Blizzard

chapter 24

Shelby shot upright, breathing heavily. Her hair stuck to the sweat on her neck and her forehead. She looked around the room. It was dimly lit by the light filtering in from behind the curtains. She seemed to be in the same room she vaguely remembered waking up in before, and not in another dream. Or at least she hoped.

It was the guest room. Toni's guest room. Toni. Who was lying right next to her. Awake.

"Sorry," Shelby said once her eyes met Toni's, which were filled with concern. Her voice was slightly less hoarse than the previous time she'd woken up.

"It's alright." Toni said, her voice low and even more husky than usual from having just woken up, "How are you feeling?"

Shelby found it hard to focus on the words Toni was saying and not the attractive husk with which they were voiced. Between that and the fact that she'd just woken up, it took her a few seconds to process Toni's question and formulate an answer. "I'm okay," Shelby said, glossing over how she really felt, though her rigid posture probably betrayed how far from okay she actually was. But she didn't really feel like getting into all that. She'd really rather just forget about it. "What time is it? Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, it's kinda hard not to when you suddenly have my arm in a death grip," Toni said. Her tone was soft and anything but mad or annoyed at being awoken or apparently having her wrist held captive in Shelby's tight clutch.

Shelby looked down and, sure enough, her hand was firmly holding onto Toni's wrist. Shelby cringed, "I'm sorry." She didn't know how she hadn't noticed before what her own hand had been doing. Shelby quickly loosened her grip but she couldn't bring herself to let go. Not yet at least. This simple touch, however small, was enough to ground her, to make the memories brought forth by her subconscious fade to the background, and to make the unnerved, queasy feeling that tried to linger slowly dissipate. She wondered if the withdrawal of the tea had anything to do with her restless sleep and the dreams, or if it was just the experience of the past few days that had caused the nightmares, which were mostly just memories, to return more intensely than they had been in a long time.

Her grip was loose enough for Toni to take her arm away, out of Shelby's grip, or to simply shrug her off, but she didn't. Instead, she turned her hand so her palm lay facing upwards.

It was an invitation. One that Shelby took gladly and with very little hesitation.

Toni intertwined their fingers as Shelby lay back down and turned onto her side to face her.

Toni seemed to take that as a cue to turn onto her side as well.

"Thank you for stayin'," Shelby rasped, almost as softly as a whisper. For some reason, lying so closely in the dark with their faces only mere inches apart, she couldn't bring herself to speak any louder. It felt like it would disturb the little private bubble they currently found themselves in, closed off from the rest of the world.

Toni squeezed her hand. "How are you actually feeling?"

Shelby closed her eyes and sighed through her nose. She shrugged. "Not great."

"What were you dreaming about?" Toni asked.

"Just...things. Memories mostly." Shelby said, opening her eyes, though avoiding looking into Toni's because if she did she most likely would get distracted and forget what she was going to say, especially with their current proximity. Instead, she looked down at where strands of Toni's dark brown hair lay on the shared pillow. She picked up one of the slight curls with her free hand, playing with it as she asked, "How much have I told you about Doctor Klein's research facility?"

"Just that you went to them to get cured, and instead of doing that, they, like, experimented on you."

"It's more than just that. The things I saw there..." Shelby sighed. "I was pretty complacent; they never physically hurt me aside from maybe some of the more unpleasant tests. But others who weren't–who hadn't chosen to be there–the ones who resisted, who fought back, they...Let's just say they received harsher treatment, to put it mildly."