Play with Fire

Chapter 16

Delilah felt something poking her in her foot. At first, she kicked at it, thinking nothing of it. But when she heard an exaggerated "ow," she opened her eyes. Only then did she realize she was in the lab, not her bedroom. It took her a few seconds to gather her thoughts, then she remembered last night. She sat up, noticing Jerome was already awake and, somewhat creepily, watching her.

He lay on his front on the table. His arm had a little more color in now. His finger was what had been poking Delilah's foot, his other arm propping up his tilted head. "Why are you in my room?"

Delilah spun her office chair around, taking her propped-up feet off his "bed". "Firstly, this isn't really your room, it's more... my lab. And secondly, I had a nightmare. It's just that it's been a while since I had one about my father..."

Jerome watched her as she sat up, using her blanket like a sort of cloak as she pushed away her office chair, returning back to his bedside, standing this time. "My bad."

She rubbed her eyes and looked down at him. "What?"

"I guess walking yesterday really took it out of me. I was in a pretty deep sleep last night."

She shook her head. "It's fine."

"What was it about?"

"It was a memory...a bad one..."

"Practice lucid dreaming."

"Huh?"

"Lucid dreaming, you can control your dreams. I used to get those kinda nightmares all the time," he shrugged. "But then I practiced lucid dreaming. Now I can kill whoever I want in my dreams."

She felt a smile form on her face. "Sounds fun." She yawned. "I'll definitely try that sometime."

A few hours had passed.

Delilah had showered and composed herself a little better. She felt a little stupid to have gotten scared from such a normal nightmare, but she was thankful Jerome hadn't gone deeper into it. She looked down at her recording device, about to press record, but stopping.

"No point in using it," Jerome reminded her.

"That's what I was thinking. After all, I have no written documents to back it up." She shot a look at Jerome.

"Y'know, I think I'm hungry," he said, patting his stomach.

"Oh damn. Of course you are. I forgot about food."

"Hmm, what do I fancy?" he placed a finger on his chin and looked up to the right, as if he was in deep thought. "Ah! Two sausages, three eggs, some bacon, a slice of toast, some fried mushrooms and an earl Gray tea!" he looked at Delilah for a reply.

She let out an unladylike snort. "I can get you some porridge and coffee. Maybe extra sugar."

He tutted, frowning. "The service around here is unsatisfactory. I will have you know, I'm giving this place a negative review."

She sighed. "You can't eat too much." She explained, placing her hands on her hips. "You haven't eaten solids in weeks. Your body would go into shock. Let's start slow and build from that. Okay?"

The ginger pointed a stern finger at his doctor. "You owe me some good food when we get out of this place! Speaking of which," he took a lock of her hair and played around with it, earning him a creeped-out look from Delilah. "Plans for this evening?"

Delilah lowered her voice, pulling her hair from his fingers. "First of all, stop playing with my hair, it's weird. Secondly, tonight? You can't be serious?"

Jerome pointed at his face. "Take a long look doll, cuz this is the only time you're gonna see me with this expression. I am serious."

Delilah shook her head exasperatedly. "Jerome, you don't have enough energy yet! You've only been awake a short while. What if you fall or something happens? If we get caught, we'll be killed!"