I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 73: Night Watch

Alisha and I got in the bed together, changed back into those simple clothes. The bed, while disheveled from our earlier activities, was clean and smelled like hotel-cleaner. The sheets were soft as well and I got settled underneath them with Alisha pulling me closer, like a child would a teddy bear. We left the bathroom light on and the door to it cracked open so there was some form of night light.

She fell asleep quickly and I laid there for a little while. My hearing was back just enough I could tell the ambient noise of this place was different. My subconscious was a little on edge from this but I forced some box-breathing exercises and gradually got my brain to relax enough I slipped into sleep.

I was confused. Then I remembered I was asleep. My mind though, was currently in that office space we had been meeting up with Nico in. Alisha was there, next to me at the conference table.

I could smell death again, one of the few warnings I had that I should try and wake myself up, but I couldn’t move my body to shake out of it, or pinch or slap myself or anything like that. I sat like a statue there, only able to witness. The death-smell was so strong it was invading deeper than just my nose, right into my mouth leaving an unpleasant aftertaste there.

My stomach uneasily squelched.

Nico walked in, with Angela trailing behind him, her hand in his.

I didn’t want to know what my subconscious was processing– or I knew what it was processing– I didn’t want to know how it was processing, but I was still stuck here. No matter how hard I sent the signal to move into any muscle, I couldn’t do anything, even if the tension left pain behind.

Nico sat across from us, and Angela sat on his lap.

I managed to make my eyes look away.

She was not a living Angela. This was a dead one, and there was a blue-grayness to her skin I’d rather not have to look at.

There was a discussion between Nico and Alisha, but it was in a language I didn’t understand. And then Alisha stood and drew her pistol from her purse, but when she pulled the trigger, it was a weird mind-fuck where the gun somehow was pointing backward and forwards at the same time and the bullet fired toward her instead of Nico.

I saw her flinch back, and even some blood in my peripheral vision but I needed to get out of here. This place in my mind wasn’t productive. Glass shards started to float in the air, appearing from nowhere and while they were pretty and didn’t  move fast, as soon as one brushed against my skin, I saw the flesh part like it had been sawn right through. There was more blood, of course. So much blood everywhere, on everything.

I needed to take control again. My heart was racing with that familiar panic-soup feeling. I didn’t really have control of my body… No this was a dream, so my body wasn’t here anyway. I was in bed, asleep.

So how did I move? I couldn’t move.

There was another shard of glass that slid across my field of view, going right toward my eye. But this was a dream. So even as that shard approached, growing ever bigger in my field of view, it was not real.

But it still felt real, and as it approached there was a prickling feeling in my eye. When it made contact, the prickle turned to a twitching.

I woke up, reaching to cover my eye. It was fine, of course. Only a nightmare and an uncreative one at that. 

I breathed, and let my heart rate slow. Alisha was asleep still, peacefully snoozing next to me as my emotions processed. My subconscious was being a real dick today. I hadn’t needed the reminder of literally everything from the past few days. I was planning to unpack it from that box on my own time when I was alone and in the shower or something. 

Alisha really was so good at that. Her box didn’t seem to be leaking all over her sleep. So why…?

I got up, feeling shaky still, and stumbled over to the bathroom to run the cold water over my hands. It was icy from the hotel faucet, and felt so nice against my sweaty skin. I washed my face to help clear away more of that greasy feeling. There were dark circles under my eyes when I looked in the mirror after. A sigh escaped me. My brain was awake now even if my body felt like it needed to pass out for a few days. 

I went back to the bed area and propped the pillows up to sit with my back against the headboard. I twiddled my thumbs a little. There wasn’t even an electronic device for me to fiddle with to pass the time. And I didn’t want to wake Alisha by turning on the TV.

Then again, she shifted next to me, frowning in her sleep. She might end up awake on her own as it was.

For a while, I simply sat there, letting the time pass as I tried to master my mental state. There were a lot of random skittering thoughts still, like rats running amok in my mind pantry, chewing bags of feelings open and letting the mess spill out. But I was keeping it together pretty well for someone who almost died yesterday.

I anxiously pulled at the bandage on my hand and let it come undone, examining the stitching in the dim light. It still looked like stitching and with a gentle caress along the ridges, I determined it both still hurt quite badly when prodded and was holding together. I rewrapped it again, doing  so as neatly as I could physically manage. 

Alisha started to roll over next to me, and I saw the furrow in her brow was deeper now.

I debated waking her now, but she needed sleep even more than I did.

But then again, I didn’t want her to have to suffer. I also knew better than to touch her directly though and slowly slid myself off the other side of the bed and took one of the pillows. 

I stepped to the other side of the room. She was moving again and I didn’t realize how bad it was until I turned around, ready to toss my pillow and saw she was actively rolling off the bed. She landed with a loud thud and a gasp.

I hurried to see if she was okay, if she hit her head on the nightstand on the way down or on the floor or–

I froze solid.

Her gun was in her hands, and she was pointing it at me. 

“Alisha?” I said softly. I wasn’t sure how awake she was but she finally put the gun down and rested her head against the side of the mattress with a defeated expression. I didn’t even know she had the gun with her in the bed. That was concerning. What if it went off? She had it in a leather sleeve at least, I suspected to avoid exactly that from happening. But still.

I approached with caution, and tossed the pillow back onto the bed before kneeling next to her.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “Just tired.” There were definitely bags under her eyes and that apathy she sometimes replaced her feelings with was back. I started to take the gun from her but her grip on it tightened and she pulled it away a little.

“Are you stressed?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I just feel unsafe,” she explained. “Here.”

I realized she probably hadn’t slept outside of her house in years, and if she had it would’ve been with Tye or someone keeping an eye on her. It probably didn’t help that she had foul memories in hotel rooms.

“I’ll keep watch, if you want,” I told her.

“You need sleep, too,” she protested. She shifted to sit up a bit and felt at her arm where it had hit the floor. 

“To be honest, I’m pretty awake,” I reassured her. “And if you want, you can keep watch while I sleep later, okay?” We would both lose sleep but at least we would get some, and we’d be safe. It was a little naive that I thought we shouldn’t keep watch. Tye would be disappointed. He had essentially told me to guard her with my life and so far she’d just been fretting over me, not the other way around.

I helped her unravel herself from the floor. She winced a little as she did so, evidently she fell pretty hard. I wondered if her habit of tossing and turning had anything to do with the oversized nature of her bed at home. Her bed felt even bigger than a king, though I’d never slept on a king size bed before, I didn’t think. If her tossing and turning had been worse before I started staying with her, I could only imagine how many times she could’ve fallen like that.

She got back in bed, and I gently took the gun from her, setting it on the nightstand, like mine was.

“Just relax, okay? I’ll watch the doors and windows.” We were on an upper level and there was no balcony so I didn’t imagine anyone would be coming in through them, but still. I’d do anything to help her get more comfortable.

I sat on my side of the bed and eyed the television a bit.

“Do you mind if I turn on the TV?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Be comfy,” she told me. She scooched closer as I picked up the remote and turned the volume down as low as I could still vaguely hear it, and turned on the subtitles. 

I then pulled her a little closer so her head was resting against my thigh as she started to drift into sleep again. 

I stayed awake, even after my brain started to complain about being tired, but Alisha needed the rest and I’d get my turn soon enough.

Nobody disturbed us, predictably but I still froze every time there were noises out in the hallway. I hoped no one had heard me earlier when Alisha was between my legs.