Masks

Chapter 17

The next day was a struggle to even move. My nightmares had gotten worse and seemed to be physically trapping me, as despite becoming more awake and aware of my surroundings, I found I couldn't open my eyes and my limbs felt numb and difficult to move- if I was even moving them at all. At times it felt like something was pricking into my wrist but as much as I tried to jerk away, I couldn't get away from the sensation and was pulled under once more.

Once I could open my eyes and move well enough to look around my room I was still unsure if I was actually awake. For a split second I had even sworn I'd seen a tall, strange figure with glowing eyes near my closet door but after blinking a few more times the room was completely empty. My muscles protested the attempts to sit up and ached like I'd been up all night, which was impossible as I'd passed out after several hours of driving to get back to my apartment.
"Sleep paralysis... nothing unusual." I shrugged off the event and glanced over at my phone, which was finally charged.

Zac's frantic messages and unanswered calls from the past two days greeted me as I unlocked the screen. It wasn't surprising given I hadn't met with him after reaching out asking him to meet me, though the sheer number was a little overboard. What was unusual, however, was the newest voicemail I'd received; the date listed from this morning... from Tim. I hovered over the button to hear the message, unsure if I'd get garbled static or a threat.

"He can't know it was me..." I put the phone to my ear and listened.

Tim's voice seemed distressed but otherwise kept a neutral tone throughout the message. "Ashley, we need to talk. Meet me at the park around noon tomorrow."

The voicemail ended and I sat my phone down. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet him, not after what I did. "He knows... He has to know... I don't know how, but... he remembers and connected some dots..."

I glanced at the time, relief going through me when I saw it was a few hours past noon. "Doubt he's still there... I shouldn't worry about it- unless he'd be more suspicious if I didn't respond? No, no... it's fine."

I gave a small hiss of pain as I pushed myself further out of bed and looked down at my wrist to find a clean cut design with dried blood around it. I'd seen the symbol before- The Operator's circle with an X through it- but this one was different than those; mine had a diamond shape around the circle. I couldn't be sure what it meant or why I now had one but it probably didn't mean anything good. For now, all I could do was clean it off and ignore it.

I got ready for the day and settled down on the couch with Angel sleeping on the vent nearby, her eyes cracking open occasionally to check on what I was doing. She would usually join me and I couldn't help but wonder just how sick she was despite the vet's observation. I ran a hand through my hair and forced myself to focus on the one thing I could deal with right now: finding a new apartment.

Most of my searches were for places in nearby towns given how much easier it would be to move things but as I continued to look at the screen I began wondering if I should go farther away. I doubted it would get the proxies off my back for long, moving in general probably wouldn't, but I didn't want to stay in the same area my friends lived in- assuming any of them managed to survive. I made note of some cheaper places to check out that were about a day's drive from here and wiped the browser history. It was unlikely anyone would've used it to track where I was going but I decided to do it just in case.

"I'll have to leave Angel here alone..." I looked over to her as she stretched and slowly followed me to my room so I could pack. "I'm sure I could get her into a hotel but... I don't want to stress her out in a car or risk her getting lost. She'll be fine alone- hopefully. She was when I was in that damn forest."