Can You See It?

Checking In

Even in sleep, Lauren could find no peace. Dream after dream consisted of Kate and CR and by the time Lauren awoke, she felt as if she hadn’t slept but for a moment. Breathing was difficult and Lauren’s mouth hung open as she nearly panted; her sinuses were so congested that she found it impossible to breathe through her nose.

When she had finally caught her breath, Lauren sniffed, shivering violently beneath the blanket that was still wrapped around her hunched shoulders as she closed her eyes. She could feel the dried tears on her skin and her eyes were puffy, but she hadn’t remembered crying. She supposed it wouldn’t have been the first time though and decided not to dwell on it. She didn’t remember what she had dreamed about, but she wasn’t too keen on remembering anyway.

A loud roll of thunder outside the window caught her attention and Lauren’s head lifted lazily to look in that direction, though she couldn’t see outside because of the curtains. With the lamp still on beside the bed, Lauren had a clear view of the room and her eyes were immediately drawn to the figure that sat on the side of the mattress, silent as always.
The rain outside began to pick up, the wind blowing it so that it thundered heavily against the glass of the window. Lauren desperately wanted to lift the curtain and watch as the water poured down on the dead grass of the yard, but she felt too exhausted and ill to do so. Instead, she settled on letting her eyes close so that she could focus on the sound of the rain, picturing it in her mind. Sitting in the center of the mattress, Lauren was hunched over, her eyes closed and her mouth hung open just the slightest so that she could breathe.

A hand suddenly touched her forehead, feather light, but Lauren still jerked away, her eyes flying open. Lauren relaxed a little when she realized who it was - after all, who else would it be? - and her eyes drifted closed again. The person’s hand pressed to her face again, this time on her left cheek. Their touch was so light and delicate that Lauren could hardly believe they were the same person that had attacked her in the darkness of the Kullman mine a few days prior.

The hand that embraced her face was impossibly warm and Lauren found herself leaning into the touch. She probably shouldn’t have, but her need for warmth outweighed any kind of alarm bells that might have been going off in her head. She vaguely made the promise to herself that, at the first sign of immediate danger, she would pull away; that was true enough, considering the human response of fight or flight.

Besides the thumb gently running over her cheek, the woman made no move to continue or stop and Lauren took a small amount of comfort in that which prompted her to do something a little braver (or stupider, she wasn’t sure which yet). Sniffing, Lauren unwound her arm from beneath the blanket and lifted her hand to cover the one on her face. The woman’s thumb stopped for a moment and Lauren practically held her breath until the movement resumed and the breath came rushing from her lungs. This was okay. She wasn’t going to be attacked for this.

Testing her luck, Lauren gently wrapped her fingers around the hand, relishing in the warmth of the other’s skin. Her own felt cold to the touch and the ice in her veins was slowly but surely freezing her; it felt as if the heat in her body was slowly leaking out and she was powerless to stop it. The blanket that had been wrapped around her while she slept was thick but did little to keep her warm.

Breathing heavily through her mouth, Lauren hesitantly wrapped both of her hands around the one that was planted on her face, pulling it away and holding it between her own. The inanimate eyes behind the mask watched Lauren’s every move, studying her. That alone was almost enough to deter Lauren, but she persisted, shrugging the blanket from her shoulders and moving her stiff legs to slide closer to the woman who remained as still as a statue. Slowly moving forward on her knees, Lauren approached the masked woman, a shiver coursing through her body, causing her to tremble.