No More Anything

Chapter Six: The Community

Lucille shut her door and found herself unable to stop smiling. God, Blake is so cute, which is completely out-of-character for her to think. She's never felt this way about anyone before. She's had small crushes on a couple of guys in her life, but not many at all. He seemed to feel the same way she did as well, unless it was all just wishful thinking. He seemed super into their conversations, he laughed at all her jokes, and she swears he looked at her lips a little while ago. Having not experienced that before, Lucille's only read about the whole "looking at someone's lips when you're thinking about kissing them" thing in books. The weirdest part about all that, is that she was kind of sort of thinking about the same thing. God, they're exactly alike! Lucille had never had many friends in her life, and she's definitely never dated anyone before, but for once, she felt very hopeful of this new friendship. Her heart racing, she plopped down on her bed, still smiling to herself as she slowly went to sleep.

***

The sloppy, wet crunch was all she could hear. Well, that and her own sobbing, of course. As her father lay in the floor with the axe buried in his head, Lucille felt helpless as she watched herself rip the blade from his skull and prepare to do the same to her mother. Sliding the door shut, her mom burst through the glass, falling to the kitchen floor at the impact. Lucille raised the axe with weak, shaky arms, and brought it down into the back of her mother's head, causing it to crack open. Restarting all over again, she found herself back at the beginning of it all: upstairs, breaking the display case that held the fireman's axe, preparing to attempt to save her parents, to no avail. She ran back downstairs and was greeted with the gut-wrenching sight of her father tearing her mother's flesh off, shoving chunk after chunk into his mouth. She called out to her mom, but then—

Lucille had jolted herself awake, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. Lying on her back, she sat up and looked around her room, isolated in darkness. The only light source was the tiny glow of the lights in the mall creeping in from underneath the door. She could barely make out the shapes of the furniture in her room, but thinking about her dinner date from a few hours ago was really helping to calm her down. She was very tempted to go knock on his door and ask to stay in his room with him, as if he'd protect her from the memories of what she was forced to do. 

Wiping teardrops, or sweat drops, from her face, she got out of bed and walked to the door of her room. Her hand reached out, but stopped as she touched the handle. What on earth was she doing? She knew how tired Blake looked, so she wouldn't dare do anything that would keep him from getting as much sleep as he could...until she heard a thud so loud, it made her nearly jump out of her skin. Coming from the wall attached to his room, she wondered if he was awake, before wondering what time it even was. There wasn't a clock in her room, nor were there any windows, so she could've slept until four in the afternoon, and she'd never have known. 

Her curiosity, and worry for her new friend, got the best of her as she slowly opened her door, letting the light from the mall fill her room, nearly blinding her. With squinted eyes, she took the three steps it took to get to his door and knocked gently. The instant she did so, she heard a very muffled "OH FUCK" from behind the door. A few seconds later, a very sleepy Blake opened the door, his hair a complete mess, still wearing the black shirt and jeans she had seen him wearing the night before. He looked at her and sleepily smiled, saying with a very croaky voice "hey, Lucille. What's going on?"

She couldn't help but smile at the sight of him, as well as the sound of his voice. He was adorable all sleepy like. "You tell me. I heard a big ass noise come from your room and wondered if you were—"

She stopped talking as he held up his hand. "I was going to the bathroom and I tripped over something and... sort of hit the bookshelf on the way down." He started blushing as he talked. "And I nearly shit myself when you knocked on the door, so thanks for that."