Buried: A Cainsville Story

Slippery Slope

Olivia has somehow gone from 'never going to set foot in your apartment again' to 'completely moved in' in the time it takes for the hospital to free me from its clutches. It is not as though she was working from a large number of material possessions, but it is still a gesture.

She is worried about me. Because I am, for lack of a better descriptor, horrendously cranky.

The events of the preceding two days have left me frustrated enough to drop onto the couch bonelessly the minute we enter the apartment. I close my eyes. Still tired. When will I stop being so tired?

"Can I get you anything?" she says. In my apartment. Things have certainly taken a strange direction.

"Have I showed you where I store Rose's tea?" My aunt's tea has a very calming effect. Maybe even supernaturally calming. At this point, you never knew what had its origins in reality and what had origins in some supernatural insanity. I squint up at her, my head pounding from the light of the setting sun streaming through the window. Where the hell are my sunglasses?

"I've seen you make it. I'll go brew some for you." She flashes me a smile that I try to return, but I can't quite muster up the energy.

"Speaking of Rose," she calls from the kitchen, "you really need to call her again. She's worried. Speaking to me isn't enough."

I know this. But my eyes are burning and I just saw her two days ago. Nothing has changed but the fact that my body feels even more like it needs a detox only time will provide.

I do not answer and for a moment, I fall asleep right there on the couch. But the sounds of Olivia rustling through my cabinets rattle me awake and I tear into the kitchen in seconds.

Olivia is balancing on her knees on my countertop with the upper cabinet doors pulled wide open to reveal...

"Wow. That is a whole lot of beef stew."

My reaction is instantaneous. I thoughtlessly stomp up beside her and slam my cabinet doors shut. Only then, as she slips off the edge of the counter, do I realize I have startled her.

I catch her mid-turn, with my hands at her waist and her body between me and the counter.

"Um, hello." She says. She sounds a little breathless. I must have really frightened her.

"What were you doing in there?" My face is inches from hers.

"Shit, Gabriel. You ran out of Rose's tea and I thought maybe there was another canister in here. You were asleep and I didn't want to wake you so I looked. Is there a problem?" She swallows hard.

And that is when I realize that I have her pressed against the counter. That is when the rest of me realizes it, too.

I take a step back. "No. Sorry. I am not accustomed to people going through my cabinets. I know you didn't intend to snoop."

She laughs. "Gabriel, if I intended on snooping, I would have found a better deep dark secret than your love for beef stew."

I try not to react. She did stumble upon a secret. She does not realize that those cans of stew, my soda stash, the money and weapons hidden around the apartment, they are all signs of the childhood I have not quite left behind.

My reaction reveals something and the smile melts from her face. "You're out of tea. We're going to have to visit Rose after all."

"I thought we were going to get some rest and head into the office?" I ask. A sinking feeling settles in my stomach.

"I said we were going to get some rest and get some work done," she corrects. "I brought the relevant files here but I'd rather you didn't use them. You really should be relaxing and building your strength back up."