The Dark Wind

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Someone nudged me awake, but I groaned, trying to brush away the finger that was poking me rudely in the arm. For starters, the finger retreated, but before I could make a tired mental cheer, a hand closed over my shoulder and shook roughly.

“Come on, wake up! You’re drooling all over the bar!” Faith’s exasperated voice touched my ears as I was pulled back into harsh reality, gone from the peaceful shelter of my sleep.

“The bar?” I mumbled sleepily, still not opening my eyes. A headache was throbbing, and I needed this sleep. After all that craziness from the past two days, I deserved a little sleep.

“Yeah, the bar! B-A-R? You’re at the Dark Wind, for goodness sake, start acting like the Keeper of Seattle and stop drooling!” Faith’s voice became more annoyed as I whacked her hand away from my shoulder sleepily. Dark Wind? I was at the Dark Wind? I didn’t remember…

I shot up suddenly, almost tipping off the high chair as I did so, suddenly painfully awake. I rubbed my sleep-addled eyes, and blinked a few times, each time fighting against the heaviness in my eyelids. Why couldn’t she just let me sleep another five minutes?

“God, how did I get here…?” I half-yawned, half-spoke, stretching while forcing my eyes open. The headache in the back of my head, throbbing like a crazy drummer, wasn’t doing well. One day this week, I swore silently to myself, I would quietly sneak into a hidey hole and sleep through one day one night, to make up for the entire nightmare that has been happening.

Yeah, the nightmare. It was both literally, and figuratively. I was having nightmares of Xavier’s worst nightmare, watching Christy die all over again while I slept in the day. Naturally, it wasn’t doing very well on my health, as well as my current mental state of mind. The nightmares, in figurative-speaking, was probably all the craziness that had broken out ever since that stupid, stupid Hunter arrived.

“You were waiting for me outside the Dark Wind before I arrived, remember? You said you were sorry for all the things you’re asking me to do, and was thinking of making it up by explaining yourself, and helping out a little? And then you went in, planted your butt on the bar, and conked out. Don’t you think that’s a little too insincere an apology?” Faith’s words were just a short way from commanding and miffed as she jabbed a finger at my chest, punctuating her point.

“Give me a break; the past two days I’ve been whacked around like a baseball bat, my mind crashing in on me like a whirlwind, and nightmare’s been chewing on my sleep! Can’t I just get a good rest, however short it may be?” I groaned, and then stiffened.

I hadn’t planned to say the part about nightmares. Faith was number one in acting nanny when my nightmares came. Take that time I accidentally touched the face of a human, who just so happened to be a serial murderer and Faith had kept vigil by my side every night for the next two months, fussing over me for the slightest things. I still couldn’t make up my mind to be glad and touched, or just be embarrassed.

“What? The nightmares are back? Who did you touch now? Tell me!” Remember when I said she was just a short way from being commanding? Yeah, she hit it now.

“Um, you know what? Let me wash my face, get a drink, call Jaye to take bar duty, find ourselves a nice, quiet stall, and we’ll talk things out like the honest, polite, and non-violent nightstalker we should be?” I put on my best charming voice as I slipped out of the chair to back away from Faith. Man, this nightstalker was murderous by her own rights and ways.

She glared at me for a silent second, but I was saved by my regular customers milling into club.

“Don’t be long.” She growled, and was swiftly at the door, greeting Tyler, Mina and Torya.