Sick 'n Tired

Chapter 5

He woke to the lull of the ocean. That's what it felt like, at least. Disorientation is fun for no one, especially not for blind guys prone to being knocked unconscious for vigilante reasons. So, reasonably, Matt frantically sat up in his bed, taking in his surroundings. He first noticed his sheets. Silk. His surroundings smelled like his home, but the continuous, nauseating lull made him think twice.

Getting out of bed made matters worse, his balance was off and his head felt like a block of concrete atop his shoulders. Neither of these things helped his stomach, something Matt realized a second too late.

"Oh no," he softly whispered out as he fumbled his way to his bathroom, one hand covering his mouth and the other reaching out to make sure he didn't accidentally bump into anything. His body objected and showed its disapproval in the form of an unmistakable lurch in his gut. He could feel the deep unsettlement burn inside his esophagus and and begin to fill his mouth. In the haste of rapid decision making, he decided a mouth full of vomit was more undesirable than a handful of it, and allowed for the hot sickness to create a new problem down his chin and onto the floor. Upon reaching the toilet, Matt sat down in front of the bowl, letting whatever was left in his stomach to reach a proper location rather than leave any further mess in his now overwhelmingly acidic bathroom. For a while, he just sat there, his head still somewhat dizzy and stomach still somewhat queasy, despite him being sure there was nothing left inside him to even be queasy.

Now feeling even more miserable than he thought possible, Matt sat cradling the bowl, eyes only half open. He felt the cold of the concrete floor seep through his sweatpants and turn his body to ice once again. I've had enough of cold, he thought to himself, still unwilling to move from his position. The smell around him was beginning to become unbearable, it stung at his nose and only reinforced the unwellness his whole body reeked of.

A bath would be nice, he tossed the idea around in his head, raising his eyebrows in subtle desire. He turned towards his bathtub, and although it was less than two feet from where he sat, it seemed to Matt like it were across the globe. He reached out and grabbed the edge of the tub and, with a lot of mental preparation and a shitload more physical effort, began to inch himself toward it.

Grunting with every centimeter, Matt finally sat himself down on the tub's edge and reached for the metal handle that turned on the faucet. In a half-moment of clarity, he remembered to lift up the valve that separates the shower faucet from the tub's, ensuring the water flows into the tub from the basin and not from the shower head into his face. Twisting the handle to the position he had memorized as the perfect temperature, the sick husk of Matt Murdock set the plug in the drain and waited for the water to rise. The humidity of the steam coming off of the warmth in the tub wrapped itself around Matt, relaxing him before he even got into the bath. As the water climbed, he realized that he was still dressed. Without getting up, he slid off his socks and sweats, then removed his shirt with one arm. His other arm remained dangled in the tub, and once he felt the water lap at his fingertips, he shut off the water and listened to it settle. Finally, Matt removed his underwear and descended himself into the case of warmth that he wished he never had to leave.

The waves of the tub consumed him up to the base of his neck. He had to bend his legs slightly to fit his whole body in, so his knees stuck out slightly. The tips of his toes burned, the water wrapping them in flames and sending a not so unpleasant feeling of pain shooting up his feet only to get lost among the heat of water on the skin encasing his calves. His arms were folded over his chest, hands loosely gripping at his biceps and slowly tracing themselves across the length of his arms, occasionally massaging the warm water into his chest. He felt his whole body relax and seep into a state of lethargy that he couldn't recognize if he tried.

The wavy sea of copper-tinted brown that was Matt's hair was still dry, as was the rest of his face; only the hairs that dared to rest on his neck managed to slip under the water and tickle at his skin as it danced through the water. And although he had never been particularly fond of water before, pools typically drowning his senses and debilitating him as harshly as this illness has, and showers of water typically piercing his eardrums at every drop that touched his skin with what felt like the force of a bomb, the feeling that this simple bath gave him made a seriously compelling case to just sink all the way into the slippery abyss. His judgment skills impaired, Matt let the peacefulness make up his mind for him, allowing the water to creep up his neck, overtaking his chin and seeping into the subtle part of his lips. He held his breath as it came for his nose, his closed eyelids feeling the weight of the water gently lap at his lashes, he could feel the way it made its way up his forehead. His hair became heavier the further he sunk, the clarity of every follicle moving alongside the gentle sway of the ocean he lay in was all he could focus on until his entire head was enveloped in the warm embrace of his tub.

Contrarily, his knees alongside the tops of his shins and the bottom of his thighs became exposed, leaving the cold air to sting at them. The only saving grace was the steam that rolled off the surface of the water, rising and tingling at the skin, warming it where the bathroom air had chilled it, only for a breeze to blow the layer of humidity away and for the process to begin again. Matt lay underwater in the tub longer than he cared to keep track of. He was good at holding his breath, it came in handy more often than he would have thought. And so his body remained still, in perfect equilibrium, curled and half hunched in the tub and completely unaware of the woes of the world that surrounded it.

This was the sight that Frank Castle had walked into.