UnFamiliar

Chapter 7

I woke in the dark far before my alarm, given that I didn't have school the next day I'd set my alarm for ten a.m. and intended to use the extra hours. I'm not exactly sure what woke me, but as I lay there in the dark, contemplating the question, something became absolutely clear: I wasn't alone in the bed.

My awareness came slowly. First, I noticed that what should've been a blanket at my back was oddly hard. Then I recognized that the hardness felt like that of another's body pressed against my own. By then, my half-asleep brain was pumped full of adrenaline and not really processing the situation very realistically. I was convinced someone had snuck into my room, and fallen asleep on the bed beside me.

What this meant, was by the time I'd worked up the courage to carefully turn around and found Val sleeping on the edge of the bed next to me, I was simply relieved a serial killer wasn't cuddling me.

Val moaned. "If you're awake, could you at least scoot over?"

That snapped me out of whatever horror film I thought I was starring in. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Trying to get some sleep, you?" Val asked.

"Trying to figure out why you're in my bed when you have one of your own."

"That," Val sat up and pointed at the cot, "is not fit for the tortured souls of hell, let alone a Prince of it."

"It can't be that bad," I said, reasonably.

"Then you sleep on it. I'm staying here," Val said, actually scooting his body closer to me.

The movement made me uncomfortable, and so I threw my hands up. "Fine." Then I climbed out of my queen-sized bed and hopped onto the cot. I snuggled down and waited for sleep to take me.

I'm usually able to sleep just about anywhere. Once, I fell asleep under a desk in a classroom, don't ask me why, and scared the janitor half to death. The floor had been more comfortable than this "cot." It was a mattress that was no thicker than three inches with springs sticking up out of what might've been a pillow top at some point in its life.

After about five minutes of a spring digging into my waist no matter which way I turned, I gave up. "Fine, we can share the bed."

Val snorted.

When I returned to the bed, he was kind enough to stay very precisely on his side, for which I was grateful.

"We tell no one about this," I said. I didn't want people getting the wrong idea. Most of my classmates already knew I was into guys and rumors about me sleeping with my familiar would spread like wildfire if it got out. Val and I already had quite the odd relationship without people making comments about things we hadn't done.

Val didn't reply, and after a second, I realized he was asleep.

I snuggled down in my blanket and did my best not to touch him, not that it did me any good. By morning I'd had to push Val back over to his side no less than six times. He kept rolling over onto me and not in a sweet romantic way, in a I'm-accidentally-suffocating-Ambrose sort of way.

I'd finally made it back asleep when my alarm went off. I jumped a bit, and then when I understood the blaring sound was telling me to wake up I groaned. My phone, of course, was on the nightstand of the side Val had claimed for himself.

I stared at it and his unmoving body for a second, then shrugged. No way was I going to get out of bed and walk around it to shut my alarm off. I leaned over, using my arm to prop me above Val and grabbed my phone. The second it was in my hand I began going back to my own side.

I guess in moving I looked down. I locked eyes with Val, which for some stupid reason made me freeze. Val smirked up at me. The alarm blared in the background. My wrist gave out and in 0.02 seconds, my face was on top of Val's. Which might've been fine, it might've even been called a 'lucky accident,' but Val had ram's horns.

My forehead smacked on the point of one of his horns, I think we clinked teeth together, and his nose and my cheek bone definitely connected.

I rolled off him moaning.

He moaned back and sat up. I looked up at him to find he had a nosebleed. I stared for a moment, a hand grasping at my poor forehead. I don't know what I expected, perhaps for demons to bleed a different color, but despite being a relatively magical being, Val had a regular old nosebleed. Red blood was dripping as he cupped his hand underneath. I noticed one drop fall down onto the sheet.

Right. I scrambled out of bed and went for my Kleenex box which is usually on my desk, except it wasn't. I'd thrown just about everything into my closet. I rushed over to it and threw the door open.

A pile greeted me. None of the visible things included tissues. I turned, to look at Val who hadn't moved and was staring at the pool of blood in his hand with a frown on his face. The I spotted the bathroom door. Toilet paper would do the trick.

I grabbed a roll and attempted to shove it into Val's hands. He still didn't move and I hadn't thought about how his hands already had blood on them. One side of the roll had dots of blood soaking through layers while the other one was completely fine.

I huffed and snatched the roll back. I got a good amount in my hand before dabbing at the mess. Once Val's hands were dry, if not clean, I handed him a wad and told him to hold it under his nose.

"Is it broken?" Val's words were a bit garbled.

"What? No. I definitely didn't fall that hard."

Val didn't look convinced.

"Have you never had a bloody nose before?" I asked, unsure why else his expression was so...concerned? His brows were knit together and was looking at the stick residual blood on one of his hands.

"I've...never bled freely."

I cocked my head. "What do you mean by that?"

He let out a little laugh. "I'm a prince of hell. Bleeding is for the weak. My power usually conceals my weaknesses automatically either by healing them or hiding them. I guess it's still not working properly."

I stared at him. "You mean to say, you've never seen your own blood before?"

He shook his head.

I stood there, stunned. I'd wager almost every if not all humans have seen their own blood. We tend to be clumsy particularly as children. Scrapes and bruises are normal to an extent.

"Well, it seems to have stopped." Val pulled the bit of toilet paper away from his nose.

I gestured to the bathroom, still wordless from that particular insight into Val's childhood.

Val climbed out of bed slowly and went to the bathroom. I heard him washing up and decided I should probably dress for the day. We had a lot to do so that this whole bed sharing fiasco didn't have to happen again.