*ON HOLD* Control | An Edward Nygma Story

Chapter 11

I woke up the next morning disoriented, along with a killer headache. I rubbed at my eyes and let out a sigh.

  What happened last night?

  "You mean you don't remember?" His voice piped up.

  "No," I said simply.

  "Seriously? Nothing? Not even Lauren?"

  "Ohh... Right, Lauren. She came over for our date last night."

  "And...?"

  "Um...and...we had dinner together?"

  "Yeah. And?"

  "And... Um... There was a knock on the door and--"

  My breath suddenly caught in my throat as the memories from last night came rushing back to me in full force. I sat up in bed with a jolt, my hands over my mouth in horror at what I – what he – had done.

  He killed Jackson. It all came back to me in one sickening, overwhelming wave. The yelling, the pain, the blood... My eyes darted over to where Jackson's body had been lying, cold and lifeless, on the floor, but found that there was nothing there. No body, no blood, no knife...

  I dared to hope that it had all been one horrendous nightmare.

  I looked down at myself, half expecting to still see myself wearing that sweater covered in Jackson's blood, but I wasn't. I was just in my undershirt and boxers, which wasn't unusual for me to be wearing in bed.

  Suddenly I heard my bathroom door open and out walked Lauren. It seemed she had stolen a pair of my pajamas, as the matching flannel top and pants were just a little too big for her.

  "Oh, you're awake," she said casually, walking over and joining me on the bed. "How are you feeling?"

  I didn't even know where to start.

  "I-I'm feeling confused and my head hurts and most of all, I'm more than a little scared of what I think might've happened last night," I said quickly, my nerves getting the better of me.

  "Try not to think about it," Lauren said, tucking a fiery curl behind her ear. She looked tired, like she hadn't slept at all.

I let out a shaky sigh, running my hands through my hair and down my neck. I winced, however, as my fingers passed over a particularly tender spot on the side of my neck. Suddenly, I remembered another detail from last night. I looked to Lauren with wide eyes.

  "You drugged me!" I said, my voice coming out as a panicked whisper.

  "You were panicking," Lauren said. "You were going to start hyperventilating if you didn't relax."

"Of course I was panicking; a man was dead!" I stressed, my hands beginning to tremble. The panic from the previous night was returning to me with overwhelming force. "He was dead on my floor a-and his blood was on me and I held the knife that killed him--"

  Lauren snapped me back to reality, grabbing my frantic hands and holding them tightly in her own. She looked at me with those clear blue eyes with a frightening seriousness.

  "It wasn't you," she said simply.

  I blinked. "Wh-What...?"

  "It wasn't you," she repeated, giving my hands an affirming squeeze. "You told me so yourself that it wasn't you."

  My breath caught in my throat. "I...I did tell you about him last night..."

  Lauren nodded.

  "And...you believe me...?"

  Again, Lauren nodded. Something of a smile made its way onto her face, but it did little to put me at ease.

"Knowing you're sharing a mind with another person actually explains a lot," she said slowly, a humorless chuckle leaving her lips. "It explains why I'd find you talking to yourself. And when I'd talk to you, sometimes you'd have this distant look on your face, like you weren't really hearing me. Now I know why. Because you've got someone else chattering away in your head."

"I do not chatter," he suddenly said, his tone annoyed.

Ignoring him, I continued. "But I – he – killed someone! I-I just don't understand how you can be so...so calm about this!"

"Well...you know, with our job, we do see a lot of dead people," Lauren said with a shrug. "I guess that's desensitized me."

I shook my head. "But we don't see them get killed. And we don't know them."

Lauren gave my hands another squeeze. "Stop fixating, Ed. You're just scaring yourself. I said I'd take care of everything and I did. Okay? Don't think about it."

"I'm sorry, Lauren, but it's just a lot to process," I said softly, looking down.

  There was a moment of heavy silence before she spoke.

"I know," she said, just as softly.

  The silence returned twice as heavy as the two of us sat there on my bed. I sighed again and pulled my hands from Lauren's hold, reaching for my glasses on the nightstand. As I put them on, I caught a glimpse of the time on my digital clock. My eyes widened.

  "It's after noon!" I looked to Lauren. "We're supposed to be at work!"

Lauren raised a hand, nodding. "Don't worry, I took care of that, too. I called Essen at about 10am, told her I spent the night at your place and that neither of us would be in today."

  "So, you basically told Captain Essen that we slept together?" Something of a nervous laugh bubbled from my throat. "This... This has to be some sort of dream..."

  "Hey, it gives us both an alibi!" Lauren snapped, her tone surprisingly sharp. "And it's not like it's a total lie either! I did spend the night at your place. Just...not in that way."

I stared at her in shock for a moment, but then quickly looked away, feeling an embarrassed blush creep onto my face as he made one too many risqué remarks that would not stop bouncing around my mind. Clumsily, I got off of my bed, pointing in the vague direction of the bathroom while trying not to trip over my own feet.

  "I-I'm gonna, um... I'm gonna go take a shower, i-if that's alright," I stammered.

  Wordlessly, Lauren nodded, the exhaustion she had no doubt been repressing throughout our conversation suddenly making itself known. She laid down on the bed, turning over on her side, her back to me. I hurriedly went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.

  As soon as I was alone, I let out a shaky sigh, running my hands down my face. How did my life take such an unexpected turn as this?

--------------------------------------------------
omg i've been working on this chapter forever lol

i hope it was worth the wait!

sorry if it's a little dialogue heavy lol but i'm still pretty happy with it!

if you liked it, don't be afraid to let me know! i love hearing from y'all☺️