The Aftermath: MPHFPC (editing)

T W E N T Y - O N E

J A C O B

I suddenly awoke to the dark feeling of being watched. When I rolled over, there was a pair of dark eyes glaring at me from the end of my bed, causing me to nearly fall onto the floor in surprise.

"Enoch!" I whispered angrily. "Don't do that!"

"I heard that if you stare at someone long  enough while they are sleeping, they will eventually wake up." He whispered back. When I just stared at him in confusion, he said, "Get up. I need your help."

"What do you mean you need my help? What are you talking about?" I whispered, glancing around to make sure everyone was still sleeping.

"Just get up." He said, standing to his feet. I could see that he was fully dressed and ready to go. It annoyed me because it was almost as if he knew I was going to agree.

"Enoch, it's in the middle of the night." I said, shoving my head into my pillow.

"I have access to the Hospital ward and everything in it. And if I'm not careful, I might accidentally slip an untested tonic into your morning juice-"

"Okay fine!" I snapped, reluctantly getting up and marching over to the door, not even caring that I looked like a mess, my hair disheveled and I wasn't bothering changing out of my bedclothes.

"Do you ever sleep?" I asked when we both stepped out of the room and into the hallway,  Enoch closing the door behind us.

"Occasionally." He answered as he started to quickly walk down the hall.

"What do you want anyway?" I asked, catching up to him. "You might not know this, but waking people up in the middle of the night is rude."

"I need you to show me where the weapon's vault is on the bottom floor." He said, ignoring my last comment.

I stopped walking, "You mean to tell me that you got me up in the middle of the freaking night so I can personally escort you downstairs to the weapons vault, which you of all people should not be allowed to go into?"

"Just come on." He said, continuing on down the hall.

For reasons I wasn't entirely sure of, and despite myself, I followed him.

***

"I've really got to stop depending on you for things, mate." Said Enoch.

I rolled my eyes at him, "Shut your face. Besides, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't have threatened me into taking you to the weapons vault."

"More like we wouldn't be in this situation if whoever built this had actually built this building like an office, and not like a bloody maze," Enoch said. "I thought you knew where you were going."

"I do," I replied as we turned the corner into a familiar room that I recognized as a reception area that was frozen over last time I saw it. Rows of straight back chairs faced a massive desk at the very front of the room and dozens of clocks hung on the walls, keeping track of the times in long forgotten loops.

"We'll look here," Said Enoch, from the other side of the large room, "we're in luck, Jacob. There's a sign."

Beside him was a sign I recognized from when the building was frozen over:

← Undersecretary of Temporal Affairs 

← Conservator of Graphical Records      

Nonspecific Matters of Urgency →  

   Dept. of Obfuscation and Deferment →