Misery County

Chapter 5 - Part 1

A smash. A scream. Footsteps. Pleading. Groaning. A gunshot. A pause. More gunshots. An angered growl. A dull thud. Slowing breathing. Slowing, slowing, slowing. Then only silence.

Eric lazily forced his eyes open. As had been the case on many nights, the same nightmare haunted his sleep. Aaron's death, Eric's impotence against the werewolf that killed him, and finally, the sensation of rough werewolf fur in the palm of his hand - the same tuft of fur that he still carried with him wherever he went.

"Something wrong, stud?" came the voice from the other side of the bed.

Eric considered the absolute darkness of the room. "I didn't realize you were awake."

"I'm always awake."

"Right, that's not weird at all."

"Were you having a bad dream?" Nevena cooed, ignoring his careless barb.

"No, I'm fine."

"Your breathing was quite... irregular."

"I'm just hungover," he lied.

Rolling over to face her for the first time in the morning, Eric met Nevena's gaze. A sort of serenity washed over him as he looked into her eyes. His cares melted away, as did everything else in the world. When he looked into her eyes, only she mattered. While he couldn't figure out why he felt so strongly about someone he'd only met the night before, a presence in his mind told him not to question it, and he felt it natural to obey.

"You seem like you have so much on your shoulders, weighing you down, making you sad," Nevena said as she rubbed his shoulder.

"I - I guess I do," Eric answered almost automatically. Why was he spilling his feelings to this stranger? What happened to his trademark stoicism?

"Don't you wish you didn't have to bear this burden?"

"I do wish that - wait, what burden are you talking about?"

"I can sense your tension. Your muscles are all knotted up. Only you know what's bringing you down, and I won't ask, but I think you know you can leave it all behind if you wanted to."

"Yeah, leaving everything behind sounds good." Am I really considering this? What's going on? I need a distraction. Eric's mind was racing. He rolled over onto his other side and reached for his phone. What had he been saying? What had he been thinking? He felt like he was only just regaining his mental faculties. Having conversations with people this soon after waking up wasn't something he'd done for years, and if this one was anything to go by, not a very good idea.

"It looks like you've got a few missed calls, big guy," Nevena said, peering over his shoulder.

Eric grunted in affirmation. They were from Cassie. What had happened last night? Why couldn't he remember? Had he really been that drunk? One moment Cassie was there, then she was gone, but try as he might, he couldn't properly remember when or how it happened.

"Hey, did I get the chance to introduce you to my friend last night?" Eric asked, eyes still on his phone as he checked the call times.

"Who?" Nevena asked, tracing a finger on Eric's back.

"I was with an old friend of mine last night. We were together when you showed up." Eric hesitated. "I think we were together when you showed up."

"Oh, sweetie, you were quite drunk last night. I think she must have left before we met."

"No, I don't think so."

"I thought you said you didn't know," Nevena said with a saccharine giggle.

"You obviously did, since you referred to her as 'she.' I made no such distinction when I spoke about her just now."

"Oh, well, you see -"

"What the hell?" Eric interrupted her. "Those are some amazing blackout curtains you've got. Either that, or my phone is busted. It says it's eight in the morning." Eric slipped out from the bed and walked over to the closed curtains. "You don't mind if I - what the fuck is this?"