The Coming | The House of Voices #2

Two - News

News

October:

I felt the lack of motion before I was even truly awake.

Blinking, I slowly dragged myself out of sleep, only to be confronted by the sight of an old lady smiling pleasantly at me from the seat in front of me. “Oh, good.” She said, “You’re up. I was just about to wake you.”

“Where are we?” I asked groggily, straightening up.

“Washington, dear.” The old lady said gently. “Last stop. You might want to wake your boyfriend now; he’s out like a log.”

“My…” I trailed off, realizing that she was referring to Parish, whose shoulder I had been resting my head against all that time. His head was hanging back, resting only on the little bar on the seat that served as neck-support, and there was this disgruntled sort of expression on his face, the look he gets when someone says something stupid. As I glanced at his face, I realized that I wasn’t shocked he’d dozed off. He’d looked incredibly tired earlier and the nap didn’t seem to have helped that much. How long ago had he fallen asleep?

“Yeah, I probably should.” I finally finished, summoning up all the will in me to give the nice old lady a smile of gratitude. “Thanks.”

“Oh, you’re welcome sweetheart. Just make sure the two of you get home before it gets too dark, alright? It’s not really safe for two kids like you to be out at this time of the night. Especially with all that’s happened in the past few days.” She stood up and wrapped her shawl tighter around her face, bright eyes twinkling good-naturedly in the dim light of the bus.

“We will, ma’am. Thank you.” I watched her hobble down the aisle, her shoes making loud thuds against the metal floor before turning to Parish. Gently, I nudged his shoulder. “Parish? Wake up…” He grunted, but didn’t stir. Twisting in my seat, I nudged him again, a little less gently than I had before. “Parish, we’re here.”

He heard me that time, sitting up straight almost instantaneously and blinking as if someone had just slapped him across the face.

“Rise and shine, Mr. I’m-Fine-You-Sleep.” I said jokingly, trying not to laugh at the look of confusion on his face. “We’ve reached our destination.”

I saw comprehension dawn in his eyes as he sat up straighter. Running a hand through his hair, he shook his head as if he was trying to shake the sleepiness out of his system. “Jesus. Don’t tell me I slept the whole way here.”

“If you had been awake, you’d know that I was asleep the whole time, so I wouldn’t be able to answer that.”

He blinked twice and shook his head slightly, still looking a tiny bit sleepy. “What?”

“Nothing.” I stood up. “You slept the entire time. Let’s go.”

Narrowing his eyes at me in suspicion, Parish stood up and led the way down the aisle and out of the empty bus. I followed, smiling to myself, and clomped down the stairs with a little bounce in my step. The action completely went against how tired and drained I felt inside, but I did it anyway. Somehow, it made me feel a little less tired, though, so I didn’t question it too much.

The minute my feet landed on the concrete floor of the bus station, the biting chill of the night air hit me. Thankfully, I was wearing long sleeves and jeans, but that still didn’t keep away the cold. In front of me, Parish crossed his arms over his chest against the cold, and looked up at the sky curiously.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He said, not turning to face me. “It’s not normally this cold in August, is it?”