A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

XIX | What It Is To Fight

MINI
Two days. That's how long it had been since the doctors had discharged her from the hospital.

What now? That same, repeating question. The one constantly brought up by her subconscious.

I DON'T KNOW, she wanted to yell at her subconscious.

The soft, golden-hued lights shone down on her, and the gift baskets on the coffee table. Outside, a storm raged, rain lashing against her windows.

She sunk into her couch, leaning her head against the armrest. Shut her eyes. No sleep came. Nothing. Exhaustion had come, but the urge and want to sleep hadn't come yet.

She didn't know why. Maybe, somewhere deep down, she didn't want to sleep. Maybe she was afraid of what would happen in her dreams.

She fiddled with the zip of her hoodie, pulling the hood over her head, everything feeling so... wrong.

Sleep. She tried to tell herself, but something inside her was not listening.

She lifted her hand, subconsciously grazing it against her collarbone, slightly shocked at how there was nothing there.

Oh. Right.

The necklace was gone. Her fingers lingered there, a strange sadness engulfing her.

She hadn't had it on her when she'd woken up at the hospital, and when she asked the doctors, they'd said that she hadn't had anything when she'd been brought in.

She'd either dropped it when she'd been taken, or James and Mark Daniels had taken it.

A trophy, she'd thought bitterly. Not their usual, but still something they can gloat over. When they kill me.

The 'if'; the technicality that maybe, maybe she could escape them, or catch them and keep herself safe had turned into a 'when'. A future that loomed on the horizon as sure fixed and determined, like the promise of rain that dark-grey clouds in the sky brought.

Now what?

I... don't know.

Minutes of silence passed, as she began to whistle. A soft tune that turned into a haunting melody. She didn't recall where she'd heard it, but she remembered hearing bits and pieces of it when she'd been unconscious. But she didn't know if it was a figment of her imagination or something she'd heard in real life.

Then, along with the music, the words came to her, as she sang them softly, to her empty apartment.

"When we're together, there's a feeling that glows inside me."

The lyrics were strangely comforting. "You make me laugh, and if you cry, I'll be there,"

Her voice cracked. "So if you're hearing this, please wake up, so I can see your smile again."

Her breath was shaky, as she realised her cheeks were tear-stained. The song. She knew it. She'd heard it, but she didn't know how.

It made her so angry. Another thing she couldn't solve.

She'd been about to get up and pace around her apartment, when she heard her doorbell ring.

Stumbling toward the door, she peered through the peephole, and frowned. "Rudy?"

She opened the door a crack, and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you," Something in his face softened.

Her hand hovered at the doorknob. "Why?"

"I was worried. We were all worried."

"Worried... for what?" she gave him a careful, practised smile. Just as she did, she saw something in his eyes break, something fade.