The Dark Wind

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next day, I woke up with a splitting headache, my phone vibrating on the bedside table as I tried my best to cover the sheets over my head. But my nightstalker-heightened hearing tortured me back awake as I felt around sleepily for the phone.

“Dru.” I moaned into the phone, knowing the one at the other end of the line was. There were only few people, who had my phone number, and they always knew when to call me; which was the most painful time of the day: the time when I needed to wake up.

“Wise and shine, sleepy-head. How are you feeling? Up to face the world again?” Faith’s ever-cheerful voice met me, though I could hear something nagging at her. There was only one person who knew Faith well, and that was me.

“Not one bit. Give me a break; I was staked yesterday, thought I was going to die, and my Master came back to see me. I fought my ass off; let me sleep a little while longer. Pretty please, with the cherry on top?” I begged, purposefully putting on my most pitiful voice.

“Even if there’s whipped cream on the top, I’m not accepting it. Wake up! We can’t have you lazing around can we, Miss Keeper?” Faith ordered, and for a second, I wondered who the Master –and the Keeper –was in this conversation.

“Says you, who didn’t draw a single drop of blood yesterday. Just ten minutes more?” I sighed as I covered my pillow over my head, blocking out the light from the bedside lamp. I must’ve forgotten to turn it off when I fell into bed. I didn’t doubt that I had been snoring.

There was silence where I could almost see Faith pinching the bridge of her nose. She always did that when she was exasperated with me, trying to think of ways to make me do something when I was her Master, not the other way around.

“Fine, ten minutes is all you’re getting. I’m sending Cole over in five to make sure you haul you ass out of bed.” Faith finally conceded, and I gave a silent, internal cheer to her.

“Mmn.” I mumbled my acknowledgement, hanging up on her as I threw the phone to a desolate corner of the room, falling into deep sleep again as I hugged the covers close to my body.

I fell back into the dream of me meeting my parents again, after so long, and talking to them. In my dream, they accepted me for the fact that I was a nightstalker again. They expressed their apology to me, loving me the way they did. And then Anneson came along, and, for the first time in the many years I’d been past, I felt as if I were back to my family finally.

And then it was broken when someone woke me up, by gently prodding me in my arm. I tried to brush the hand away, but it was caught halfway in midair.

“Lemme go! Ten minutes more!” I complained, trying to toss under the covers, but the grip on my hand didn’t release itself.

“You said that to Faith ten minutes before, didn’t you?”Cole’s amused voice filled the room and I groaned, flipping on my front so that my face was hidden in the pillow.

“That was before you came! Ten minutes more, I swear!” I promised, shaking my hand away from Cole’s as I tucked it under the covers, safe from Cole’s reach.

 “Faith told you she was sending me here. You’ve had your ten minutes, no more!” Cole announced, poking me on my back. Again, I tried to push him away, but this time, his hand grabbed mine and dragged me up.

My body felt like a limp bag of bones as I was pulled up by my arm, as if there was a strange magnetism between the bed and my body.

“Come on, Dru. Wakey Wakey! Time to face a new day! Walk Earth again! Breath the fresh Seattle air again!” Cole’s voice was cheerful, but I heard the slow sarcasm in his voice. I obviously doubted that he woke up with those thoughts in his mind. If he did; he was really sad.