry. Sorry. But I didn't know who else to call. Mama threw me out."

More concerned panic through the fog. It is slowly dragging me to a cousin of awake.

"Oh shit. Was it because of us? I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just kind of overwhelmed."

"Do you need us to come meet you? You can stay with us no problem. We'll put up a cot."

"No, no. I kind of don't want to see you guys right now. Just, do you know somewhere I can stay?"

"Ok. Ok. This will be a bit easier if you're in your kit, but just go up to a homeless guy."

"I don't trust that."

"It'll be fine. Ask him for a bottle of smoke. If they pull a shamrock pendant, they're with Sunday. That should get you to a safehouse."

"Alright. Alright. Thank you, Evan."

"Do you want to talk some more? This kind of seems like of a big deal."

"No. No. No. Not right now. I'm tired. I've been just kind of wandering for a bit. I don't know. I don't know. But thanks."

"Any time. If you don't feel comfortable with that, I can send you Doppel's number. He should be good for it if you don't want to stay here."

"I'll try the homeless guy way, but I'll let you know. Sorry to wake you up. I'll... I'll see you around."

"Yeah. Yeah. Call me if anything, and I mean anything comes up."

"Sure. Good night, Evan."

She hangs up before I can repeat the sentiment. I let a breath out and it shakes more than I am comfortable with. The snoring underneath me slows and stops. Confused mumblings come in replacement. Hannah is up now and she is completely disheveled. She is naked though. The mind fog notices that, because I have no control when things get serious. There are squinty tired eyes looking at me like I have any answers.

"Why am I on the floor," she murmurs, "Its cold down here."

"Alessandra just called. Her mom threw her out."

And just like with me, that bolts some sense of wakefulness through her.

I assure her that she does not need our place and that she will have a bed and food and all sorts of things. All the things that an Alessandra would need to get her through the night and the day after while she figures out what else could happen.

With half the work done of waking up, getting up, and getting out there, there is a moment where we look to the high windows and see if we can justify actually doing all of those things. We can't. The stars are out. It is dark. The little numbers on my phone say we shouldn't. There is a grand concession though. We move to the bed with all the blankets and covers. Once we're both buried under there in our soft little cocoon there will be no problems. Nothing can reach us under the covers. Nothing that can't wait a handful of hours.