I'm still here

Chapter Two

I guess I had fallen asleep on the couch, as I woke up with my head on my arm, still in a sitting position. Signe was gone, to the actual bed I imagine. I tried to wipe the sleepiness from my face, and got up to stretch. I checked the time on my phone. 4:27 am. Jeese. Now that I was awake, I didn't think I was falling back to sleep any time soon. I wandered back to my office and sat down in my seat. The room was cold, even though I had closed the window. I turned on my computer to see if there was anything new. Robin had sent me a message back, a few notifications from Steam, but not much more. I opened up Twitch to see if anyone was streaming anything interesting. If not I'd play something myself. I decided to turn on someone's PUBG stream—it was interesting to see everyone else's tactics and strategies. Maybe even pick a thing or two up. I leaned back in my chair and observed. The guy was a pretty good player. Still couldn't tell if right clicking or dragging was quicker though. I guess we'll never know.
       An hour later the stream ended, and I decided to head to bed and get what little sleep I could. Then I remember my quote from back in the day, 'Sleep is for the weak!' And chuckled. I walked through the house and listened to my footsteps echo through the house accompanied with the noises of outside. I took off my socks and snuck into bed beside Signe. She had taken all of the blankets as per usual. She was fast asleep in her little burrito of blanket, and didn't notice me. As creepy as it sounded, I liked to hear her breath while she slept. It was rhythmic and soothing. It was sort of like someone was there to watch over me and I was safe, even though she was the one asleep. I lay on my back and stared blankly into the ceiling, listening. I liked being observant. Watching everything go on and try and break it down. I tried to picture a scene outside as I listened to the outside noises. My eyes suddenly felt heavy, and I quickly feel asleep. Just before dreams took me, I thought back to the hallucination, and then everything went black as dreams took me away.

        When I opened my eyes the next morning, I was looking at my arm hanging off the bed, but something seemed off. I blinked again, and there was a figure crouching beside the bed with a singular glowing, green eye.
       "Holy fuck!" I leapt up, and then immediately looked to see if Signe was still there. With one quick glance I could see she was gone, and I turned back to the creature beside my bed. It was gone. Nonetheless, I could see it perfectly in my mind. It had one glowing, green eye, the other normal but dead-looking, claws covered in fresh blood, pale skin that almost looked see-through. The most disturbing thing about it was it looked like me. It's eyes were wild, hair unkept as well as the rest of it, but it was definitely me. "I'm going fucking crazy," I stood up, my stomach grumbling in protest of my lack of breakfast. I made the bed and stepped out into the living room, and into the kitchen where Signe was sitting, eating her breakfast.
        "Good morning sleepyhead! Took you long enough, I almost had to come wake you up," as I sat down beside her she looked at me with a concerned expression on her face. "You're pale as a sheet, are you okay Seán?" I quickly decided whether I should tell her about the weird shit I had been seeing. I knew she would just worry, so I decided to pretend I was fine.
        "I'm Irish, I'm always pale as a sheet," she didn't seem convinced. "I'm fine Wiishi-Wooshi," I lied. I pushed my hair out of my face and looked down at the scrambled eggs in front of me. "I have the best girlfriend in the world, you know," she smiled and blushed a little.
         "I do know, now eat up, it's almost noon, you have to start work soon."
         "I'm allowed to keep you right?"
         "If you're good. I've got to record a video as well today, so that's what I'm going to do. You?"
         "I don't quite remember..." She laughed. "You're one to talk," I said with a mouthful of food.
         "True that, I won't lie," she put her dishes in the sink and started to walk off to get stuff for her own video. "You know where I'll be."
         "Forgetting something."
         "Shut up," she said and I could almost see the smile on her face. I wolfed the rest of my breakfast down and headed down to my office. "Don't forget your dishes!" I heard her call down the hall. I rolled my eyes and laughed. I wheeled around and did as I had been told. "Thank you!" I continued on my path to my office and sat down in my chair as I tried to remember what I had planned for today. My thoughts kept being replaced by that creature. Why did it look like me? Why was I seeing this? As I tried to go over my notes, it was like I couldn't read. I couldn't concentrate on a single word I had written. I dropped the notebook, leaned back in my chair, took a deep breath, and put my hand over my eyes. I brushed my hair away from my face and tried to think of all of this logically. It was pretty fucking difficult. Then a thought more insane than this popped into my head. Anti. I had one of those arguments in my head back and forth. You're insane. But maybe it's possible? No you're fucking mental. It's the only thing that explains all this. There's something logical to explain this. It does make sense. I decided it wouldn't hurt to ask. Ask? Ask what? I was already insane it seems, so this wouldn't hurt I guess.
        "Anti?" I said tentatively. No one answered, as expected. I let my shoulders relax, and I scooted into my desk.
       "What is it?" said a scratchy voice. Oh shit.