IV. Company and a Cat

568 42 4
                                    

company and a cat

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

company and a cat

TW: flashback involving abuse (if you wish to skip this, skip from "Artemis blinked, the word dog echoing in his head" to "Artemis wheezed.") and a panic attack

HIS DAY hadn't started well, and it didn't get much better as it went on. Artemis woke halfway off his bed, Kotik standing on his chest and his entire lower half alight with pain. With an unbecoming, disoriented wheeze, he shifted back onto the bed, a hand coming up to steady the cat, and Kotik let out a startled mrow, leaping off his chest and making a new bed on the pillow. He sat up slowly, taking care to breathe slowly and deeply as he shifted so that his feet were touching the ground. His hands stayed bracing himself on the mattress, his head swimming once he was fully up.

His apartment bedroom was dimly lit by the sun shining through the blinds, but the little light there was made his eyes ache. On his nightstand, the bright pink pill organizer Estelle bought him when they picked up his prescription sat, saying nothing as most inanimate objects do but still managing to mock him. With a grimace and shaky hands, he managed to pop open the first container, taking Sunday's dose. The pill felt like an intruder as he swallowed it, a dull pain the whole way down.

Risking a glance at his phone, his eyes widened at the time. It was almost noon—his first lesson of the day started at ten.

"Shit, shit, Гавно!"

He noticed an odd lack of calls from Estelle—found it even stranger that she hadn't just come into his apartment herself to wake him up, but he didn't think about it further as he pressed the call button on her contact.

She picked up after the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Is everything okay?" He began immediately, grimacing and wheezing as he bent down to shove his socks on. He babbled, taking no care to mask his accent, "I overslept; I will be there soon, do—"

"Artemis."

"I can still teach the last of my classes; did the first one go okay?"

"Artemis."

He grabbed his shoulder bag, ignoring how his legs buckled slightly when he stood, still rambling into his phone. "I am on my wa—"

"Artemis," Estelle snapped. He paused.

"Yes?"

He could hear her sigh over the phone, could picture her pursed lips. "You don't have lessons today, Artemis."

Artemis paused, all the earlier adrenaline and anxiety leaving his body, leaving him with the fogginess and pain he woke up with. He stumbled and fell onto the couch in his living room. He blinked. Huh. The room was spinning.

"Oh," he said, voice small—


"—Sorry."

HELLHOUNDWhere stories live. Discover now