The Girl He Forgot (Book 2)

Chapter 10 - Don't Leave Me

The first time I awoke the next morning was brief; there was movement behind me and the sudden absence of Carl's body against my back.

"I'm gunna take a shower, I'll be back soon" he'd whispered softly in my ear. I vaguely remember smiling and replying with some sort of nonsense, half awake but mostly asleep response. I remember the feel of his lips on my forehead and the breath he took while he placed a kiss there.

I remember the sound of the stairs creaking as he made his way to the bathroom. I remember the sound of the shower running and then nothing - I'd nodded off again...

The second time I awoke was, again, brief. The sound of a door slamming violently caused me to stir and I wondered, momentarily, whether it had been merely a part of a dream or not...

After that came a very long and lonely silence which I was not conscious for...

The third time I awoke ended up being the final time that day. Morning light peered through the living room windows as I lay sprawled out across a rather empty couch.

It took a few moments to register that Carl wasn't here. I squinted; my eyes stung with sleep and tiredness. I glanced around quickly. Sometime during the night Carl must have grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and lay it over us. I hugged it into my naked frame now as I began picking my clothes off the floor. As I redressed, I realised it was pointless – I desperately needed a shower...

I also realised that Carl's clothes were no were to be seen. Wherever he was, he must be wearing them?

"Carl?" I called out. There was no reply, just a faint echo of my own voice reverberating off the walls. I frowned.

I wandered around the house, peering into each room as I went, hoping to see Carl, to hear his voice answer each time I called his name.

But there was nothing...

As downhearted as each empty room had caused me to feel, I tried to remind myself that this had happened before; Carl had left without saying goodbye after he'd spent the night and he'd merely gone to get breakfast. Perhaps that's where he was now – in the pantry trying to talk Olivia into allowing him extra rations; it had just been restocked after all...

Yes, that's what he was doing – he was getting breakfast.

I swallowed down my worry and stepped into the shower. Thoughts of last night infiltrated my mind as I scrubbed my stomach... for the first time in a long, long while I'd been truly happy, completely content and absolutely carefree; well, as carefree as one could feel during a zombie apocalypse...

I stepped out of the shower. I listened into the silence, though for what I wasn't sure; for the front door opening, for the clinking of pots and pans as he made breakfast, for the sound of footsteps up the stairs.

But still there was nothing.

"Carl?" I called out again, with a towel around my damp skin as I stopped at the top of the stairs.

Nothing.

I swallowed and shuffled into my bedroom. I quickly changed and toddled downstairs into the kitchen.

I waited at the breakfast bar.

I cleaned the cooker and the sink in case whatever Carl brought back needed cooking or heating up.

I went back to the breakfast bar.

My fingers tapped out a nonsense rhythm on the counter as I waited.

I tidied and reorganised the cupboards, in case Carl couldn't find what he needed to make breakfast with.

I returned, for the final time, to the breakfast bar until I could wait no longer; I plunged my feet into my boots and left the house in search of him.