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⠀My right hand slid out from under my slightly swollen cheek, reaching out towards the warmth of the early morning sunlight that slid into the room. Something I wasn't so accustomed to the feeling when I spent nights in my own room. Eyes still closed, but could simply smell, and feel the difference in how the quarters felt.
⠀I felt almost hungover from the dehydration that ensued from the mass amount of tears that left my eyes during the night. Tousling, and curling into myself as I had tried my best to clutch to the sleep my body was begging me to fall into.
⠀Now, it was morning, and I was greeted with the ache in my fingers as I unfurled them from the shirt still around my shoulders. It was evident that I had not had a good night sleep from the stiffness in my back from the fetus posture I had taken up in my sleep; the small scratches on my hands; the pounding pressure just above my eyes.
⠀It took me more than a few moments to entirely compose myself and to breathe into the air above me as my back straightened out onto the thin mattress. My hands were flattening out against the rough texture of the blanket that I failed to wrap myself in the night before.
⠀It wasn't until I noticed a slight figure standing in the doorway that I jolted upwards into a seating position, and pushed my hair into a more presentable manner. But still, burdened with the small, beady slits that my eyes had become. With that, I couldn't figure out who it was until they spoke.
⠀"Sorry." Beth. She moved herself to lean against the wall opposite me, and then I noticed that she had Lori's child in her arms. "It's really early." She fumbled with the baby for a moment, as she gripped the bottle towards its mouth, then settled her against her hip.
⠀I looked towards her, then suddenly realised what predicament she had found me in.
⠀"You weren't in your cell." She continued, her supple country accent settling in the air like a feather. "I figured you might be here instead."
⠀"Yeah," I answered simply, moving to push the pieces of paper and hat under the bed — not acknowledging the fact that this was the second place she thought she might find me. Slowly letting my bones wake up. "I had to do something." My hands fell onto the saddlebag, deciding to press it up against the grey wall simply. All these things I had discovered last night were memories, and this morning I chose to push them aside simply. The night had been for dwelling, and my emotions had dried up — I felt exhausted from the torrential winds of distress that had pulled me from my feet.
⠀Forcing my inevitably tangled hair to fall behind my ears, I stood beside Beth, as both our eyes fell onto the child. The little girl eagerly latched her small, pink lips onto the nipple of the bottle. Her eyes were like mine, in that they were struggling to open widely.
