𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞. | "oh, how you ache for gentle hands and the smooth waves of calming voices. i am no messiah of these things but perhaps my warmth will be the soothing medicine you have yearned for in the illusions of familiar faces."
一 in which...
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05 | five
SHE FELT HER HEART POUND AGAINST HER ribcageuncomfortably, feet seeming to sink into the ground to the point where they seemed to mold with the cement and all demands of moving seemed futile. Because at that moment she was ill-equipped with the ability to interact with another human being on any basis, even the thought of looking one in the eye made her want to turn away into the dim stairwell and crawl back into a bed that didn't want her.
Aurora was drained, engulfed by a tiredness more than just skin-deep. But the mere idea of returning to a room that was too blank and a head that was too full made her stomach tie into knots. She felt her teeth clench, shoulders sagging as a long breath of air escaped her lungs.
A single lightbulb sitting atop the exit door illuminated a space roughly eight feet in diameter around Aurora, the light polluting the dark space around it and enabling her to only see a rough outline of a lone figure standing before the railing of the roof. Aurora had no idea who was accompanying her tonight but based on what little she could see, it wasn't someone she was familiar with.
She toyed with the idea of turning back in her head, despite the ache at the back of her neck that sealed the answer to be no. But perhaps she would drift off now, maybe it would work. The sheets could pull her away and sleep would finally come.
No, it won't.
That was that. The voice in her head was right. So, with a lump at the back of her throat, Aurora stepped forward, towards the spot she thought was her own on this lonely floor. Her arms were still pinned in front of her.
She was prepared to speak, prepared to make a light conversation. But she definitely wasn't prepared to do so with him. When the light gave way around her and Aurora was finally able to see her surroundings clearly, her feet almost stopped in their tracks. She should have known his shoulders by now, the way they always seemed to be tense and ready to react. She should have noticed him from a mile away and been able to pin an identity to this figure. But her head still felt light and she hadn't even thought of it to be him when she noticed the presence. It all felt too much like a torturous banality. Apparently, this was who she was: a magnet for all things plaguing and misleading. Ghosts liked to follow her around and haunt her as if she was some empty house with a curse set upon it.
However, her steps only faltered slightly and before she knew it she was getting closer and closer to James. His back was turned to her, but Aurora could see that he was aware of her. His posture was rigid as if bracing for some sort of impact. For someone so reserved and timid, he was surprisingly always on edge.
When she came to a stop a few feet to the right of him, he finally turned to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. Aurora tried to make herself look nonchalant and approachable, despite the steady pounding of her pulse that she could feel in her head. She didn't look at him, not yet. Instead, she focused her eyes on the picturesque scenery of city lights before her and untangled her arms in front of her to put them lightly in the pocket of her hoodie.
