The Cinders of Dezu

14th: Falling (2)

The blanket on his face? He wasn't in the cold water anymore. It all started to come back to him. After the bath in the lake they had come back to the safe house. It was a two bedroom cabin and Talia had gone to one room while the two of them had gone to sleep in the other. Julian had worn his underwear to bed but he couldn't stand sleeping with clothes on.

He always had this issue when sleeping over someone's house. His remedy was to simply take his clothes off under the covers and slide them to the side. Then, when he needed them to get up for a bathroom break or just to get up in the morning, he would slip them on under the covers and no one would be the wiser.

Is that why it felt so drafty, he thought? Was he missing covers? Why was his nose bumping up against something? Something hard? He pulled the covers off of his face and saw wooden slats in the dark. Was this the headboard? No... the dream had really messed with his sense of orientation. Was he laying on the wooden floor? No. He wasn't really laying on anything. Had he fallen out of bed?

He put his hands on the wooden surface and lifted himself up. This didn't make sense. Was this just confusion from coming out of sleep? That's when his blanket fell off. But not towards the wooden floor he was pushing against. The blanket slid from his chest and fell behind him, back onto his bed. His bed... on the floor. Wait. He turned himself around. Below him, his friend slept soundly on the bed next to his own. Julian wasn't laying on the floor. He was laying on the ceiling.

He started to scream and then stopped himself. He wasn't exactly presentable. Cairo had his eyes closed with his head turned to the side, slacked jawed and lightly snoring. Julian had often considered that his tendency to sleep in the buff could cause him some problems in an emergency situation like a fire or an intruder. But as he laid on the ceiling, naked as he'd come into the world, he realized this had certainly never been on his lists of reasons why it could be problematic.

He started to reach towards the blanket, which was now in a bundle on top of his bed. He kept reaching until he found himself standing... Standing upside down on the ceiling.

"What on Gods green Earth..." he said under his breath.

He thought he must still be dreaming. He had to be. Until he remembered his freezing friend the day before and the whole manifestation thing Talia and the book had talked about. This must be his new thing... whatever it was.

Their beds didn't have much of a base to them so they weren't very high off the ground. This meant, for Julian, his bed was farther from his reach. The blanket had fallen in a pile though, so he thought maybe he could reach it. He stood on his tip toes and stretched out as far as he could. Almost there, but not quite. A quick little hop meant he was able to touch his middle finger to it. He took a breath and leapt just a bit higher. He was nearly able to pinch an edge of it now. The ceiling creaked under his weight with each successive hop. The loudest one made him stop and look over again at Cairo. He stirred a bit. His eyes were still closed, though. Still asleep. One more hop and... Finally!

He grabbed hold of the bed cover and snatched it up. He slinked the rest of it carefully up to him and wrapped it awkwardly around his waste. He used his hands to hold it down... or up... the lower half of his body. It did not work well for discretion. He fought with it a moment before feeling the blanket drape around him. It fell towards the ceiling, dropping to his feet and covering his body. What was this? He looked up again and saw his underwear laying halfway off the side of his bed.

"Okay, here we go," he whispered

First leap. No go. Second leap. No go. He stuck his tongue between his teeth and took a breath. Third leap. He swiped his arm back and forth at the peak of his jump. He must have been an inch from it. He didn't notice, but this time the house shook a bit as he landed. He leapt once more and touched it. It was just enough to make it slide off the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

Julian decided it was time to scream in frustration. He grabbed part of the blanket and bunched it up over his mouth to let it out. Cairo didn't move. He took a deep breath and thought for a moment. Then it hit him. He unwrapped the blanket and let it fall to the ceiling. Weird. He looked up and down for a moment still trying to figure out how this worked. Then he knelt down and bunched it up under his feet. It didn't give him too much more hight but it was better than nothing.

He crouched this time before springing himself up as hard as he could. Not quite. He tried again. His legs were spread and his whole body was flaying wildly to get more air. His hand caught the edge of his bed.