Scars Bleed Gold

Night On The Town

"Nick."

"Niiiiiick."

"Nicolas. Wait, that's what it stands for, right?"

"Nick, wake up."

"Nick, come on already. Wake up."

"Are you really this heavy of a sleeper?"

I can barely even understand what whoever is saying, I felt so groggy. My eyelids cracked open, feeling like they were being weighed down by anvils. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, immediately noticing a severe crick in my neck. I twisted my neck with both hands almost like I was going to snap it until I heard a satisfying pop, and my neck felt better instantly. I pulled the blanket off of me and stood up, only to see a skull staring at me two feet away from me. I jumped a foot in the air, then realized it was just Mal.

"Christ! You made me jump."

"About time you got up! It's eleven in the morning! I was about to get a glass of water and pour it on you, but I decided to be nice!"

"Hey, I like to sleep in on the weekends, is that such a bad thing? Besides, your fur was really warm, it made me sleep like a baby." I looked around and noticed the couch back in its usual place. "How did the couch get here?"

Mal laughed and flexed a bicep. "I'm stronger than I look."

I snickered and grabbed the blanket, putting it back on my bed and heading into the kitchen to make lunch. As I was searching through the cupboards Mal yelled from the hallway.

"Will you mind if I take a shower?! I smell like armpit!"

I stopped what I was doing and thought about it. On one hand, she probably hasn't showered for a decent amount of time, but on the other hand her whole body is covered in fur, that could clog my drain pretty badly. I probably don't even have the right soap for her. Would shampoo work? She'd probably need half the bottle for one wash. Eh...

"Yeah, go ahead!" I noticed half of a loaf of bread next to a jar of peanut butter in the cupboard. "I'll have lunch ready when you get out!"

"Thanks!"

Two sandwiches were made with one halfway in my stomach before I slowed down enough to ponder a bit.

Mal. She seems pretty nice on the surface, even kind of timid at times, but she definitely has a fierce side. The way she lunged at me when I woke her up, making a lighthearted joke about tossing someone's possibly dead body into a dumpster, and the fact of where she came from. She's running from some big government, and she claims that they locked her up for existing. What if that wasn't true? What if they had a good reason? The other things she talked about that were imprisoned in the Foundation, a zombie-creating plague doctor and a statue that snaps your neck. What if they only did it because she was dangerous like them?

Then again, when she lunged at me, it seemed more like a defense mechanism, and she was only in the living room because she didn't want to be alone. She seemed so torn up about attacking me too. The guy in the library was a thief and an asshole, he probably would have done something to Mal and she probably knew it, thus the comment. She's not dangerous, she's not malicious, she's just a wolf girl that will defend herself if need be.

Scarfing down the last of the sandwich, I dusted my shirt of any crumbs just as I heard the shower turn off.

Right, there's an inhuman creature in my bathroom that just finished making herself prim and proper, possibly for the first time in years. If it were me in her shoes I wouldn't want to just sit around some kid's house the first time I get a taste of freedom. There probably isn't much Mal could do in public since people would panic 'seeing' an invisible person, Zoey proved that. But if she were covered with say, a spare hoodie, as long as she keeps her head down and hood up while other people are around, she should be fine.