Oh, How We Drift

Chapter Sixteen

16.

"Come on sleepyhead, time to get up." Jess heard a voice through her muffled ears, turning up from her pillow to look at the doorway. Chariot stood in the entrance, clutching a towel in her hands, dressed in a black vest top and grey sweatpants; she threw the towel at Jess, hard and fast, smacking her in her dazed, tired face. "Anubis wants you downstairs in an hour so I'd hurry up and get ready if I were you. I'll meet you down there, I've got to go and eat. Can't be productive on an empty stomach." She said with a wide grin on her face, her whole expression reeked of cheeky confidence.

Jess rose from her pillow, her birds nest morning hair draped down over her face in a most ungraceful fashion, "I didn't know ghosts even had to eat." She said with a laugh.

Chariot walked back at through the doorway, her voice echoing from down the hall, "I'm as dead as you honey!" She shouted back, "But sometimes you can't beat a good meal, no matter how dead you feel inside!" Her laugh faded away before being cut off by a door slamming further down the hall.

Jess sat up in bed, the pyjama T-Shirt that Chariot had lent her from the night before hung baggily off of her shoulders. She stretched her arms up to the ceiling, spreading her mouth wide in a yawn as long as life, doing her best to wake up her system from the restless past few days it had gone through. Last night was the best night's sleep she'd had in ages, it couldn't be denied, yet she suddenly found that feeling of unease creep into her system again. Who were these people? Where even was she? What was their goal? The questions would remain unanswered for now it would seem, at least for as long as she was in this room of grey walls, a small bookshelf and a basic double bed crammed into the corner. It wasn't a five star hotel for sure, but at least she'd made it through another night without anybody trying to kill her.

She threw on some fresh, new clothes (Again borrowed from Chariot, she seemed to have her own walk-in wardrobe stored somewhere in this massive place) and combed the various knots out of her hair. After a half hour or so she felt ready to walk back out into the warehouse and meet with the strangers who had been so eerily welcoming. She remembered their briefly discussed plan of getting to The Library, of meeting Jules and Chris there if they'd even received the note she had sent to them. There they hoped to find some form of clue as to why Death would want Jules, and if there was any way of stopping him dead in his tracks. The people down here were willing, it seemed, to sacrifice anything and everything to overthrow the regime happening above their heads. Nevermind Angels and Demons, or The Wall, Heaven or Hell; this was a force full of people who were sick of lies and imprisonment, and they were ready to fight back.

Jess walked down the hallway and out of the end door, down a flight of metal stairs, her hair tied back in a ponytail that bounced up and down as she descended the staircase. She exited through a small door at the bottom, out once more into the huge, cavernous warehouse room that was already bustling with activity. It couldn't be earlier than 8am in Purgatory, yet everyone down here was rushing around, shifting equipment, organising papers and files, training for something that everybody knew was coming but nobody wanted to accept.

"Over here Jess!" It was Chariot, stood over at a large table with the others from the day before. Anubis stood at the head of the table, Henry and Gregory stood to either side of her; Henry with his familiar staff and Gregory with his familiar stare. Chariot was stood opposite them and motioned for Jess to come and stand next to her, "Excuse the lack of chairs, we're not exactly high on funding right now."

"It's okay, I'm sure I'll manage." Jess replied, the pair smiled at eachother.

"That shirt suits you, as do my jeans...are you trying to steal my look?" Chariot raised an eyebrow, looking at the grey and black shirt and dark black jeans that Jess now wore. Jess blushed in response, to which Chariot laughed and said, "Maybe I'll let you keep them. We'll see how this meeting goes first." She winked and turned to face the other three.