Beneath the Vaults

// Four //

I woke up jet lagged and starving. My mouth was dry, and my gums pulsed with pain. I rolled to the side of the bed and got to my feet. For a second, I didn't remember where I was. The room was familiar and dark, but my mind wasn't focusing enough to think about how I had gotten there. An ache pounded in my head, like my brain was swollen and throbbing against the back of my eyes.

I made my way over to the window and pulled back the heavy curtains. Instead of sunlight streaming into the room like I had expected, the sky glowed a deep, wine red with the setting autumn sun. It cast the city's old buildings in dark, gloomy silhouettes. Clouds glowed on the horizon as the wind blew in a storm.

I turned away from the window and found my clothes on the bed. As I dressed myself, my headache dulled and my mind slowly started working again. I was in Edinburgh. I'd slept at Clara's apartment. Her friend Jen had come over, and then after I went to sleep...

My lungs skipped a breath as I remembered how Jen had locked me in the previous night. My heart pounding, I rushed to the door and turned the knob. With a sudden and unexpected click, it gave, and I fell out into the living room.

Clara was sitting on the couch, turning pages in a thick, worn book. Her hair fell over her ear, obscuring her face like a curtain, and her feet rested on the lower level of the coffee table—the center piece of the room. Its glass surface was tinted a golden-yellow with age, but in an antique way, not like it was old or over-worn.

She looked like she belonged here. Her apartment had personality. It was a home.

I thought about my own place and its bland furnishings. My single bedroom flat was only 784 square feet, but it was empty in comparison. The only thing that set my IKEA black-brown coffee table apart from its ten-hundred-thousand siblings was the pattern of water rings from glasses I hadn't cared enough to find coasters for.

Standing in Clara's living room made me feel self-conscious. I felt like a child.

She turned another page in her book as she brushed her dark hair behind her ear. I wished I'd at least glanced in a mirror before stepping out of the guest bedroom. I was sure I looked like a mess.

I shifted on my feet, and the floor creaked. Suddenly, Clara snapped her head around to face me.

"Hey!" Her voice was almost too cheery, like she'd been waiting for me. She dog-eared a page of her book and set it down on the coffee table. "You're up." A soft smile stretched across her features as she stood.

"Yeah," I said nervously.

She blinked a couple of times as she approached me. She wore less makeup than she had the previous night at the bar, but her eyes still looked dark and enticing with the light shadow across them.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm okay," I said, but as soon as the words left my mouth, I knew they were a lie. The uncertainty about my future was overwhelming, and I felt myself choking like I was drowning. What was going to happen to me when I went home? What would my life be like? Would I be able to take back my old job, or would I have to find something else to do? Something at night and never see the sun...

"Did you sleep all right?" Clara's voice brought me back out of my thoughts, and I snapped my eyes to meet hers.

"Yeah," I replied quickly as I thought about the sun already setting outside. "How late is it?"

"It's a bit past six."

"Wow, I slept forever." I forced a chuckle. She hadn't broken eye contact with me once, and I was starting to feel uncomfortable. The conversation I'd overheard the previous night crept back into my mind. Clara and Jen were hiding something. Why didn't they want me to know what was going on?