Lost and Found - Book 1

Chapter 15

Rex's head pounded. She woke up to all white and gasped in terror. It was like the first day that she arrived in this world. Except the white wasn't snow, it was the sheets over her head. And she wouldn't have been so cold if she was dressed.

"Bro, you in there?" A distant voice stirred her brain like a fork. There was knocking at the door and she groaned in pain. The world was spinning.

The door creaked open softly. "I heard you got lucky last night," The voice joked. Rex didn't laugh. Her breath hitched in her throat. She wanted to stay under the sheets. She wanted the white to consume her. A warm body groaned and shifted tiredly next to her.

"I can't find Rex anywhere, though. I'm worried."

Rex sat up slowly, the sheet sliding down her body. She didn't hold it to herself. She felt exposed – ripped open, autopsied. It was more than she could handle.

Mattie froze, standing in front of the bed. His eyes were wide and glassy. "Rex?"

She stared at him, silently, sadly.

"Are you okay? Do you know who I am?" His chest heaved with his breaths. He searched for any explanation for what he was seeing that wouldn't hurt as much as the truth.

"Yes." Rex said. "Mattie, I'm so sorry-"

"No!" Mattie sputtered, stepping back so quickly he almost tripped. His face was pale, his eyes glittering. His shoulder length hair was still pushed back under his forest green beanie. Even now, he looked beautiful. "I don't want to hear it. Don't bother."

He ran out of the room, but maintained his gentle demeanor enough to not slam the door. Rex didn't chase after him.

Alfred groaned again. He rolled until his face popped out of the sheets. He looked like he was still drunk. "What... What?" He threw the sheets off himself suddenly, nearly falling as he jumped out of bed and ran bare-naked to the bathroom. Immediately after the door slammed he could be heard hurling, likely not finding the toilet in time.

Rex sat very still for a few minutes. Her head still pounded and now her heart ached as well. But she couldn't break down now. She didn't want to face Alfred when he came back and she didn't have much time to get out of there. She crawled across the bed and picked up his phone from the bedside table where it was nestled within the forest green beanie he'd worn the night before. She called the only person she thought would come for her.

She put her clothes on quickly. They felt disgusting on her skin, smelling of weed and mixing in with the scent of sex that lingered on her. She walked down stairs.

People were sleeping on the floor. The only person that was awake sat on the couch, a knitted blanket in his lap.

"Where did Mattie go?" Rex asked, her voice hoarse.

"...He left." Francis frowned slightly, his eyes shifting down and up her body quickly but not quick enough to go unnoticed. She nodded. She didn't want to know what he knew. She left the house and waited for Ivan on the sidewalk.

-

Ivan was still staying with Arthur. But Arthur wasn't home, which Rex was slightly relieved by. She didn't want to interact with more people than she had to today. Ivan made some tea and they sat at a little metal and stone French bistro table in Arthur's garden. They were surrounded by colorful swollen buds that patiently waited for spring to come so they could bloom.

Rex hadn't planned on it, but she ended up confiding everything to Ivan. He shared in her sorrow, much more than he was obliged to.

"This is the worst mistake I've ever made," Rex sighed. The steam rising out of her teacup hid the cloudiness in her eyes.