The Ordinary Haunting

BONUS 13.5 New and the Early Morning

8am. Couldn't sleep.

Out until 3am. Drinking. Probably was still a little drunk. Five hours doesn't get you sober and doesn't get you hungover, either. Should have been in a good buzz right now. Was not.

Why be awake at 8am? There was pizza buried in the roof of my mouth. I eat too quickly when I'm drinking. Don't chew very thoroughly. Evidently don't brush very thoroughly, either. Pretty sure I brushed, anyway.

Cat hair up my nose again. Luna coiled in her bed by the window like she'd never moved. Luna was too smart and too impatient and too loving to have gotten herself stuck with a workaholic owner. I was an arsehole for wanting to keep her.

Same arsehole who abandoned her for three days to sleep on a couch in the office. Good thing she trusted Earth. Literally no-one else could have got her to eat anything.

Three nights on Godji's couch. My neck was still crook, though the alcohol seemed to have dulled the ache for now. Couldn't sleep those nights either. Apparently I got myself a ghost. Also DeeDee's new manuscript had a hippo fighting a shark and I had no damn clue how to advise her on that.

I shucked off the bed covers and swung my legs over the side. I pressed my toes into the slightly sticky floorboards and pushed until they crackled. My toes, not the floorboards. In the mornings the floorboards would attract all the steam from the huge windows -- even with the curtains drawn -- and begin to sweat, but they never made anything like those satisfying creaking sounds old houses make in movies. My toes, however, were often really noisy, and the earlier it was, the louder they would pop.

I stood slowly, testing the response in my eyes. When I was sure they could hold still and I wouldn't suddenly lose the (questionable) contents of my stomach, I moved for the door. Just as I gripped the handle, a small thud sounded from the other side. I paused. Turned my ear to the door (though I now realised there was a ringing in my skull that only sped up as it met the obstruction) and listened. Misjudged the distance and hit my forehead. Heard a louder thump. Jumped and hit my head again. Was replied with the loudest thump yet.

Quite the conversation.

I swallowed a gripe and finally got myself out into the hallway. At the end, the living room was lit up insanely brightly, thick yellow streams of sunlight blazing almost to my bedroom doorway. Clouds of dust swirled in the air. I edged forward with curiosity. There were no windows open and the cooling wasn't on, yet that dust was properly swirling. I came to stand at the mouth of the hallway and watched it get swatted back and forth, from left by the window, to right by the entryway, from away in the kitchen, to directly in front of me. It blew past me whilst the rest in the room came to a halt. I folded my arms, peering carefully ahead.

"Good morning?"

After a heavy pause, the coffee table was rammed back an inch. There was a chunk of rock sitting on top of it that jolted at the tremor. Why it was there at all would be my second question. Actually, third.

"What are you doing?"

A notepad beside the rock was lifted into the air, a pen following it. They were from my kitchen. If I had the right notepad and pen. Pretty sure I did.

Though what did I know about my own apartment lately?

The tip of the pen sank into the paper, hard. Like it was thinking. Like he was thinking. I guess I could still see him thinking, like this.

Finally words came and the pad was held up for me to see. Good morning.

I leaned forward, blinking away the sunlight and the simmering headache rising behind my eyes. Hungover after-all. "Right. Good morning." I waved my hand for him to continue.