Penumbra.

-4-

"Father? Why him?" He says, his tone is full of worry, I take deep breaths to calm my shaking self down.
"I don't know, it wasn't a fictional dream though-it was a memory from the past." I swallow, my mouth dry. He places his hand on mine making me look down towards them,"What memory was it abo-"
"We have arrived Mr. Bile." The driver says, interrupting our conversation, I'm relieved he did because I could never tell Bartholomew that the memory is of his father dying in my arms. That would kill him.
"Ah, thank you." He gets up and reaches his hand to me, "Come on, you can tell me later, right now we need to catch our flight." I nod and get up too, walking out with him, the driver hands me my bags and when Barth is given his we walk in the airport, "Where do you think it is?" He asks confused, "I don't know, I'll ask the desk lady."
"Very well." He replies.

"Flight 738? Ah, it's down this hallway, to your left. You must hurry though, the plane was delayed for an hour and it will be departing really soon."
"Thank you ma'am." I say with a smile, I grab my bags and follow her instructions, " Look, it's there!" He says, pointing at the gate, "Let's run, otherwise we'll miss it." I say, he nods and we leg it to the gate.
"Tickets?" The man at the gate holds out his hand while Barth gives him them, "Have a nice flight." We both nod and thank him, when we get there we board the plane and put our bags up, "What seat did you get?" I ask him, "I have seat 34-" He takes out another paper,"You have seat 30." He looks back at the paper, "Wait, seat 30? So that means I have to sit in the middle seats of the plane, and you get to sit-"He looks forward to the window, "You sit there."
"Alright, cool." I sit in my seat and take out my phone and earphones, suddenly there is someone on the com,
"Hello this your captain speaking, we apologize for the delay, We will be departing shortly."
I lean back in my seat, making sure not to lean too back and piss off the guy behind me, I plug my earphones in and turn up the volume. The first track is Control by Halsey, and of course, I sing along in my head.

I'm bigger than my body.
I'm colder than this home.
I'm meaner than my demons.
I'm bigger than these bones.

And all the kids cried out,
"Please stop, you're scaring me"
I can't help this awful energy
Goddamn right, you should be scared of me
Who is in control?

I close my eyes, drifting off to a nice daydream when I feel someone sit next to me. I open my eyes and see a woman who is holding a child. I shift around to make more room for her making my left earphone fall out then I hear the most demonic bloodcurdling cry of a baby.
Ok well it wasn't really demonic, they just cry weird.
Startled by it I jump a little bit to my right hitting myself on the side window of the plane. "ah fuck." I mumble as I rub the right side of my head, the woman noticing my startled-ness (Is that a word? No? Well it is now.) turns to me and says with a light Russian accent.
"Sorry it's his first time on plane."

I can see that..

"It's okay. He's just a baby so it's kinda obvious that they react like that." I say with a smile, "He's a she actually." She replies chuckling.

The mother tries to comfort her crying child but her lousy attempts fail, I sigh, "Is this your first kid?" She shakes her head embarrassingly. "No it's-i'm very sorry, I don't know why she's crying.."
Hopefully I won't regret this..

I clear my throat and look at the woman who is on the verge of tears. "Do you need any help with your kid?" She shakes her head. "Oh no, no, it's fine." I look at her with a straight face.

"You and I both know that it's not fine." She lowers her head in embarrassment and guilt, like a dog would do.
I signal her with my hands to let me hold her child, "Ok since its her first time on a plane you should have brought some earplugs, her ears will be popping a lot and the earplugs will stop that. Kinda."
She nods and takes out her purse "I have some here actually."
I look at her and give her a poker face. "Then why didn't you just put them on him?" She hands me a pair while still looking down, "Because, I did not know that she needed them..".

Really, C'mon really?

I cradle the crying child in one arm while I put the earplugs on him with the other, once they're in, she looks around hearing no sound which calms her down and just casually falls asleep in my arms.
Wait what?
"Um, ma'am?" I turn to look at the mother who is also passed out sleeping peacefully in her seat.
Well isn't this just dandy?
I sigh, and notice the dark circles under her eyes.
I guess I could let her sleep, she looks so exhausted.
I look at the baby just sleeping there, not doing anything, and mumble out the words
"Don't puke on me or I'll kick you."
Kids love to puke. Trust me, I know that first hand.
I look out the window, looking down at the clouds.
They look like cotton candy, maybe they taste like it too.
I look at Bartholomew who looks to be asleep also, not aware of what had just happened.
There goes my peaceful daydream. I can't even sit right, this kid is in my damn way.

I put my earphone back in and press play again, this time a song called Red Light Warning Sign by Atomic Tom plays. I shift around again, trying to get comfy without waking the fetus up, and close my eyes. Trying to fall back into the daydream.
I had no idea that baby's could smell like puppies, does she use dog shampoo and conditioner?
I swear, people are fucking weird.

// Masquerade, she tastes like chardonnay.
Now the party's over, she says boy come over.
Misbehave and don't stop teasing me.
While you're analyzing I will be fantasizing. - Red Light Warning Sign by Atomic Tom

GUIS GUIS GUIS GUIS IM SO HUNGRY RN. AND I CAN'T MAKE ANYTHING CUS ITS 1:34 AM AND THERE ISN'T ANY CEREAL. OMG HELP. //