Page 39 of Revive
-13-
Spook
When Spook woke, the room was dark, and the bed beside him cold. “Xane,” he croaked, throat bone dry.
“Right here.”
Propped on one elbow, he could make out his band mate’s shape, a darker silhouette in the gloom. He was sat by the window, feet propped up on the sill, and the shutters cast wide. He had a glass held within his fingers. Spook watched him, letting his sight adjust to the dark. Unease continued to cling to him like sticky filaments, but the true emptiness that had hollowed him out that morning had passed. After a moment or two, he scrambled out of bed and took himself off to the bathroom. Having relieved himself and scrubbed a toothbrush around his chops, he returned to the bedroom to find Xane’s pose unaltered.
“What time is it?”
Xane sniffed, and stirred a little, resettling himself in the chair. “Two ish.”
Spook reached for his phone, easily spotted on the nightstand as it was flashing with a blue light, letting him know he’d missed messages. The screen confirmed it was actually quarter past three. The entire day had passed. Not that it was technically still the same day. He sought out some clothes and stumbled over Alle’s bag in the process, recalling as he fell that she’d asked him something about laundry.
He probably ought to be worried about the fact that she hadn’t been back since she’d left, but his brain wasn’t quite fully functioning, and caring about something required more processing power than he was currently operating with. “God, I feel hollow.”
“Still?” Xane’s feet hit the floor. They were bare, so his toes curled against the cold.
“Hungry hollow,” Spook clarified, though the other sort of hollow wasn’t wholly inaccurate. It was a matter of degrees. Earlier he’d been empty, now he probably had the capacity for a couple of not too taxing things before returning to bed became the best option.
“Can you manage the walk to the other end of the island?” Xane asked. He swallowed the rest of his drink.
“Since I’m guessing it’s a choice between that and foraging mussels off the beach to boil in a pan, I can give it a try. I’m not up to company at the other end though.”
“Mate, they’re probably all in their beds by now.” Xane found his boots and pulled them on. “Anything you especially fancy?”
Miraculously, yes. “A fish finger sandwich. Or a fried egg, with the yolk broken so it’s all crispy around the edge.”
Xane located his shirt and jacket amidst the detritus of Alle’s kicked-over laundry bag. “Tell you what, I’ll do you both. Same sandwich, or one of each, your choice.”
“Hm, both.” Two options meant he could delay any sort of choosing until the meal was sat in front of him. Then his stomach could do the decision-making. “I like it when you cook for me,” he remarked as they stumbled down the stairwell in the dark. Xane produced a torch out of his jacket pocket only once they’d made it onto the beach. Hardly a necessity, as the moon was basking in a clear night sky.
“Know what I like?”
Spook tentatively shook his head, not sure he was up to hearing the answer.
“When you remember how freaking amazing I am.” Then, “Shit! I appear to have your girlfriend’s knickers caught in my sleeve.” Xane extracted the scrap of mulberry-coloured cotton and lace and handed it to Spook. “Been a while since I’ve seen a pair of those,” he muttered.
The remark stopped Spook in his tracks, Alle’s panties still dangling from his fingertips.
Dani. Xane missed Dani. He could feel the sense of loss rolling off him. His fault.
He swallowed down the lump in his throat as he shoved Alle’s knickers into his pocket. “Is there no means of fixing it?” he asked. “Can’t you arrange to talk or something?”
“Promised I wouldn’t, didn’t I?”
Yeah, but that had been forever ago.
“I’m so sorry, Xane.”
Xane wagged a finger at him. “Stop that. It’s not your fault. I’ve fucking told you that. Either it’ll work itself out or it won’t. At least Alle ain’t so twitchy about us, eh?”
Hard to say if that was exactly true. He certainly wasn’t sure that she was entirely comfortable with things, but at least they’d managed to be honest with one another. At least, about that.
“Do you know where she is, Xane?” A burst of irrational fear suggested she’d flown the island.
“Yeah, curled up with Luthor watching TV.”
