Conditioned...

9 - Apologies

      Was there a bomb going off in her apartment? Maybe a bulldozer tearing down her home without sending citations? No that was an outrageous thought, but damn it the noise was outrageous as well. Then she felt the weight of sleep receding and suddenly she was awake. The moment her eyes shot open she closed them and groaned. Her head was probably where the bomb had exploded; it felt as if all her grey and white matter had turned charred and blackened.

Normally she would never have a problem with the light that pooled into her bedroom but she wished she could clap off the fucking sun. The sound she had assumed to be a bomb in her dreary lucid state was actually the persistent hammering of someone's entire body against her front door. There was no way they were just using their fists; it had to be a united focused movement of their body.

Groggy, thirsty, parched and queasy, Lilith slowly rolled to her side and squint only her left eye open to spy at the clock on the nightstand. It was 6:29 in the morning and her bed was not ready to let her go. She could say the same.

"Fuck..." She moaned as she squeezed the sides of her head.

Her body felt heavy and over sensitive. Her head must be gaping from the center of her forehead because that's where the pain had settled. It was absolutely the worst migraine she had ever had in all her life. Alcohol was a demon. She hated it and prayed the prayer of hangover-ness that she would never drink again if the pain would just stop.

But like the one that was about to splint the wood of her front door with their unrelenting trouncing, her pain did not cease. Knowing just who it was and just why they were at her front door, Lilith maneuvered her legs from the tangle of her duvet and groaned. Her head was going to slip right of her shoulders if the damn room didn't stop whirling like a fucking top.

"I'm coming!" She yelled when the noise of Kris' calling continued. It had hurt to scream but somehow, though her room was far from the front door, Kris had heard her and stopped. Thank God.

Lilith lifted her shaky structure from the bed, adorned her short emerald silk robe and stuffed her chilled feet into her bedroom slippers. Her hair shifted with every movement and was on the road of pissing her off when it kept falling in her way. Staggering and bumping to the walls of the corridor that led from her room to the main hallway and foyer area, she stubbed her little toe on the leg of the heavy antique oak table that sat in the foyer; her bedroom slippers not proving a strong armor. Her mouth stretched open for a scream but only a choked sound came out. The pain cleared her migraine for only a few seconds then she had to remember how to breathe again. She held on to the edge of the table with her left hand and cried out again from an unexpected ache. Why did her wrist hurt again? She rubbed it and tried to sooth both pains at the same time by stepping on the throbbing toe with her other foot.

Kris knocked again only softer this time. Lilith glowered at the door, irritated ever the more for not only being startled awake and forced out of bed but also stubbing the shit out of her toe. Honestly it was never the big toe that took you down, because that was too easy. No the ironic little toe, the smallest piggy that went to the market always caught the edge of a chair or table leg and shut the whole body down. Attention seeking little prick.

Having enough of the knocking and her stupid toe, Lilith walked the rest of the pain off to the door. She moved the night latch, unlocked both top and bottom locks and opened her door to find Kris standing there with fist ready to continue its banter. She was still dressed in last night's attire; heels and all. Though she still looked as fresh as a petunia, the fatigue and worry had left her exhaustion in her eyes. It was one of the downsides of owning a thriving night club; play all night and comatose all day. Kris could function as she was a gleeful insomniac.