I awoke with a quiet groan and felt something warm on the back of my head. I felt... lighter than usual, strangely. Spacey even.
Oh, shit, I thought, feeling panic set in. Exactly how hard did I hit my head?
"Nico...? Are you... Like... Not dead?" A familiar voice asked tentatively from the left side of me.
I wanted to roll my eyes, but settled for sighing and attempting to sit up. With no success. My head fell back onto whatever I was lying on and I held back a whine of pain.
Whoever talked to me earlier, walked closer and slipped a hand under my back and helped me sit up which only made me feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. For some reason, I couldn't get my bearings for a few seconds and felt like I was drowning under water and waves were pounding into me from every angle in a way that I couldn't tell which way was up and which was down.
The feeling was strangely familiar though. I had felt it before when my "best friend" beat me and left me alone on the ground to die... I'm sure I wasn't remembering that day correctly but I didn't care. It still stung and I didn't want to think about it.
I wanted to go back to sleep. Let the empty darkness take control of my conscious again. I wanted to feel nothing. Not even my heart pounding in my chest. I wanted to be as still as night and just as empty as it.
And for a second, I was.
I experienced what I would like to call The Void. It wasn't death, far from it, but it was like being released. I couldn't smell anything, couldn't hear anything, couldn't think of anything. It was like I was dead but still there.
It was like my soul was struggling to stay in my body and for a second it gave up on the struggle. Unlike one would think, it wasn't scary. It was
peaceful and somewhat pleasant.
Until it was ruined by a scream and a slap on my forehead. Suddenly, I was back in the present and I was aware of Leo standing in front of me with tears in his puffy bloodshot eyes. When he saw me staring at him, he shoulders sagged and he sighed a breath of relief.
Despite my claims of not being able to come 7ft within people earlier, he hugged me tightly and rested his head in the crook of my neck.
I didn't feel threatened or scared or even angry like I usually did when people touched me... I felt loved for once. He cared if I was okay. "Leo..." I whispered and he pulled away.
"God, I thought you were dying... I don't understand what just happened. But I'm glad you're not dead. I don't want another skeleton in my closet," He said and looked at me with a strange grimace.
Whether he meant literally or figuratively, I didn't know. I guess he meant both... Considering he was in a place for the criminally insane.
Actually, I didn't even know if we were still there. "Where are we?" I couldn't remember anything after hitting the floor.
"Baltimore, " he said and grabbed some bandages from the table next to me.
I observed where I was sitting and noticed it was a leather couch littered with blankets. But for good reason, it was freezing in here. Even colder than in the institute.
I looked back at Leo and watched as he used scissors to cut the bandage to a certain length. I subconsciously decided to do my new favourite pass time and stare at his eyes again.
They were still watery and I didn't understand why. I didn't understand why Leo would care so much about me... We met like... A day ago. Or at least I figured it was a day ago.
Anyway, whether I was being incredibly insensitive or just simply sadistic, I was glad Leo cried over me. It felt good to be cared about for once. And he was... how could I describe it?
Not pretty, but close to it, when he cried. I liked it.
"How do you feel?" He asked and shattered my previous thoughts.
I pondered that for a second. I felt like shit, basically. But not as bad as before. I guess you could describe it like this: earlier, I was horse shit... Now, I'm just cat shit. "Like cat shit," I said, pretty satisfied with my answer.
Leo cocked an eyebrow and put down the bandages. "Uh... Right. So like on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is cat shit? And on the same scale, I'm just wondering, where would human shit be?"
I felt a smile tug on my lips but I quickly got rid of it and gave my retort. "Cat shit is about a 6 while human shit is about a 8."
"Well, frankly, I think that scale is bullshit."
"That wasn't even funny..." I said and snorted besides myself.
He smiles and then something dawns on me and finally, I think of a few questions that actually make sense to ask. "Man, what the fuck is going on? Why are we in Baltimore? Why did you drop a lighter under a tile? Why was there no wood under that tile anyway? Who the hell talked to us from down there and where are they now? What is going on?"
Leo held up his hands and smiled lazily. "Relax, Nico. We're okay here for now. That's all you have to know."
"For now?"
