Attached [Rewritten Version]

13. Call it a hunch

Thursday, October 6th, 2016

It wasn't hard to get his parents to agree to sleep over at Cory, after lying to them that they had to catch up on their project, since Sid had been at home for days. They allowed him to head over and stay there for the night, after shortly talking to Cory's father. The man had replied with yes or no a few times and told Sid he could stay over.

"He seems... approachable today." Sid commented when they eventually went to Cory's room—they had in fact caught up with their project but sat at the kitchen table because it offered more space.

"Good days and bad days," Cory replied with a shrug, dumping their schoolwork on his desk. "Do you wanna sleep in the bed?"

"What's the alternative?"

"I don't really know, I never had guests, so I don't really have anything to accommodate one."

"It's fine, your bed is wide enough for both of us."

Cory nodded in agreement, and they changed for bed in silence.

"Thanks, you know? For wanting to help me out as well. I know Dave's your best friend—"

"It's not important who my best friend is. You're a friend, and we help each other. I'm sure you would do the same."

"Yeah, if you ever need anything, just ask."

Sid contemplated on asking him about hearing Angela again now that there was nobody to eavesdrop in on them. But then he would have to acknowledge, out loud, that he was hearing her, and it was very likely she was in the room with them in that very moment.

"Cory?" Sid asked after a silence lingered for a while, and he had observed the small, dark room curiously.

"Hmm hmm?" Cory replied, noticeably sleepy already.

"Do you still see your mom? I know your parents are divorced, but like... how big was the impact of it? You know? You visiting the forest and spilling the truth about what happened? My parents keep asking questions."

"I don't see her anymore, no. The divorce wasn't pretty and honestly I was kind of glad I wasn't here for it. Apparently, it became violent on multiple occasions and mom just kind of lost it. She refuses help, though, and Dad doesn't have the heart to force help on her. So he cut her out of his life and she eventually wasn't allowed to see me anymore and I just left it at that. She wasn't helping my recovery anyway."

"Damn," Sid mumbled, turning around to face Cory, "I'm sorry you went through all that. But remember you're not alone any longer. We know you told the truth, and we will help you."

"It may sound harsh since this Angela girl is haunting you and Davy, but I'm sorta glad you guys went in there and witnessed it. It was weighing on me, not being able to tell the truth."

"At least something good came from it."

Cory chuckled and nodded with closed eyes. "Let's hope it'll help us sleep as well. If it does, we have a new issue to tackle."

"Which is?"

"How to never sleep alone, ever again, after this."

Sid snorted, realizing Cory was right, and if this worked it would be hard to spend as little nights alone as possible. But he didn't want to break his mind over that until they were sure it was indeed helping.

He didn't know how long it took for him to actually fall asleep. Cory didn't take long, but Sid assumed it was because he had a few rough nights in the past days. But something about the room felt off, and Sid couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was that felt off. He should've been alarmed, but by the time he realized it must have been Angela's lingering presence, he was too far gone to prevent himself from falling asleep.