Page 36 of Cozy Prisons
She made it to the bed before her legs gave out. Collapsing down, she pulled them tight against her chest and rested her chin on her knees.
The silence inside her little domicile felt profound. She couldn’t even begin processing everything that had happened, but she wished with all her heart that tonight it hadn’t.
Chapter 12
Nataly
Beep. Beep. Beep!
The angry sounds coming from the data matrix analyzer brought Nataly out of the daze she’d fallen into. Slamming a hand down, she stopped the noise, then let her forehead drop to rest on the cool surface of the workbench.
Her sleep had been almost nonexistent for the last few nights. It was too bad Arise didn’t have any alcohol. A shot of something sounded good. Not enough to get drunk, but a good buzz would be nice. Then the sleepiness that came after it.
She hated being stuck in this place where she was too tired to work but unable to fall asleep.
It helped that she had a steady stream of friends visit today and yesterday. Despite everyone's interrupted sleep because of the distress call she sent out, they insisted on making sure she was okay in the following days. Their comforting visits were probably the only reason she wasn’t an absolute mess.
She didn’t want to admit it, but she wanted Daxus back.
Not only did she miss his companionship, but his absence made her anxiety worse. Before, it was at such low levels when she was inside her domicile that she barely registered it. Now it was bad enough to make her feel like there was a low-level emergency buzzer constantly going off in her chest. It reminded her of working with a station's secondary warning systems. They were always going off because something wasn’t in balance, but it wasn’t enough to call for a station-wide emergency.
If only she could turn off her body’s warning system!
Her door display chimed. Sitting up, Nataly turned in her seat and called for the door to open. Hale stood there with their staff in one hand and an information square in the other.
As usual, they looked disheveled and dirty, as if they’d been walking all day. They looked as thin as when they arrived, but at least they weren’t as pale. Decard said Hale acted like walking while mumbling to themselves was their job.
Sima said it seemed more like Hale was saying prayers. Whatever was going on, no one had the courage to ask Hale any questions.
“The midday meal is being served,” Hale said. “With everyone busy, I thought I’d check with you.”
Nataly smiled and pointed to the extra seat Rami brought over when she and Illea had visited that morning.
Hale stepped in and groaned a little when they sat down. “Wow, two chairs. What’s next, stadium seating?"
Nataly rolled her eyes, then pointed to her food prep area where boxes were stacked on every surface. “Are you hungry? Everyone’s been sending me food as if I’m sick.”
Hale's expression turned serious. “Are you sick?”
Everyone else had danced around the subject, trying to ask without asking. They’d made it easy to ignore their inquiries and change the subject. Hale's blunt question caught her by surprise.
“No!”
Wow, she didn’t know she could make one word sound that defensive! She tried again.
“We’re all traumatized in some way,” she said, working hard to keep her voice even and unaffected. “I’m no worse than anyone else.”
Hale didn’t look convinced. “Sure, I guess.”
Time for deflection. “What are you doing still carrying that around?” she asked, pointing to the pole.
Hale gave a little shrug. “They haven’t tried to take it away yet.”
That was about as informative as her answer. “Fair point.”
They lapsed into silence that lasted an entire minute before Hale started to fidget.
Abruptly, they stood up. “I’m leaving.”
