Time's Up

Chapter One

Jules woke up in the dark. She didn't know why she woke up, as a glance to her watch said it was almost 2 in the morning, but she was awake nonetheless.

She did a quick rundown of everything that had broken in the past week, ending with the power. A quick flick of the light switch next to her bed confirmed that the power was out again, and a groan from Nick in the bed next to her confirmed that he knew he would be the one to get up and fix it like he'd been doing for the past few weeks. (Not that he wanted to, but Jules was horrible with tools, and if he tried to wake Amelia, the only handy one out of all of them, he wouldn't hear the end of it for days afterward. Jules wouldn't wish a sleep deprived Ames upon her worst enemy, much less an already groggy Nick.)

Jules listened to him roll out of bed and walk the distance to the breaker to try to fix the fuse, and muffled a giggle as she heard several indistinct curses come from his direction. Then the lights turned on and she winced as the brightness cut into her vision before quickly turning back to black.

"Thanks," she whispered over to him, as he walked back.

All she got in return was a groan as Nick flopped back into his bed. She made a mental note to make his favorite waffles for breakfast the next morning.

Jules eyed the timer on the wall across from her one last time before closing her eyes. It had just hit 6,000 the morning before, and now was down to almost 5,070.

None of them knew what it meant. Sure Oscar and Gemma, the cynics that they were, liked to joke that once it got to zero that they would all die, but Jules didn't think so. That being said, Jules couldn't even remember a time when it wasn't counting. The five of them had been living together for more than 10 years, and in that time, it had gone from more than five million all the way down a couple thousand.

As much as she chided Gemma and Oscar for constantly talking about it ever since it hit fifty thousand, she couldn't get it out of her head either.

Jules had decided years ago that it must be counting in minutes, and sure, while her 12-year-old-self loved obsessing over what would happen when the minutes hit zero, she always had the benefit of knowing that they at least a couple more years. Now with only a few days left and the house practically falling apart in her hands, Jules knew she should really savor every moment of sleep she could get.

Besides, she still had to make sure that Ames didn't kill Nick before she could find a way to fix what was left of their lives. Jules didn't really have any right to tell Ames, or any of them, what to do, but when you declare yourself the oldest and are the one taking care of everyone else, you have the ability to tell your roommates to fuck off. Or so Jules figured.

After another check to the clock told her that she had been thinking for 20 minutes too long, Jules pulled her covers up high enough that she could at least pretend that her problems didn't exist. As if on cue, Gemma started snoring and Jules just rolled her eyes and buried her face further into her pillow.