The Dreams

Chapter Eleven

Rina missed her first class of of the semester on a crisp fall day. The sun was up and shining brightly on the multicolored leaves outside her window, but she had no energy to force herself to get up and out of bed. She could not remember the last time she ever felt so tired.

The night before she even went to bed early without finishing her assignments. Today marked the first time she ever failed to complete an assignment before its due date. She could not help but wish she had enough time to sleep and still get her work done.

It was turning out to be a day full of first times that only served to make her feel even worse than she did already. Thinking about it just made her want to crawl even deeper under her comforter.

Her biggest concern at the moment was hiding herself from the offending sunlight. She knew she needed sleep, and the sleep she got lately proved to be so greatly inferior to true sleep that she could sleep day and night and still wake up a week later exhausted.

She might not be able to cure her state of exhaustion by missing a class or even a full day's worth of classes, but she could not force herself out of bed today. Willpower kept her going for days, but now it was not enough. Her usually strong sense of responsibility was eroded away by the harsh waves of exhaustion that tormented her constantly now. Missing her classes did nothing to ensure she would recover and be better able to function tomorrow, but ignoring this problem would not make it go away. Willpower alone did her no good, and at least today she lacked the energy to find another solution. By tomorrow she hoped to find something other than her withering willpower left deep down inside.

Even skipping class still required her to get out of bed for at least a few moments to at least email her professor. She tried to get up and actually walk the few, short feet from her bed to her desk, but actually getting on her feet was a bit much for her. Even with intense concentration her body only responded sluggishly. Climbing halfway out of bed and dragging her laptop back into bed with her proved to be much easier, at least psychologically. Physiologically she barely held herself together and nearly tipped out of bed and fell on the floor in the process of retrieving her computer.

Compared to retrieving the laptop sending out an email required only minimal effort. Then she faced the prospect of returning the laptop to her desk. Her muscles felt like jelly and gave no indication of recovering so she tucked the laptop next to her pillow. This way when she decided she could not manage to get out of bed later either then she would not have to endure the ordeal or retrieving the laptop once again for another email writing session.

Until then she had at least a few hours to try to sleep again. She pulled her blankets up over her head to thoroughly block out any and all sunlight that dared to try and find her eyes this morning. Even with the sun in her eyes she knew she would have no problems falling asleep. Nothing could keep her awake for long once she gave herself permission to sleep these days.

She drifted off to sleep while thinking about sending a text to Hibiki so he would not worry. She was asleep before she had a chance to act.

* * *

"Do you have to go again so soon?" Yuzuki complained.

"I'm afraid so. This was only a stopover. I've still got to actually make a profit off this job."

"I know. I was just sort of hoping that you might be home a little bit longer this time."

He sighed. "We need some sort of income. I know sometimes you get a little bit bored around here, but I'm sure you'll find some way to occupy yourself soon."

She shifted in place from one foot to the other. She had told herself she would not bother Souma with her silly feelings of paranoia, but now it seemed to be stopping her from letting him go as easily as she normally would. Admitting such foolishness to him still pained her a bit. His sensibility caused him to always try to find answers to her problems. All of this independence still made her uneasy so she relied on his opinion and advice to supplement her own ideas on most matter. She felt silly for even thinking of bringing this matter up.