Traveling Souls

Chapter 21

Unlike the usual mornings, I awoke with a pounding headache, the room feeling like it was spinning, and a glass of water with a pill on the table.

"Hey.." I trailed off, looking around the room. The blinds were shut, thankfully, sparing me from the bright sunlight outside. Was there no one here?

"Hello?" I said again, slightly louder. Even though my head was pounding, I swung my legs out of bed, ready to walk out the door before a thought dawned on me. This wasn't my room. Whose room was it? I eyed around the room slowly, noticing a girl sitting on a chair nearby the door, smiling at me once she realized I was up and walking.

"You're up? That's good! Stay here, I'll let everyone know you're up and fine! Take your pill, Lucy." the mysterious girl said cheerfully, opening and shutting the door quickly to let as little light in as possible.

I stared in confusion at the door, shaking it off and grabbed the glass of water. Shoving the pill into the back of my throat, I drank, swallowing the pill and flopped back into bed.

The door opened and I groaned, covering my eyes with the pillow. I inhaled for a second, before tossing the pillow onto the floor. Whose bed was I in? Did I--Oh my god, I did not--I couldn't have. I started to panic, shooting up, causing my dizziness to get even worse.

The brown-haired girl's eyes fell onto me launching for the trash can. "Hey, calm down!"she cried out, pulling back my hair as I threw up nothing except spit.

I pulled away from the trash can, staring at her in the dimmed light of the room. "Who are you?"

She looked slightly disappointed at first, frowning. "Don't you remember? Quinn? Girl from astronomy building? Who helped--" she froze, breaking into a coughing fit.

"Who helped..? Who helped what?" I asked, looking at her. I did remember her, but not that well. Our meetings had been brief and ended quickly.

"Nothing, nothing. Get some rest, Lucy. If you need anything, uh, I'll be checking in on you. Or someone else will." With that, she stood up, tucked me into the large bed, and walked out of the room quietly.

With my head continuing to pound like someone was slamming a brick over it, more like three, I shut my eyes and willed myself not to fling out of bed to the trash can. That's it. I reach over, grabbing blindly for the glass of water, finally finding the glass and bringing it over to me. I swallow it in a few gulps, set it back on the bedside table, and roll over, hoping to fall asleep.

All I know is, I'm never drinking again.

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I open my eyes slowly, letting a moan pass through my lips as the pounding returned, only slightly better. I'll have to face the shower and the light, headache or no headache. Time to figure out who's bed I'm in.

I stand up wobbly, trying to grab hold of the bedside table. Instead, I ended up swiping the glass off the table and sent it to the floor with a crash. Freezing up at the noise, I stare at the broken pieces on the floor. I looked up to see the door being opened, catching me in the act.

"Lucy? Are you okay? I heard a crash--Oh god! Are you okay? I should've given you a plastic cup, I'm so sorry.." Trailing off she rushed towards the mess, grabbing a broom to sweep up the tiniest pieces of glass.

"Quinn?"

"Yeah?" She looked up at me and gave me a weary smile, dark circles under her eyes.

"Did..did you get any sleep?"

She paused at this, dropping the broom. "Yeah, I did, obviously." she said merrily, flashing me a grin.

"Quinn, wait, I wanted to ask..where am I?"