For the Hopeless

Chapter 11: Adoration and a Drunken Surprise

"You should wake up," Tawny murmured, turning her face to nuzzle Bailey's chest. She lay beneath the covers, silent and still, with Tawny's slender arm over her middle and a small leg over hers. "We don't get to talk very often, and I think now might be a good time." There was a spike of activity in Bailey's brain, but nothing more. It dropped again, leaving Tawny to her mental silence. She could hear whispers of Dameon's restless thoughts, of Aven's worrisome debates, of Madeleine's carefree dreaming, but nothing of importance to her. She wanted to hear only Bailey's thoughts, to see deep inside her guarded mind.

She turned to Bailey, gazing into her peaceful face with a gentle frown. Please? she begged in her mind, through with speaking out loud to someone who couldn't listen. Please talk to me? Bailey's mind stirred once more. A flash of red and a shriek tore through Tawny's mind. She jerked back from Bailey's warm body, nearly toppling off the bed as the assault continued.

It was like nothing she had ever felt before, this rush of sights and sounds and raw, frightening emotions. She felt Bailey's monstrous rage, mingling with her distant grief and fear, the only part of her that seemed human. Tawny didn't know what this was, with all of these faces and battles flashing through her mind. Was it all just a dream? Or was it a horrific reality? The people being killed were human – she could smell the blood. It must have been real, one of Bailey's more recent confrontations.

After a full, agonizing minute, the onslaught ceased, leaving Tawny's mind filled with only her own quiet thoughts and the soft whispers of the thoughts of others in the household. Bailey was completely gone now, falling back into a peaceful, dreamless sleep, though a frown had made its way onto her face and refused to leave.

Does she feel like that all the time? Tawny wondered, cautiously cuddling into Bailey's side once more, her gray-and-blue eyes intent upon her face. "Will you wake up now?" she asked aloud, though she still expected no response. Again, a swift rise and fall in Bailey's brain activity, but nothing more. Tawny sighed. "What did that kiss mean?" was her next unheard question, spoken in the softest whisper. She buried her face into the woman's chest. "Do you...like me?" she murmured, her words barely audible. "Or are we just friends?"

Suddenly, an exceptionally strong spike in Bailey's brain activity threatened to jerk Tawny from reality, and she allowed it to. She was pulled into what she recognized as one of Bailey's memories, gazing at herself and the devil woman from afar. She remembered this, when the two of them had been walking to the nearby gas station together. It was only a month ago...or maybe more. Tawny wasn't entirely sure.

Here, there was no snow on the ground, the sun bright and hovering high in the sky overhead. They were in the center of the rarely traveled street a block or so from their home, chattering as if they hadn't a care in the world. It was one of the only times Tawny had left the house.

"Are you uncomfortable?" Bailey asked, her red-tinted eyes on the smaller girl's fidgeting hands. It was an abrupt turn from the conversation about ducks they'd been having only seconds ago, and Tawny looked up at her friend, startled. "Are you uncomfortable?" Bailey asked again. "Does being outside bother you?"

"O-oh," Tawny stammered, her fair cheeks reddening the slightest bit in embarrassment. "Not really. Well...a little, I guess." Bailey frowned and opened her mouth to speak, likely to offer to walk her back home, but Tawny stopped her. "I'm fine. Really. It's unusual, being out here after being inside for so long, but...I like it. I get to be with you," she told Bailey, offering her a pretty, genuine smile. Bailey's expression softened, and Tawny recalled the echo of "She's so sweet" that slipped through the barriers of the woman's mind. Intentional or accidental, it made her blush deepen, though her smile didn't fade.