A Pack of Misfits

Chapter Six - The Face in the Mirror

The first sense that came online, so to speak, was my hearing.

Gentle sounds filtered into my head, and my bleary mind tried to decode them. I could hear...I could hear birds. Birds were chirruping and singing...but not nearby. Not too far, but their voices were muffled...outside? Yes. They had to be outside of wherever I was.

Next sense that came too was my sense of touch. My fingers twitched, and I could feel that my muscles were sore. Well. Sore was an understatement, they felt like a mountain had taken the time to drop every last inch of itself onto each individual centimetre of my body. Beneath my fingers, beneath my back and legs, I could feel something soft, and as I gently moved my arms, I could feel the softness go from cosy and warm to crisp and cool. On top of me I felt a gentle weight – a blanket, I could tell.

Was this...heaven? Or some sort of afterlife, at least?

Did I really die last night?

I groaned, and then realised I could identify smells again. My head was pounding something awful, as if I was the one who had just experienced the lunar induced heat. I breathed deeply, inhaling the scents of all that was around me.

No. This was not heaven, I realised in surprise. Why was I surprised?

The familiar smell of wood, my pillow, my bed, my clothes...

I opened my eyes a crack, and light immediately tried to infiltrate my brain. I hissed and shut them again, before taking a moment, and trying again.

This time, the light carried the familiar image of my room, the same as the last time I had seen it, down to the last detail.

Huh. I gently pushed myself into a sitting position in my bed. I must have found my way to my bed last night, after the eclipse had passed. I tenderly touched a hand to my head, cradling it as the thudding of my headache became more intense with each movement.

That did not sound right; that I had come to bed after the eclipse had passed. I couldn't remember walking into my room. I couldn't remember changing my clothes. I couldn't even remember going to sleep.

I couldn't remember anything from last night.

I thought, long and hard. Why had I just thought that I had gone to heaven? What had happened last night, for me to wake up feeling like this – like I had just died? What the hell was it that I was not remembering? I tried and tried, but my mind could only draw a blank. I could remember nothing except...stars? But hadn't it been raining last night?

My racing thoughts only succeeded in making my headache worse, as I leaned over forward and groaned in pain.

My stomach chose that moment to tell my throat that I had ten seconds, starting now.

Leaping out of my bed and regretting it immediately, I held my head tightly as I ran out of my room best I could, hobbling my way across the hall and into the bathroom.

The moment I fell to my knees before the toilet, everything came out.

I sat there, retching and coughing like a sick cat, until all I could muster was a choked sob as my body shook. I felt terrible, honestly terrible. What on earth had I done last night? I thought we were just going to make sure no harm came to the three girls going into heat, not get drunk on pure ethanol and go rolling down a mountainside. My body certainly felt like the latter.

I wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of my hand and pushed myself up from the toilet seat. Best brush my teeth now, I decided.

It was then that I noticed the hands performing the actions my brain processed. Something wasn't right.