Shorter days, Longer nights

Chapter 38 || Stress reliever

"Mmm," I groaned to myself through the weight of my eyes as I rearranged my head on the edge of the sofa. My eyes kept flickering, and the urge to let my consciousness fall over the edge grew stronger. I gently brushed my hand over the fur ball napping on my abdomen. 

I let my hand rest atop its little body. Giving in, I finally shut my eyes, feeling the incomprehensible blabber in my mind calm. Comfort flowed through my veins like a warm bath over the darkness of my soul. I slowly began to lose sensation through different parts of my body as if they were being sucked into the void. 

My head shot right up, snapping around until my eyes landed on the door. That thing shot right to the other side and I wondered how it was still intact with the force she pushed it with. The puppy let out a stifled bark, hoping right up a little after me. 

"Hiii," Eva dragged out. She fast-paced right to us, her long coat flowing back with the wind making her entrance almost magical. If only it hadn't just given me the worst headache of my life. She swiftly took that coat off and launched it from above my head and onto the other sofa. The pup's little head followed its movements until its attention drew toward Eva. 

Strangely enough, the puppy started barking at her. With every step she took forward, it jumped back a little. I watched in ecstasy as the colour drained from Eva's eyes. She stopped right at the edge of the sofa. A little pout formed on her lips as she held herself back from the little guy.

"You probably scared the pup Ev," Anna's voice chimed through. I gazed at her, her eyes meeting mine. I stared dumbly for a few minutes, unaware of what to do I just gave her a slight nod which she returned with a warm smile. She stood at the door, shutting it gently, "give it some time, it's probably not used to any of this," she continued while hanging up her white doctor's coat on the rack. 

"Pet him for me?" my brows furrowed at Eva as I hesitantly drew my fingers towards his head.

"Interesting request," I commented, watching him as his head tilted to give me more room to scratch. I gazed back up at Eva whose eyes seemed to be starry just looking at the scene. 

"Why are you up so late little one?" Anna drew near, standing a little near Eva as she offered her hand up to the pup. I stopped petting him to let him go to her instead. 

"I was waiting for you two," I looked between the two of them and it wasn't long before Eva left her spot to plop down on the couch. It almost hurt seeing how the puppy preferred everyone over the lady dying to meet him but I'd be lying if I said the scene unfolding wasn't funny. He had accepted Anna and jumped into her arms shortly after Eva went and plopped on the couch in front of me. 

"Hmm, where's Jaycee?" Anna asked, her attention solely on me while her hand seemed to be comforting the little guy on its own. I could tell just how tired she was with the eye bags that had formed on her face now that she was close.

"She went right up when we came here, I didn't want to follow because she might've panicked," I replied, now curious how long it had been since we got her. I'd been stuck in a constant head falling, consciousness rising and fading since we got here. It was still pitch black outside. It had been for a while. So I suppose it was likely very early on in the day. 

"That's nice of you, she's very scared of dogs," she replied, a thoughtful look on her face. 

"Yeah he was trying to go after her too," a smile sneaked up thinking of the adorable panic on her face yesterday. Was it even yesterday?  "Why is she so scared of dogs?"

I earned a chuckle at that before she answered, "That's a question you should ask her yourself," she gave me another warm smile, this time with a glint of amusement.

I nodded curiously and she backed away from the sofa and before walked toward the kitchen. Perhaps it was something personal. The pup let out a cute little bark in her arms that immediately earned an "Awww" from Eva. Her body twisted so fast to gaze at the little guy that I think I almost heard a crack somewhere.

"I'll take it to the vet a little later," she spoke while moving something around in the fridge. "For now, you two go to sleep, it's staying with me tonight."

"But I want to go with," Eva joined in immediately. 

"I know but I have some other work in the morning as well and we can't leave it here, you know Jaycee is never coming down if it stays here," Anna replied, pulling out the juice carton again.

So this is when she fed. I'd never seen her drink any of it during breakfast or dinner. I thought she purposely avoided doing so in front of me but I suppose that wasn't true now. Maybe the nighttime feeding traits were more common in her than the rest. She was supposed to be super old or something. Some clues, at last. 

"I'd get rid of Jaycee for the puppy," she suggested matter-of-factly. My eyes burned holes into her skull at the idea but then I wondered who I'd really choose. 

Anna laughed softly, raising an eyebrow at Eva, "You won't, but I just don't want to push anything on her, she's stressed enough as it is. Let's just give her tomorrow to get used to the idea and then I'll bring it home,"

"She's not stressed, she has a stress reliever, she's ecstatic," Eva persisted.

"A stress reliever?" Anna questioned, pouring the blood into a glass. That was definitely different because I was so used to seeing the other two chug it directly from the bottle.

"Lizzy!" she pointed to me with her whole hand, her eyebrows darting up. 

"Um," I met eyes with Anna, wearing a defensive expression while inwardly begging for the awkward silence to end while she studied my face. It took a few minutes before she broke away from me and I let out a breath of relief. 

 I could tell the puppy eyes look Eva was wearing right now just by the tilt at the back of her head and the silence she was offering. "You can come to pick it up," I supposed that was the final offer because she didn't give even a second glance in our direction after that. She simply drank the blood from her glass with a few added breaks and headed to her room. The click of her door shutting marked the end of the conversation.

"The puppy," Eva groaned out, her head hanging downwards from the edge. I had to admit I missed the feeling of the little guy in my arms too but it was definitely comforting knowing that he'd get the help he needed and we'd see him tomorrow. 

I gazed toward Eva, wondering if I should do it or not. I gazed toward the stairs for a few minutes in absolute silence, "Hey by the way," I started and she groaned again before rolling over so that her body was facing me again. Her head hung low but I knew that she was listening. "Can you take me tomorrow, for the powers thing, you guys said you'd teach me?" 

"Yeah sure," the enthusiasm was gone now. Her voice was laced with a hint of exhaustion. It was likely this wasn't just because of the puppy. She wouldn't give up there that quickly. She was definitely tired. 

What jobs were they even working? I remembered that I had to ask them about that stuff. I was living with three people and I didn't even know their last names. I was so invested in Jaycee and my school problems that I wasn't even paying much attention to the rest of the things happening around me. That definitely wasn't good. I supposed that proved the point of whoever came up with 'love makes you blind'.

"You should go to sleep," I suggested, picking myself up from the sofa. I had to blink a few times to process being vertical again. 

"Hmm yeah, I'll wake you up," and with a simple gust of wind, she was gone. 

I followed after, with human steps of course. Slow human steps. One foot at a time.