Imperium

Chapter 2: Irregularity

The light shining through the gaps between the curtains shines down on Edith's face and she groans, rolling over and pulling a pillow over her eyes. She can hear that the rain has either stopped or lessened by only small droplets pattering against the windowsill. The room is still dark, and she has no way of telling how long she's been out.

She grumbles as she realizes she probably slept in and her first thought is why CLive didn't wake her up. Then she remembers her reality. He's gone and instead, she's stuck here with Colin who claims to be wanting to help her, but she refuses to trust him. He may not be Alain, but he has his mind. She can't forget or ever unsee what he did. He wears the face of the man who ruined her new family.

In more ways than one.

She forces herself to open her eyes and immediately feels the splitting headache begin pounding in her skull. Her stomach growls so she looks towards the end table beside her bed, only to remember that she had eaten what little food they had last night after the third time waking up from nightmares. She whines into her pillow. With a heavy sigh, she rubs at her eyes and pushes her morning hair out of her face to look around the room.

"...Colin...?" she yawns groggily.

He isn't anywhere in the room, and a part of her is glad to not have to deal with him immediately in the morning. But she knows that she needs to get up and make progress towards getting home. This whole situation feels so much like her waking up in the new Utopia over a year ago, only this time instead of seeking revenge on the man who ruined her life, she's forced to work with him to get home.

There's no response so she grumbles and kicks the blankets to the foot of the bed, then immediately mourning the loss of the warmth. "Colin..." she repeats herself louder and feels her stomach churn again.

She hates having to rely on him like this. She can take care of herself, but between the two of them, he's clearly far more functional right now. It may stab her in the pride, but she knows that in this case, she can't let her pride get in the way. It's something she learned from John, and like him, she hopes to be able to carry on with that same mindset.

She must be strong like him.

The front door cracks open and Colin peeks his head into the room, peering at her through the dark with his glowing green eyes. "You... called?" he says with uncertainty as if he's not sure if she actually did or if it was just his own imagination telling him she needs him.

Edith studies him quizzically with narrowed eyes. "What were you doing outside...?" she mumbles.

Colin pushes the door open further and stands awkwardly in the entrance. "Last night you told me to leave you alone... so I did."

Edith frowns. "Were you out there all night?" she questions with irritation.

Colin shrugs and nods. "Um... was I not supposed to? Sorry... I didn't mean to—"

"Just... Forget it..." Edith mumbles and drops back into the pillow. Colin looks her over intently, then meets her closed eyes.

"Would you mind if I run a diagnostic on you? I need to make sure your EPC is restoring properly," he asks and takes another step into the room.

Edith groans and shrugs. "I don't care... I just want food..." she complains. Colin cracks a smile to himself. Even with all the bad things that have happened recently, at least her complaining in the mornings has stayed the same.

He nods and scans his eyes over her chest, processing her EPC data. He smiles and blinks to stop the diagnostic. "The good news is, your EPC is at thirty-eight percent. You are no longer in critical danger of becoming Insentient, however, more rest will be required before you are truly better," he says.