Powering OFF

10

Lost Mind
——-
"Cassie, what the hell is going on here?"

Leah's pacing around the living room with a horrid expression on her face. I watch her go from window to window, desperately banging on the windows and door.

"Don't bother. I've tried that already. Plenty of times."

She ignores me and keeps banging. She went on for what felt like five minutes. I am balled up in the corner trying not to focus on the headache that was gradually coming back.

"I should go stock up on more food."

My hands are centered on the floor as I prepare to lift myself up and hobble over to the kitchen.

Leah finally comes to her senses later, after realizing that knocking on the wall and calling for help wouldn't do anything.

We sit next to each other on the floor, glasses of tap water in our hands, reflecting on our lives. Or what's left of them.

Our backs are touching the patio door because even though it is stuffy inside of the house, it was still below freezing outside.

The sun was almost setting when Leah first came through the door. In a few hours, it will be pitch black in here.

"All of this time...I didn't believe you." Her voice shakes as she gazes at me with hopeless eyes.

"It's in the past. Right now we have to think about how we're going to get out."

Leah still beats herself up about not listening to me. "But you tried to tell me and I just kept pushing you away." I nod in hopes that she'd just shut up.

It seems like I could think better when I was forced to do it alone.

"I'm truly sorry Cassie."

Alright, I can't take it anymore. I get up from the hardwood floor we're sitting on and start to refill my glass. I don't even care if the alarm goes off. It's not like my headache could get any worse.

"How long have you been dealing with this? It had to be at least a month or two?" Leah raises her hands and counts the months on her finger as she speaks.

"Yes," I reply.

She scoots over so I can return to my spot on the floor. Sweat's collecting on my forehead again. My arms are almost too feeble to wipe it off this time.

"Look, Leah, we don't have much time. I don't know how long this will last, but I am withering away."

"So, we can either talk about how you didn't believe me this whole time, or we can try to keep ourselves alive."

She looks up at me and wipes a tear from her eye. "Okay."

"Do you have your phone with you? Try the police. Just in case."

I know I've tried calling them as soon as all of this started, but it wouldn't hurt to try again.

Leah pulls her phone out of her back pocket. As she holds it to her ear, her face scrunches up. "No luck," she murmurs.

"Okay, come with me up to my room, I have some food up there."

"But, be careful!" I add. "The control panel has a motion sensor. It will go off any time one of us moves in front of it."

We sit in my room, barely able to see each other because of the darkness caused by the outage. After ten minutes pass, Leah decides to speak.

"Are you okay?" she asks. I wipe off the sweat running down my ear before responding. "I'm alright. You?"

Leah sighs. "Yeah."

"Could you hand me another water bottle?"

I hesitantly feel around for another bottle of water to give her, although I wanted us to eat and drink as sparingly as we could.

While we're sitting here, I tell her I'm going to use the bathroom.

When I come back, Leah is sound asleep on my bed.

I lie down with her, with my back facing hers so I can watch the window, just in case. But, it's a slim chance that we'll get rescued anytime soon.