Ethereal Madness

Chapter 2- Big Sister Issa

The first thing I noticed upon waking up was how dark my surroundings were, to the point where I was genuinely confused where I was. And only when I moved my shoulders was I made aware that something was draped over my back. It felt warm and silky.

I sat up and what I assume was a blanket fell off my back to the floor. It was nearly impossible to see anything around me, though I did notice a dimly lit light to the corner of my eye. I turned to my left and saw Clarissa hyper-focused on the computer screen before her.

She stretched her arms up before slouching in her chair. She yawned and turned to me. I must've looked pretty disturbing in the dark because she quite literally froze.

"Umm..." I started nervously.

She took a deep breath. "Oh it's just you Arthur. I almost forgot you were in here. You gave me a heart attack."

I laughed nervously. "Yeah, you were pretty focused."

"So," she stood up, turned on the light, and walked over to me, "how do you feel?"

Good question. How do I feel? I feel surprisingly alive. Better than I've felt in probably over a month.

"Really good actually."

"So no more passing out?" She asked cautiously.

"No more passing out," I repeated back to her.

"In that case, let's go get something to eat."

The mere thought of food made my stomach rumble. Did I eat anything today?

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Hm, kind of in the mood for breakfast." She hummed.

"Breakfast? Isn't it a little late for that?"

"Late? How dare you. It's never too late for breakfast."

She grabbed my hand and started pulling me as she walked towards the exit. "Cmon, I'll show you the wonders of eating of an 8 pm pancake.

Ah, there she goes.

She led me out to the backroom to into the department part of the store. The darkness and eerie silence was unsettling enough, and the mannequins sure didn't help.

"Miia gone already?" I asked.

"Yup. Store closes at six so I saw her off awhile ago."

"Wait, if it closes at six, why were you still here?"

"Because you were sleeping of course."

"You could've just woken me up..." I muttered.

Outside, it was shocking nice it was. The night air was cool despite being late May and it was unnaturally peaceful when you consider we were practically in the middle of the city.

Clarissa quickly locked the doors to the building and we were on a journey to IHOP, because she refused to settle for inferior pancakes at the likes of Denny's or Waffle House. I guess I should use the world journey loosely, because in reality it was only about three buildings from her store.

The inside was dead as one would expect, and we were seated immediately. We sat across from each other in a booth.

"Someone will be right out." The tall man promised before walking away.

As soon as the man vanished from our sight, Clarissa rose her hands up and stretched as high as she could go. "Ahhh, it's good to finally be off."

"Was today stressful?" I asked.