The Far Away Bear (mxm)

Chapter 18: Family

Jaden:

My fingers felt the sensation before my mind fully registered what it was, and I flung myself up from the rug on the floor I'd fallen asleep on when I'd drank too much last night.

It was a dark brown rug, shaggy looking, and through my deeply misguided confusion, I wondered if it was a bear pelt.

Blinking down at the rug, I stared with a mix of awe and disgust at the thought of it, considering why the Slueth would have the skinned pelt of a fellow bear as a decorative rug in a guest room at the lodge.

It almost made me throw up, and my hand clapsed over my mouth.

Might be the hangover, though, honestly.

Patting myself down, I made a quick judgement of my condition. Somehow, I had taken all of this pretty well, all things considering. I only got shitface drunk to help me cope a little, but i wasn't screaming and running for the hills.

My shoes were settled at the doorway neatly along with a set of clean clothes that had been placed over a chair arm beside it, hanging down. Something I don't remember doing, I'm not exactly a clean, 'fold your clothes before bed' kind of drunk guy.

At least I'm pretty sure I'd never done that before.

The cool white sheets of the wooden framed four poster bed beside me had been slept in, but I guess at one point I'd fallen out of it and had landed here on the rug instead.

My head thumped angrily at me for all of the abuse it had gone through, and I sat down on the edge of the bed to try to think.
Glancing around, there was a window. But I couldn't tell you the point of it. The view was nothing but the darkness of the cave going off into oblivion with the occasional orange light in the distance to signify life of some sort.

It would be easy to lose track of the days in this forever dark.

Easy to go mad.

Had I gone mad?

Part of me was wondering how any of this was real. None of it felt possible.

Maybe I was still in the hospital.

Maybe I never woke up.

Maybe it was even further back than that, when I first fell from the tree and split my head open at the base.

When I was chased by a bear.

"Jaden?"

There came a light tapping on my door that shifted me from my messed up thoughts, I swear I caught my breath.

"Yes?" I croaked out, not used to my own voice in the morning.

"Breakfast is ready if you'd like to come down." The woman's voice sounded kind, maybe in her late 20s.

"Sure, yeah, I'll be right there,"

Her footsteps slowly disappeared down the wooden floored hallway, leaving me to my deeply troubling thoughts all over again.

I shook them off, the idea of something to cure this hangover being the best motivation at getting me out of this room and down the stairs.

Slowly, I switched my clothes to the pale blue t-shirt and dark jeans that someone had left for me, slipping my head through the collar and zipping up.
It wasn't long before i poked my head out the door of the room and peered out into the hallway, looking left and right.
I didn't remember coming up here to this room, but It didn't feel bad here.

My feet crinkled and creeked the wood as I went down the wooden staircase toward the sounds of cutlery and laughter, passing by framed photos of different groups of people. I didn't stop to study the smiling faces, distracted by the fuzzy feeling growing in my chest.