Forever Now *Reboot*

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

I’m sitting on the couch, my eyes on the verge of closing from sleep, when my phone vibrates in my pocket. I jump at the sensation, because this damned thing is so small, I always forget I have it with me. It’s nearly 3 am on April 10th, and I’ve had a total of 9 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours. I was supposed to be passed out drunk by now, not falling asleep from waiting for a certain angel to come back. I flip open my cheap, 20-dollar phone and blink to try to keep the words from blurring.

WE MUST TALK. KRYZSTOFER JUST LEFT MY CRIB, HEADING YOUR WAY. I WILL SEE YOU SOON.

-H

I slouch back on the couch and sigh. This is not good, I think to myself. I reach for the TV remote and turn off whatever show I was watching. There was something about vampires and wolves, but it wasn’t very good; except for the super hot guy, who despite his macho outside, was a total sweetheart for the main chick; but that was besides the point.

“Shit,” I say, getting up, hearing my neck pop loudly, and heading to my room. I shake my head and proceed to change for bed. I get dressed into my pajamas and then head to the bathroom.

I don’t even bother to turn on the light as I enter the cold room. I look at myself in the dark mirror and sigh. I’ve been looking at this face for such a long time, that even though I know it’s not going to happen, I wish it would age, change, scar... anything. But this face, my one and only face, is as stuck with me as I was with it. I rub my eyes, yawning loudly into my palms. I quickly splash water on my face, brush my teeth, and without another look at myself, leave the dark room.

Back in my room, I tie my hair up in a ponytail using a silk ribbon that once belonged to my sister, and sit at the edge of my bed. It has been two hours, and Kryzstofer is still not back from wherever it was that he went; apparently Hixak’s. It’s a bit concerning, but he’s a big boy; he can take care of himself, I guess.

I stand and stretch, my back towards the door, looking at the haggard book covers I’d reorganized earlier. None look appealing, but the old-book smell always manages to take me to la-la land. The musty, papery smell when the page is turned, assures that I will, perhaps at the end of the chapter, fall into a slumber filled with Jane Austen or Dorian Gray.  

I don’t hear the flap of wings that marks Kryzstofer’s appearance, but I feel him in the room. His arms wrap around me, their warmth making me cave and turn to meet his eyes. The books were forgotten because this angel, whose arms are around me, is yet another sleep source. Arms still around me, he clutches me so hard, it seems like if he lets go, I’ll be gone forever.

I put my head on his chest, one of the good things about our stature difference, and listen to his heart. The pumping of his blood calms me; assures me that whatever is to come -whatever or whoever- we can beat it together.

“Did you have a good talk with Hixak?” I ask. One of his hands leaves my waist to cradle the back of my neck, pulling me closer to his chest before answering.

“It was satisfactory,” he says, but I can feel a smile pulling at his lips. I pull away from him gently and look at him. God, he is beautiful.

“Don’t do that,” I say, pulling away fully. “Don’t act all automated.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes. You do it all the time when you’re upset.” He looks at me, confused, and if I go by the sparkle in his eyes, amused. “You know what? Never mind.”

“As you wish.”

“We’ll be sleeping in the same bed,” I tell him. We look at the bed and then at each other. There is no way I am going to let him crash on my couch; he might blow up my TV from trying to figure out what it is. I’m not sleeping on the couch either; that thing is very uncomfortable. It was very stylish, but a bitch to sleep on. “If you sleep, that is.”