HAUNTED

17

When she woke, the sun was barely up. She looked out the window for a distant moment not sure she remembered how she got to his room. One of the best sleeps she had had, in her whole life. Minutes passed may be even an hour. She had a look at the gismo which had changed since she last saw it.

He opened his eyes and noticed her absence on his bed. For a moment, he nostalgically gazed at where she once lay. He turned on his back and lazily took a breath.

“Hey,” she said as he sat.

“Hey,” he said back, “what are you doing in here?”

“I had a nightmare about a zombie robot puppet rabies human apocalypse,” she turned back to the view outside, “it seemed weird-ish-ly real. Wings aren’t human.”

“I know,” he stood up with a deep breath.

“Why did you hide them from me?” she turned to him, “because they are scary.”

“No,” he chuckled, he honestly hadn’t been hiding them. They had just been busy since the Sam bombings, “do they scare you.”

“The things with wings that I remember aren’t pleasant.”

“Do you think I am like that,” he sounded a little hurt.

“I knew you then. I don’t know what has happened to you over the centuries, millennia. When things happen, they change people. I don’t really know you now…” she took a silent breath, “I just want to know that you are okay.” She spoke facing the window.

He smiled briefly, “I am.”

“Great,” she smiled at him for a moment then went back to watching the outside. “Did you manage to fix it?”

“Yep. Its fixed now but I can’t get it to work,” he reached for the gismo on his desk, “I figured out how to switch it on but I don’t know how to make it work yet? At least the on button is working now.” He pressed the top button.

“Anything else?” she attentively observed the gismo as he placed it in her hand.

“The little golden nob on the side it adjusts the time in the centre. The date is the silver nob,” he pointed to it, hovering so close to her she could feel his breath on her neck. She could barely pay attention to his words. “Pull it out,” she did and she felt a little click inside the watch, the core of the gismo lit up.

She turned to see the look in his eyes that quickly turned from ‘excited-toy-playing-child’ to ‘thoughtless-wonder’.

“That’s all I have figured out so far,” he said slow and distant caught in her gaze. Residual emotion, residual emotion, he reminded himself as he took a step back from her.

The door burst open, “Jacob, she is gone!” John yelled as the door hit against the wall opposite it. They all froze, stunned by the loud boom.