The Girl He Forgot (Book 2)

Chapter 9 - Now We're Even

Come morning, there was little waking to be done because, you see, I hadn't managed to fall asleep in the first place. I'd tossed and turned in my bed, I'd changed sides, swapped ends but nothing had helped. I'd lain awake for most of the night, not for want of trying.

My thumbs must have completed a thousand circles around each other by the time the sky began to lighten.

I wasn't only worried for Carl, but for Glenn too, Maggie, Rick, everyone; they'd returned so late, much later than I think even Rick had estimated to Carl. I wasn't going out of my mind with it like Carl probably had been the night before, because I had the luxury of knowing that at least someone had returned to drive the RV home.

There was a few times I'd been on the verge of going over and just asking but it didn't seem right; if I needed to know something, or if anything awful had happened, someone would have knocked around and informed everyone...

but the not knowing and the hoping that everyone was ok was just enough to prevent sleep. I'd witnessed the light of the sun appear on the magnolia painted walls of my bedroom and, as it began to slowly creep down onto the carpet, I opted for a change of scenery.

I grabbed a blanket from the top of my wardrobe, shoved my bare feet into the pair of boots at the front door and left the house.

Alexandria was encrusted with a gleaming array of morning dew, the hedges, the grass, the porch railings, everything sparkled in the dawns light. I toddled onto the pavement, across the street and onto the veranda over hanging the pond. Half of Alexandria still belonged to the night – a vivid purple hue engulfed the houses in the west – the rest, bathed in the light of the morning sun. I watched as its rays claimed rooftop after rooftop, tree after tree, slowly chasing away the darkness.

It had been a while since I'd stayed awake for a sunrise... though I couldn't recall ever doing so on purpose. More often than not, my reasons for being awake during dawn involved either a rather uncomfortable tree, a loitering herd of walkers or my own relentless anxiety. This time, the cause was the latter, however, never before had it been in the name of others – never before had I lost an entire night's rest because I feared for another's life, another's well-being...

I sighed, my own breath visible on the crisp morning air. I wrapped my blanket tighter around my shoulders and wondered how being tired made a person colder... I bet there was some scientific answer behind it. Sadly, school never got around to educating me in this subject... I wondered if I'd ever come across a book one day that would explain it...

"Hey..." said a deep voice.

I'll admit, I jumped. The streets were completely empty at this time, the only ones awake stationed themselves at the gates on watch duty. To hear a voice so close and without warning was startling.

I spun round to see a rather sleepy looking Carl cautiously shuffling towards me across the veranda.

"Hey" I breathed, a little taken aback by the tousled state of the boy. He wore a thin cotton tee with several frayed holes in the sleeves and a pair of blue pyjama bottoms tucked into his hiking boots, the draw string tied loose around his hips. His hair fell in loose messy ringlets about his head, his bandage causing it to stick out at odd angles; he appeared to have just gotten out of bed. "What are you doing up so early?" I enquired, though it wasn't the question I really wanted to ask.

"Judith woke up," he explained, his voice still croaky and dry with sleep "saw you out here when I was putting her back down, wanted to come and ask you the same question?". He glanced over at me, awaiting an answer.

"Oh. I couldn't sleep" I replied, shortly, uninterested by my own situation and eager to know the outcome of the assault. "So... what happened?" I asked, nervously.