Never Ending Days

Chapter 5

-

Madison awoke in the middle of the night to her front door opening and shutting, and footsteps coming up the stairs. She thought it may have been someone who wanted to do her harm, yet at the same time figured it was all in her head. But Smores, who was resting near her head, had shot up, eyes darting around the room, ears in straight triangles. Not sure what to do in her sleepy state of mind, Madison rolled over facing opposite of her bedroom door and drifted back off to sleep within seconds. She could hear her door shift open, and someone quietly make their way over to her.

"Madison." She heard someone whisper. She recognized the voice, but was too tired to remember whos it was. She felt the other side of her bed shift, and someone shaked her, as you would do to wake someone up. "Madison wake up." She remembered whose voice that was, and felt a huge rush of relief. It was only Erich, but why was he here in the middle of the night? Madison rolled over and groaned.

"What's wrong?" She stretched out and adjusted her eyes to the dark. Erich looked like he just woke up as well, he was in his pajamas and his hair was a mess.

"Is this your cat?" Erich asked, petting Smores- who to Madison's jealously, seemed to enjoy it. Madison only nodded in response. "Erich, why are you here." She asked again, reaching across Erich to check the time on her phone. "It's 1am."

"I came up with something." Erich hopped off her bed, Smores following him. "The wiring- I've got an idea."

"What did you come up with?" She asked as she pushed her covers off herself and got out of bed.

"The wiring, we were fitting too many wires into one circuit." Erich took a deep breath and kept talking. "The electricity conducted by the leading circuits are enough energy, and we kept trying to add more circuits- we thought the masthead would take too much energy, but if you think about it, it'll only conduc-"

"It only conducts 70 watts." Madison cut him off, lost in details of where they went wrong.

Erich shook his head at their mistake. "At the most. We were setting it up with 300."

"We'll fix it tomorrow." Madison said, stretching again.

"No." Erich walked out of Madison's room. She and Smores- who had been sitting on Erich's foot- followed. "We're going to figure this out now."

"It's 1:12 in the morning, Erich." Madison said flatly as she followed Erich down the stairs.

"Let's get this done."

"You've got to be joking!" Madison complained.

"I don't care how tired you are," He said. "If I'm going to reroute anything, I at least need you there so I won't have to explain anything to you." Madison didn't have to respond, she knew it was an order, and followed Erich out of her condo to his car. "You can catch some sleep on the drive." He laughed.

"I was already planning on it." Madison buckled into the passenger seat. She set her arm on the windowsill of the Lexus, and leaned her head against it as he pulled out of the parking garage. It was raining outside, and the sounds of the windshield wipers and rain against the window's sent her off to sleep.

-

Madison awoke when she heard the engine of the car turn off.

"Are we here." She asked Erich.

"Obviously," He said. "Ready to make a run for it?" Madison looked outside. It was pouring outside, occasional flashes of lighting following by distant rumbles of thunder. She cringed thinking about leaving the warm car and getting cold and wet. Erich seemed to see this and he threw her his jacket from the back seat of the car.