Does It Matter

31

  Zhang Qiling awoke feeling less refreshed than he had hoped, but still better than the day before, despite the fog clouding his mind.
He knew that he should get up, and judging by the position of the sunlight filtering through the window, it was well past sunrise.         The fact somewhat startled the willful insomniac, as he could not remember the last time he had slept past the sunrise, (but then again he tended to forget years of his life at random so not too surprising.).
Though despite knowing that he should be awake, and surveying their surroundings by this time, he could hardly bring himself to leave the warm cocoon of blankets he had created for himself, his bone deep weariness had been satiated, and yet his body wholeheartedly rejected his attempts to get out of the bed. Eventually he opted to stay for a bit, and instead occupied his self with looking around his current quarters.
 
The aforementioned window was positioned on the left side of the wall opposite the door, with a small table placed right below it's ledge. There were two beds on the right side of the room from the door, parallel to each other with about five feet in between. Aside from these there was not much else to note in the relatively bare room, and so, with nothing else to study, Qiling turned on his side, and saw that his companion had also fallen prey to the comfortable trap of a warm blanket, completely curled into himself with only his eyes and hair visible outside of the comforter.

So they had both slept in, which was not completely unthinkable considering the events of the past few days, however it still felt wrong somehow.

"Wu Xie." He called, in a half-hearted attempt to wake the other, as he knew that they needed to move on from this place today.

"No." Was the grumbled reply from the other bed, muffled by the blanket over his face.

Qiling resisted the urge to sigh as he forced himself out of bed and onto the cold floor, pulling on his boots.  When he had finished he looked back to the other bed where his companion had still not moved other than to further bury his head.

  "Wu Xie." He insisted.

There was only muffled grumbling for response, and Qiling minutely considered getting a bucket of water from the hostess.

"It is time to go."

Wu Xie groaned in annoyance and pulled the blanket from his face to glare, his hair flopping into his eyes as he did. "We have to wait to get fuel before we can leave, and I want to sleep, so no." He stated and flopped back down on the bed defiantly.

Qiling really wanted to laugh at his disheveled friend, but decided against any more out of his usual happenings for one day. His options now were as follows, one: he could go get that bucket of water, two: he could physically drag the younger out of the bed, or three: he could take the stupid car to the fuel stop himself, and hope that there was enough gas to make it there without breaking down.
With a sigh he made a decision, and begrudgingly dug through the pockets of Wu Xie's cast aside jacket until he found the keys, before walking out the door, careful to lock it behind him.

_______________________________________________

When Wu Xie finally woke on his own, it was past noon, and the sun had found an angle to perfectly beam straight into his face.
He still felt exhausted, and the fog cast over his head did not help at all, but he forced himself up anyway, growling and grumbling the whole time. He picked up his phone with clammy hands to check the time.
  "What the fuck." He muttered as he blearily looked at the number boldly displayed across the screen.

12:52

How had he slept in so long? He glanced quickly around the room as he untangled himself from the bedding, almost falling over as he made contact with the ice cold floor. "Xiaoge?" He questioned uselessly, as he noted the absence of said person.
"What the fuck?" He muttered to himself as he ruffled his bed head, bending down to grab his shoes. "Where could he have gone this time? It's not like there's much to see in this town, and he'll stick out like a sore thumb in that emo attire of his." While he was thinking out loud to himself he had finished dressing and grabbed his jacket, pulling it on and shoving his hands in the pockets to ward off the chill in the room, before he froze.
His left pocket should not be empty, he noted as he hurriedly checked his other pockets, making sure that everything was accounted for, before realizing that the only thing missing was the key to the car. Fuck.

Qiling wouldn't have run off with the car, if that was his plan he would have done it before now. So where is he, and where is the key?

  He bolted out the door, and narrowly avoided tumbling down the stairs in his haste.
He mad it to the first floor just in time to see their host step out of a door in the back. She looked up with a surprised face for a split second, before putting on a warm smile.

"Ah so you're up!"

Wu Xie forced himself to calm down and not overwhelm the woman, no matter how suspicious he found her. "Good afternoon ma'am, have you seen my friend at all today?"

The woman smiled again, "why yes, as a matter of fact, I saw him this morning, he seemed in a rather bad mood, he left without stopping for breakfast. "

Wu Xie frowned. Upset? Over what? He vaguely recalled the olders attempts to wake him earlier in the morning. Was he upset that I didn't get up when he asked? No, that would be ridiculous. At least I know that he didn't get dragged out. He remembered the missing key, and decided to leave the other issues for later.

"I see,  I apologize if he seemed rude at all, he's a little bit moody."

"Oh no, not at all, you don't need to apologize for him." She smiled and led him to a table with a hand on his arm.

"Come, let me get you something to eat, we have fresh duck eggs this morning... Well, afternoon."

Wu Xie followed her lead a little distractedly. "Ma'am," he called as she was about to walk away, presumably to the kitchen. "Has there been anyone else up to our room, this morning or last night?" He asked, brow furrowed as he attempted to think past the cloud that still has not left his head.

The woman looked offended at the question. "No, of course not."

"Are you sure?" Wu Xie insisted. The old woman sighed.

"Young man, there are only two key copy's for each room, one for the guest, and one for me in case of emergencies, so it is simply not possible for someone else to have entered your room. We may not have cameras so show you, but I can guarantee that you and your... friend, are the only ones to have entered that room." And without waiting for a response she hobbled away to continue her mission.

Wu Xie sighed and placed his head in his hands, elbows on the table.
I can't think straight..... Ughhhh. He groaned in his mind, trying to get his thoughts on track, he knew that he had to put some pieces together to complete a picture, and considering how it was a small puzzle to begin with, it should have been simple to answer, however the fog had slowly turned into a pounding headache and it seemed nearly impossible for him to figure it out.
Qiling...left, he should be fine, he always leaves early anyway..... Probably just getting his bearings. The key is missing, I don't have our room key either, so I can't leave to find him unless I take all of our stuff with me.....we don't have much anyway...should be fine, I'll leave after I eat...we need to leave anyway....but we can't leave without the car key....

A loud "clank" startled him into lifting his head, just in time to see a bowl set down in front of him, the host had set it down and was now offering him utensils, asking if he would prefer, which he accepted, but his attention was drawn to her hands as he did.
This woman should be fairly aged, given her hobbling steps and worn and weathered face, however, the more he looked, the more he could not deny that this woman's hands were soft, and had far too youthful skin to match her face.
"Please enjoy." She stated with another of her endless smiles, and turned to walk away.
Wu Xie could not help but to study her more than he had previously bothered to as she walked, and suddenly it seemed to him as though everything was wrong.

"Where are the other travelers?" He asked, forcing his tone to sound neutral, a casual inquiry.

She paused. " Ah, they left this morning, you youngsters never stay in one place for too long, always running about as if the great demon were on your tail." She grumbled and continued away.

Left? It's plausible I suppose. But even still, something's off.

He took another bite of his food, absently noting the taste to be a little different from his usual choices, but not bad.

He was halfway through his breakfast when he began to feel dizzy, and even the throbbing headache disappeared in the renewed fog that encompassed his being, so much so that he had to lean heavily on the table to stay upright.
   So tired... He thought as his eyes became too heavy to keep open any longer.

As his head finally dropped on the table, a realization shot through, and suddenly his earlier exhaustion made sense as well. Fuck. She drugged it.