Seven sat alone in an isolated cell in the police station. Three out of four walls were made of concrete, while the last was barred all the way across with a door to match. A small uncomfortable cot was pushed up against the farthest right corner, on it sat a thin gray sheet, a pillow with barely any stuffing in it, and Seven herself. Across from her was a metal toilet, which she refused to use, and a matching sink.
She was locked up in a highly monitored cell that had two guards patrolling at the entrance. The hallway was cut off from the rest of the building and the main exit. Every now and again an officer would stroll by letting a baton clank against the bars. Seven wasn't frightened of them, she'd dodged a bullet and jumped from a building within the last couple of days. What's the worst that could happen?
Seven knew it was morning, but there no windows for her to confirm it. She wondered if an innocent person would go insane in these cells.
She stared down at her hands in her lap. She was wondering, or calculating, how hard she needed to punch the wall for it to crumble. The officers slow footsteps trailed down the hall, it was his hourly check, but Seven noticed a second pair of footsteps, a quicker pair, that were following up behind. She was getting a visitor.
The officers hand smacked up against the metal bar, making a clink sound, he was probably wearing a ring. Keys jingled in his other hand as he unlocked the door and opened it for someone to walk in. A small man looked around the corner and then stepped in. Seven just glared at him and didn't stand from the cot. He was much older than her, he had strange gray hairs that spread out thinly over his head. His large circular glasses made his eyes look larger than they actually were. From miles away, you would be able to feel his gray, crazy looking eyes on you.
“He-Hello.” he said nervously. A line of sweat was dripping down his temple. After she didn't reply, he continued. “I-I'm Paul, yes, the forensic scientist.” he said this as if he was confirming with himself that he was, in fact, a forensic scientist and his name was Paul. “I examined the bodies.” Seven knew he was referring to the corpses that she left behind. “I'm very ah-accustomed to your work.” Paul took a step towards her, but she stood up instantly to warn him not to come closer. “Right, yes, sorry.” Paul mumbled and stepped back, she didn't sit back down on the cot. He looked behind him and cleared his throat before continuing in a whisper, “I want to show you my lab.” Seven nodded once, trusting it not to turn out like the incident with Melton Shell a few years ago.
* * * *
Luckily, the paramedics were able to lift the heavy desk off of the victim the evening before and take him down to Paul's office where he could evaluate him. The desk was placed in the farthest corner of the room, by the window which was smashed. Where the desk sat before it was ripped notoriously from it's bolts was the bloodstains from the victims arm. There was also a squished thing among the blood. Valery had to kneel down to look at it. From examining it with his eyes, he knew that it was a white jell, of sorts. It had red nerves still attached to it, which suggested it was from the man's body. Valery thought it might have been part of his muscle.
He put a pair of plastic gloves on and touched the white jell first. It was stringy, but stayed in tact. Valery looked up at his partner. “Cho, what do you think this is?” Cho walked over and looked over Valery's shoulder.
“Either it's some sort of translucent hair gel,” he started sarcastically, “or it's the victims eye.” Valery quickly pulled his gloves hand away from the squished eye ball.
“That is utterly disgusting.”
“Let me take a sample of it back to Paul, we might finally know what she's doing with the eye balls.”
“That's just wonderful.” Valery mumbled under his breath. Cho bent down with a swab and picked up a small portion of the eye ball. He put it carefully away in a plastic tube and into his pocket.
“We should take this back to Paul, maybe he's found something. Or better, Annabelle has said something.”
“I doubt that,” they started to leave the room. Valery was happy to get some fresh air after being in that death smelling room for so long. Cho grinned a little, knowing that his partner couldn't stand the bloody room anymore. Valery pressed the button for the elevator and the doors opened immediately. As they started to head downwards to the lobby, the elevator went dark and stopped suddenly. The only light was from the flashing emergency sign. “What the-”
“Power out. It was starting to rain this morning.” Cho noted.
“This is why they always take the stairs on T.V.” Valery mumbled.
“Hah,” Cho started, grinning. He leaned against the elevator wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest, his usual stance. “Eleven floors? I don't think so.”
* * * *
Paul left about ten minutes before, saying he had some plan to help Seven escape the cell. He was taking to long, though. She was pacing back and forth from the bed to the toilet, until she heard rusty wheels squeak down the hallway. Seven stopped pacing and watched for whoever was coming down the hall. Paul popped his head around the corner. He was wheeling a trolley with a clean white sheet towards the door.
A guard opened the door again for him and closed it after he was inside. A couple utensils were laid out on the white sheet, she wondered why they were there. The officer disappeared and Paul started talking. “You're probably wondering what this is here for, well, don't worry.” He had started to ramble on, Seven couldn't follow what he was saying. She deliberately coughed and Paul stopped mid sentence. “Right, sorry.” he looked down at his hands for a split second, holding out the apology. Seven wondered whether he had a short attention span or he was just nervous.
“Well,” Paul started up again. “The guards will have a shift change in five minutes. So, while they switch, I'll start walking down the hall. Then, 'Oh no, I forgot something!',” he mimicked his own voice. “And run back to get it. The guard will want to leave, so I assume he won't check to see if you're there. You will then hide under the white sheet and I'll roll you to safety!” he giggled at his own lame joke.
The only thing wrong with that plan was that he was going off an assumption, Seven knew that. But it was her only chance to actually get free and finish her mission. She nodded her head once.
“Good, Well, now all we need to do is wait.”
* * * *
The lights in the elevator turned back on and the shaft continued downwards. Even though it had only been maybe ten or fifteen minutes, it felt like a whole life time. “Looks like we're back in business.” Cho said, standing back up straight.
The elevator rang and the doors slid open, exposing the Detectives to the lobby, which was no longer crowded with people. Valery and Cho hurried out of the building and to Cho's car. Outside, clouds covered the sky, only dimly could they see the sun halfway through the sky on the other side. Valery could of guessed that it was about twelve, maybe one, o'clock, not only because of the sun, but also because he was starting to get hungry.
It was damp, and they knew that it would start to rain again soon. They climbed into the car and Cho started the engine. Started off onto the road, they hopped that maybe Paul had made some progress.
* * * *
Paul rolled the trolley out of the cell, the new guards had take their place. A heavy black guard closed the door to her cell and watched her until he was forced to look away as he was walking down the hall.
“Excuse me, I seemed to of dropped something in the cell.” Paul said, Seven was surprised that he wasn't stuttering as he had before when he was just talking to her. The guard was just passed the metal bars, but she could still see his back.
“Oh, okay.” the guard grumbled in a deep voice, he reopened the door again, letting Paul in. The guard turned and looked away, his eyes scanning for something more interesting. Paul bent over, pretending to pick something off the floor.
“Oh, I found it.” he said to the guard, assuring him that there was in fact something he left behind Paul rolled the trolley back out the door again. The guard turned and started to close the door, Paul heard him stop suddenly.
“Stop right there.” the guard pulled out his baton and walked over to him. The other guard heard his voice and came running down the hall.
“W-what seems to be the problem?” Seven noticed his nervous voice was back. She scolded at him from under the sheet.
“Where is she?” the guard asked.
“I don't-” Paul hesitated. “know what you're talking about.”
Suddenly the sheet was lifted from the table. The utensils flew onto the floor with a rattle and clink. Seven was revealed to the guards. The dark skinned guard reached for her under the trolley. She threw her hand out at him and he slammed heavily into the wall behind him, cracking the bricks of the wall. He fell to the floor unconscious.
The other guard was stunned. Seven quickly climbed out of the trolley and looked at him. He had fear in his eyes. She threw out her hand at the guard. Quickly, he started to scratch at his neck. She lifted him off the ground. I understand my powers now, Seven thought to herself and grinned. The guard was making odd noises from his throat, she held him there until he stopped struggling. The guard dropped to the floor and crumpled, a blood dripped from the side of his mouth.
Seven glared over at Paul, he was smiling from ear to ear. “The force is strong with this one. Come, now.” he said, leaving the trolley in the middle of the hallway. He walked over and lead her down the hallway. The door from the cells to the main building was locked, but it wasn't a problem for her. She twisted her hand at the metal door and the door fell off the hinges, falling heavily to the grouns. “Brilliant!” Paul was astonished.
He lead her down a series of hallways, she hid in the shadows as he communicated with people who came up to him. When they finally made it to the destination, Paul held the door for her and she hurried through. The room was cold, Seven's bare arms had goosebumps. Inside the room there were three larger tables alike the trolley, they had white sheets over them. She recognized the shape of bodies under the sheets.
Paul walked over and pulled one of the sheets back to reveal the body beneath. It was Veronica Pink. Beneath her eyes were bruised green and her skin turned pale. Seven wished she wouldn't have to see her again since she was dead. She looked away.
“I was very impressed when this body came into my lab. Miss Tomeko, I didn't think that it was possible for someone to be as hateful against humans as me.” Paul covered up Veronica's face again.
“It's Seven.” she told him, he almost looked surprised, smiling like a maniac.
“She speaks,” he almost whispered. “Speak again bright angel.” he was quoting a line from the Shakespearean play 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Seven reached down quickly and picked up a sharp scalpel from beside Veronica's body. Paul's face filled with fear when she appeared in front of him. It was like she teleported. She held the scalpel against his neck, letting it dig into his skin
“Wait! I'm trying to help you.” Paul cried, his pitch high and fearful. She wished she could just slit his neck open, but she wasn't out yet.
“How do I know I can trust you?” she asked, glaring death into his eyes.
“Watch.” he said, shuffling over to the laptop slowly. He pulled open a file on the large screen above it. Seven watched carefully with the scalpel still at Paul's neck. The file was filled with a multiple pictures of the crime scenes and bodies, most of the evidence was written down in it too. “I'll just delete these.” he mumbled to himself and hit the trash can in the corner.
All the of pictures and evidence was gone. She still wasn't convinced. Paul thought for a minute. “Ah, yes. I know.” He turned back to the computer and opened an odd file. The screen turned black and he started to type. Seven didn't understand what he was typing, it was all in code. He hit the enter key and the whole room went black. “Now, the building has blacked out. So, when they turn the systems back on, all filed will be erased.”
Seven waited for him to continue, Paul swallowed. “I-I can take you to my summer home in New Mexico, no one will think to look there.” she slowly took the scalpel away from his neck and nodded.
* * * *
The Detectives hurried through the door of the station, waving to the guards on duty. As they started down the long hallway to Paul's office, the lights turned out. Cho and Valery stopped in their tracks. Blue emergency lights illuminated their faces from the walls.
“Do you think Annabelle could be behind this?” Cho asked with concern.
“She's locked up, it could just be from the storm.” Valery suggested. Cho hoped he was right, they ran down the hall towards Paul's lab.
* * * *
“We only have a few minutes before they will be able to turn the electricity back on and find out that the virus came from my computer.” Paul said, stuffing a bunch of things into a backpack and grabbing a long trench coat from a coat hanger. He pushed her towards the back end of his lab, which was sealed off from the rest of the room but a heavy blue curtain.
Paul pushed across the blue curtain and hurried to an exit door at the other end of the room. Seven followed behind him and out the door, into a rear parking lot, and to an old looking car. It was green and rusty, she was surprised it didn't break down. It had started to rain heavily outside, the whole sky filled with gray clouds making it seem like night. Her hair and clothes soaked as she stepped out to climb into the passenger seat of the car.
Paul threw his bag and jacket into the back seat of the car and hurried himself into the drivers seat. His hands were shaking as he put the key into the ignition and started the car. The headlights were bright, showing the big droplets of rain falling from the sky.
They drove around the building and out of the parking lot. Seven looked back, watching as the lights in the station turned back on. But that didn't matter, she was getting away.
* * * *
The lights flickered on around the detectives as they walked through the doors into Paul's lab. But he wasn't there. From behind them, a large dark skinned guard approached. He looked agitated. “There's a problem.” He said, Cho noticed the blood on his head and dripping out his nose.
“How the hell did she get out!” Valery was flustered as the guard lead them down to the jail cell. Two paramedics were carrying a body out of the room on a stretcher.
“She suffocated him.” The guard said, noticing the two of them looking at the body. The guard on the stretcher was a small man, Valery noted, but Annabelle was tiny in comparison.
“Did anyone help her?” Cho asked as they arrived at the cell. The guard turned to them.
“You're not going to like this,” he started, “It was Paul.”
“We have to find him.” Valery told Cho.
“He wasn't in the office, he could be long gone by now.”
“Let's check the video cameras.” they hurried out of the jail hallways and to the system management room. The room was very crowded and chaotic when they arrived, they got to the first person who was free. It was a young girl.
“Evening, Detectives.” She said, working vigorously on the computer.
“Evening? What time is it?” Valery asked quickly.
“It's almost two-thirty.” she replied. He sighed to himself, thinking it was much later than that. “What can I do for you guys?” she turned her chair to look at them.
“We need camera footage for the last two hours or so in the jail cell.” Cho told her. She nodded once and typed up quickly on the computer, but the search failed. She frowned herself.
“There's no footage.” she said. Valery looked down at the screen.
“What about in the forensic lab?” Cho tried. She shook her head.
“Nothing.”
Valery felt like screaming, what the hell was going on? He was frustrated and exhausted, he hadn't gotten much sleep for the past nights. “Tell me there's something.” he almost growled between clenched teeth.
“I mean, there's nothing. Not just the videos. There's no paper work, no recorded evidence, nothing.”
“Annabelle erased her case?” Cho suggested to Valery. He just felt like ripping someones head off.
“No, there's no evidence of any cases. No previous one's, or open cases.”
* * * *
Many questions were jumbled up in Paul's head for Annabelle. Questions like how did this start, or where did you get those powers from. He was a little frightened to ask them, or maybe he was just scared of the answer.
“So, Annabelle,” he started the conversation.
“It's Seven.” she corrected.
“Sorry, Seven. How did you get into this situation?”
Seven thought back, the memory washed over her like a wave from the ocean. She flunked out of law school. She remembered it like it was yesterday, it was only less than a week ago to everyone else. But it felt like much longer to her. She also remembered being on top of the building, looking down over the people below that didn't notice her. She closed her eyes, they hurt from the tears she cried.
She had jumped off the building and died, but she couldn't remember how she got back. Paul was still waiting for an answer. Seven looked over at him. “I died.” she replied and looked out the window.
Paul didn't quite understand, she obviously wasn't dead. But, maybe she was some sort of supernatural being. He wasn't sure, she seemed human to him. He looked at her for a second before turning his attention back to the road. He turned the car onto the freeway and headed quickly passed the cars. It was going to be a long fifteen hour drive, he hoped they didn't have to stop anytime soon.
* * * *
“God Dammit!” Valery yelled and kicked his desk. He managed to hold in his anger until him and Cho were alone in their office. Cho kept quiet, waiting for him to calm down. “How could she of gotten out and erased everything?” he asked rhetorically, almost screaming.
Cho sat in his wheelie chair, slowly turning himself back and forth while Valery paced around the room. He gave random outburst at time until he stopped himself and looked at his partner. “Say something! I'm dying here.”
“What if Annabelle wasn't the evil genius behind this plan.” Cho suggested. Valery sat on the edge of his desk across from Cho.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we know that Paul was there, he helped her escape. What if Paul got into the computer system and erased everything, also causing the black out.” Valery thought it over and frowned.
“Paul? He doesn't seem like the genius type. Don't get me wrong here, but isn't he the one that tried to attack me with an umbrella when I first met him?” Cho nodded once and smiled a little.
“Yes, but if he is the genius, maybe he's getting Annabelle to kill all these people. Maybe he's actually the brains behind this, and we didn't realize it all along. He's been getting the bodies this whole time, he could of purposely miss seen some evidence so we didn't catch on to quickly. You see what I'm getting at here?”
“Dammit,” Valery whispered. “We have to find them.”
“But, we have no idea where they could be.”
* * * *
It was about four o'clock, the cloud were still covering the sky and there was no sign of the heavy rain stopping. Seven leaned her head against the window as Paul tried to see through the clutter of cars ahead of them. They were slowed down to twenty miles an hour on the freeway because of a massive car crash. The only sound in the car was the clatter of the rain against the windshield.
After sitting in the traffic for another an hour, Paul decided to take an old side road that he hadn't used in a while. The road was bumpy and terribly paved, but it was much faster than the freeway. The rain poured down through the trees that hovered about the road. Paul knew that during the summer that road was beautiful, the trees, the flowers, the nature in general. But, it was too dark to see any of the trees, the streetlights were all out on the road. The only light was from the car headlights.
A bolt of white lightning broke through the clouds in the distance, a rumbling clap of thunder followed a couple seconds later. Seven's eyes tiredly flickered towards the bolt of lightening then back out the window. Paul's eyes glared over at her every now and then because he felt like she was going to jump up or disappear before his eyes. Or maybe kill him.
Another thrum of thunder filled his ears and cleared the silence of the car. Paul continued down the dark road, the car wheels bumped over the pot holes, he tried to avoid them but they were all over the road. He glanced over at Seven again. She was breathing slowly, but from the infrequent flutter of her eyelashes, he knew she was still awake. If only slightly.
He admired her innocence, something he no longer had. She was someone that wouldn't be suspected of those violent crimes. Paul knew the Detectives had a hard time believing it. That made her quite perfect in Paul's eyes, she was able to get away with three killings before she was arrested. The colour of her hair and eyes made everyone give her a second glance as she walked by. She's like a poem or a book, Paul thought. She appears differently to everyone. Sometimes Paul wanted to reach out and touch her face to confirm she was real.
A loud crack of thunder and lightning clashed together in front of Paul's eyes. He jerked the wheel. Seven sat up, startled, heart beating in her chest. Paul hit multiple potholes, losing control of the car quickly. Something cracked outside the car and a large object came crashing down. He jerked the wheel again so quickly that the wheels skid and the car started to flip on it's side. The car rolled over on top of them and Seven blacked out.
* * * *
When she finally opened her eyes, Seven felt a large thick liquid on her head. She reached up to touch it, only to find that it was her blood. She'd hit the side of her head while the car was rolling. She was still dizzy from the incident, trying to wrap her head around what happened.
Seven looked over at Paul, blood surrounded him. One of the telephone poles from the side of the road had been struck by lightning and fell over. The end of the pole now crushed Paul's chest through the shattered windshield. She knew he was no longer alive just by looking at him.
The car lay still on it's side, Paul on the lower half and herself on the higher half. Seven tried to undo the seat belt, but it wouldn't budge. The belt had been stuck in place by the mess, though she liked it better than being soaked in Paul's blood beside him. The window beside her was smashed, she figured it must of broken when they rolled. Seven slowly moved herself, noticing that when she moved to quickly she got more dizzy. She weaved herself out of the seat belt and through the broken window, cutting her hands from the broken glass. It was still raining outside, that was the reason her hair was wet before she climbed out of the car.
Seven climbed down to the ground from the window, when her feet hit the ground her head started to pound. She fell over on her side and lay her head back on the ground, letting the rain hit her face. She stayed there for a minute, laying back, listening to the rain fall around her. As the sounds began to dim, the pain faded as well, leaving her to dream in her own silence.
* * * *
Detective Valery and Detective Cho pulled up onto the side road, their siren echoing for everyone to hear. The rain had lightened a little on their way over to meet Detective Hanster and Bell. Valery stopped the car quickly and climbed out, him and his partner hurrying over to the other Detectives. The paramedics were loading someone into the ambulance as they met.
“It's Annabelle. She was in the car with Paul.” Hanster told them. Valery quickly went over to the ambulance and looked in before they shut the doors.
It was Annabelle, her red hair was drenched and messy, there was a large cut on her head too that had crusted over. The paramedics shut the door quickly and headed off. Cho was talking to the Detectives, probably finding out what he could. “Cho, come on! We're following them.” Valery yelled at him and jogged over to his car.
“Valery, stop!” Cho caught up to him quickly, grabbed his arm. Valery watched the ambulance as it turned onto the highway and back into the city.
“What?” he asked quickly.
“You need to stop, look at yourself. You're obsessing over this case. You're not sleeping, you need sleep or you turn out like this.”
“What does that mean?” Valery asked, hot anger rising in his chest.
“Grumpy, snappy, easily angered.” he listed, and could of added more. Valery didn't want to admit that he was right, but he was. “Why don't you take the rest of the day off, go to bed, Detective Hanster, Bell, and I will go to the hospital, okay?”
Valery didn't like the idea of leaving the case, but he finally agreed. He took his car home, leaving Cho to drive with the other Detectives. As he left to go home, the clouds cleared up and he could see the sun start to set behind him. It was past seven, Sydney would be getting home soon as well.
* * * *
Cho, Hanster, and Bell all hurried down the hospital hallway to find Annabelle. They turned into her room and found her lying on a bed getting hook up to some equipment. Cho recognized one of the nurses. When she was finished with Annabelle, she looked up. “Detective.” she smiled.
“Hi Sydney.” Cho replied, she walked over and hugged him.
“Where's my husband? He didn't get himself hurt, did he?” she looked concerned.
“No, Valery's fine. I sent him home.” he replied. “He was tired and uneasy.” Sydney nodded. She knew that he wasn't sleeping as well. “Oh, Detectives, this is Sydney, Valery's wife. Sid, Detective Hanster and Detective Bell.”
“Hello.” Hanster said.
“Pleasure to meet you, Ma'am.” Bell said, his partner hit him in the side. Sid smiled.
“So, how does she look?” Hanster asked immediately after Bell's comment. Sydney walked over beside the girl.
“Well, her vitals are stable, but she probably went through Post traumatic stress. She has a concussion, and is in a coma.” she told them. Cho walked around the bed to look at Annabelle. She was calm and slowly breathing like she was asleep.
“I thought you were a nurse, not a doctor.” Detective Bell said.
“She is, a very smart nurse.” Cho said, looking away from Annabelle.
“That's only my opinion, we're still waiting for the doctor to come in and confirm it.” Sid pulled a blanket up over Annabelle and lay it on her shoulders.
“How long, in your opinion, will she be in a coma for?” Bell asked, Cho noticed him taking a liking to Sydney.
“Could be five minutes, could be five weeks, could be twenty years. We can't know for sure.” Cho sighed silently. “But, look what I've found.” she walked bent down and carefully lifted up Annabelle's left arm. She flipped it over to reveal three cuts in the shape of X's.
“What is that?” Cho asked, walking around the bed to get a closer look. Detective Hanster and Bell walked closer too.
“They're cuts. I think they're self inflicted.” Sid said, examining the cuts again. The third cut looked like it had been cut with her finger nails.
“She's killed three people, what if she's representing it through those.” Detective Bell suggested. Hanster nodded.
“That does seem like something a regular sociopath would do.” she inquired.
“Annabelle isn't a regular sociopath. She's something else.” Cho replied.
“She doesn't look like much,” Sid started, putting her cut arm on top of the sheet. “Just a young girl that got caught up in something bad.” she stared down at the girl. “Well, I'm off for the night. The doctor should be in in a minute. Good luck, Detectives.”
“Take care of Valery for me.” Cho called after her as she walked out.
* * * *
Sydney pulled her car into the driveway. She could see the living room light on and the blinds on the windows closed. She stepped out of the car and started up towards the door, locking her car before walking away. When she waked in, Valery quickly shut the laptop on the desk and stood up. The bags under his eyes were getting darker. “Hey, Sid.” he said, trying not to look suspicious. Although he was terrible at it.
“What are you doing?” she asked, hanging up her jacket.
“Nothing, Cho sent me home early so I was resting-”
“I meant on the laptop.” Sid interrupted, walking up to the laptop and opening the screen. The first page that came up was a search on Annabelle Tomeko. “The serial killer?”
“Yeah,” Valery started. “I recognize her from somewhere, I just can't put my finger on it.” he sat back down at the desk and started typing. He opened a new page before her eyes, they were both confused. It was certificate of death for four day ago.
“What the-” Sid started, reading over the certificate.
“I knew I recognized her, but it doesn't make sense.”
“What is it?” she urged.
“I had this case, she jumped off a building and killed herself. She was a patient at a clinic. Cho and I were on her case, how did she come back from the dead.”
“From a clinic? Like, an asylum or something?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Valery quickly typed something into the search bar, Sydney sat down beside him and look at the screen. The webpage opened to the Didi Hirsh Mental Health Services. “In this report I was reading, It said that Annabelle had a breakdown, she wrote six names over and over on paper. When they took the pen away from her, she bit off her fingertips and wrote the names on the wall. 'Veronica Pink, Andrew 'Snake' Amble, Melton Shell, Johnathon Tomeko, Naomi Peyton, and Mark Shiazitski'. She also wrote 'Seven' below all of them.”
Sid closed the laptop. Valery frowned at her.
“Come on, you're not supposed to be working.” Valery wanted to protest, but the look in Sid's eyes made him think otherwise. She took his hand and lead him to the kitchen where she sat him at the dinner table. “You sit tight, I'm going to make us some dinner.” Valery didn't let go of her hand.
“If you leave me here I'm going to fall asleep, let me help.” he suggested. Sydney and Valery decided on soup and bread rolls, it was warm and comforting after both of their long days. Valery picked a movie, Sid pulled the coffee table close to the couch. They got comfortable together, eating their soup and enjoying each others company. But, between that, Valery couldn't stop thinking about Annabelle. He was curious how she faked her death, she was always hiding in the back of his mind.
Sid had fallen asleep nestled in between his arm and his chest, Valery didn't want to move but he also wasn't comfortable enough to sleep on the couch. He picked Sydney up and carried her into their bedroom. He tucked her in under the covers before crawling in beside her and dozing off. It wasn't a very good sleep, but it was enough for him to regenerate his body.