Reaction Time- A Tal Fishman Fanfic

They're here

Spending the evening feeling the soft caress of the waves against the bare skin of your torso and legs, you wound up sat on the beach with Tal until you fell asleep in his arms that were draped over your slumped shoulders. Your shins outstretched upon the sea of grains, Tal enclosed you in his. His legs resumed their normal position on the outside of you as if to offer some form of protection from whatever may pose a throat. You felt that he had one hand clasped around his wrist that hung just below your collarbones and a slight smile crept onto your face as you woke up. You didn't make an attempt to move your head so that you could look at him but your eyes wandered up until they were met with Tal's prominent jawline and you could faintly make out the slight curve of his lips as he looked out towards the water. "You actually look like a model from every angle, you know. You could charge people to look at you." He snapped from his fixed gaze on the water and looked down at you, his pearly white teeth perfect mirrors of the his perfect smile. Running his fingers through your hair, he began whispering as if you were still asleep. "Abercrombie did call but I told them I was hanging out with my girlfriend today." He winked at you and started to stand up, stretching his hands towards so he could haul you up too. "Maybe some other time, like when you don't have sand in your hair or something." His hand immediately came to his hair and his fingers ran through it vigourously to try and dislodge the million grains of sand that clung desperately to the strands of his hair. You laughed at his futile attempt, knowing that no number of shakes would get rid of them. "Alright you, stop laughing at me! This is a serious matter though, I'm like Medusa right now. But it's sand instead of stone." You knew he was playing but he looked genuinely panicked at the amount of sand that continued to fly from his head as he shook it that you wandered over to him and started to run your own fingers through his hair.

 You lowered yourself from your position on your toes that you had somehow gotten into after minutes of trying to rid Tal of the sand and let your forearms rest on his shoulders. You felt the warmth of Tal's own arms around your waist as he rested his head on your shoulder, feeling his breath through the material of your shirt. The both of you stood there for a while, breathing in the smell of each other that mingled lovingly with the fresh ocean breeze that offered the soft scent of salt. "I love you." Tal spoke into the fabric that covered your body as you reciprocated the statement in his ear. With that, he bent down and gathered your legs in his arms, hoisting you up to carry you home. "You romantic, you." Placing a small kiss on his parted lips, you continued to rest your head upon his shoulder and shut your eyes as you remembered the darkness that consumed everything only hours before.  You remembered to the moments just before, when you and Tal were intertwined with each other and how you felt so connected to everything. But then it came and you weren't so in sync anymore because the black weaved its way into every crack and crevice and filled you up from the inside. It scared you. It scared Tal too but he seemed to ignore it. Now his mother's story played on your mind. The sight of someone outside- it didn't sit right at all. 

As a little girl, you had this reoccurring nightmare where the black gathered into a broad-shouldered beast and chased you, with its red eyes flaming and its tight jaw opening and closing as torrents of foaming spit passed through the gaps it was creating. Never a distinct face to remember, you were always able to recall the sense of fear that strangled you and deprived access to any oxygen to your lungs whenever you thought back to it. It was silly to think of something like that in reality but, as you focused more on the words that his mother spoke, it crept into your mind that perhaps the nightmare was seeping in through the cracks of ordinary reality to paint it with shades of black and grey and red. The more you thought of it, the less silly it began to sound but you knew that your mind was running havoc and chasing shadows that weren't there at all. You decided to put it out of your mind and soon you felt safe in the slumber that your thoughts had lured you into. No more monsters of raging black or shadows of sickly grey- you were safe. 

"Rob? Rob, babe. It's time to wake up, we're here." Your eyes began to let the light of your porch stream in and become accustomed to the familiar building of your house. Putting you down gently, Tal placed a kiss on the top of your head before you asked if he'd like to come in for a drink. "Sure, but I have to go soon. I don't feel right about leaving mum on her own for that long." You smiled at how concerned he was, over something that you had convinced yourself was nothing. "She's not alone. Adi is there and your dad's home now. She'll be fine but let me know how she is in the morning?" He nodded and took your hand as you began to lead him into your kitchen. Once there, you saw your own mum sitting at the wooden table that sat in the middle of the floor, her head in her hands. "Mum?! Are you okay, what's up?" You let go of your boyfriend's hand and walked slowly over to the slumped figure tucked behind the table. Grabbing at her wrists to that you could see her face, she tried to resist but eventually gave way to your persistence. Looking at her then, you saw a gash running like a river along the side of her face. It was oozing her crimson blood but she made no attempt to clean it up. "Mum! What happened?!" You spoke frantically as you opened the cupboard door to find the first aid kit that had been stashed there without thought. She didn't speak but instead rocked back and forth until you got back to her side and looked into her hazel eyes. Dabbing gently at her wound with a cotton swab and then spraying it with antiseptic, you tried to prompt words from her mouth until finally her sporadic whimpers joined to form words. "They're here.

The dead are living."