kai parker • villains of circumstance ✔️

CHAPTER SIXTY ONE

CHAPTER SIXTY ONE
[61]
song: shine on you crazy diamond pt. 1-5 by pink floyd

IN HER DREAMS she is standing in a puddle, she is normal. Yet her reflection in the puddle, in the world of the upside-down, is a decaying corpse. Eyes rotten and skin falling off, she is what she should be. Dead.

While the image was horrifying she felt no fear. It was familiar and almost comforting. She wanted to stay in the peace that death brought; the peace that this was final and there was no more hurt, no more torment, no more guilt or grieving. There was nothing but peace.

Life in blood stained hands grabbed onto her shoulders and yanked her back into reality.

Awakening with a gasp, she found herself right back where she was an hour ago— an uncomfortable bed that she'd desperately been trying to stay asleep in for the past three hours.

Daisy pushed the uncomfortable duvet cover off off her sweat covered body, letting the breeze of the fan in the corner of the room make its rounds back over to her.

She leaned forward, rubbing her eyes frustratedly. Every bone of her body was telling her to sleep, but her mind wouldn't let her. It was like as soon as she was alone with her thoughts, her brain had to remind her that she couldn't get what she really wanted. It showed her peace, and then ripped it out from under her feet, knocking her right back into a deathless life.

She got to her feet, her aching body practically screaming at each step as she trudged forward out the bedroom door. She squinted her eyes at the hallway light, and yawned as she turned into the kitchen.

"I thought you went to bed." Kai says, glancing up at Daisy from the kitchen table, where he sat writing things in a book.

Daisy shrugged weakly, wiping her tired eyes with the sleeve of the sweatshirt she wore. "Nightmare." She says as she turns and opens the fridge. "Again." She lets out a deep sigh as she examines her options.

Unless she wanted to cook an entire steak, her options in the fridge were limited. She walked back over to the table and sat across Kai. "Have you been sat here this whole time?" She asks.

Kai leaned against his palm, his eyes scanning the pages of the book that sat flat in front of him, his pen tapping against it. "I'm testing a theory." He responds.

She grabbed a piece of the half eaten brownies from the tray on the table, putting her feet up on the chair. "Which is?" Daisy says.

"How long I can go without sleep here." Kai responds. Daisy glances at the book which was full of written notes and charts.
Daisy looked back up at him, he had yet to take his eyes off the page.

"And you're doing this why?" Daisy asks, leaning forward and reaching out towards the book to read it.

Kai sits up, pulling the book away from her reach. She narrowed her eyebrows at him. "Because sleep helps us grow. And we're not growing so... why sleep?" He says, trying to convince himself that he was onto some kind of groundbreaking theory.

"You look tired." She says.

Kai shook his head. "I'm not."

She took another bite from the brownie, grabbing another and handing it to Kai, who accepted it with a sigh. "How else are you going to pass the time if you don't sleep?" Daisy let's out a small scoff as she spoke.