Page 23 of Severance

Wrapping my arms around her a little tighter, I hold her against me as she slowly falls asleep. Listening to her breathing, I pray to whatever fucked up god that floats around in the clouds that this shit doesn’t go south.

I can’t lose her again.

I won’t survive

???

Rolling over in bed, I reach out for her warm body, only to find the bed empty. Sitting up, I rub my eyes as I squint them against the bright light shining in from the window.

What the fuck?

Jumping out of bed, I quickly pull the curtains shut and glance around the room for Dahlia. Her clothes are still on the floor next to mine, the door is still locked, but where the fuck is she?

Grabbing my pants, I pull them back on in haste, just as the bathroom door opens. Dahlia steps into the room, wrapped in a towel with her wet hair hanging in perfect ringlets down her back.

“So, the water is cold as fuck and there’s practically no water pressure, but there was soap in there and clean towels,” she says with a shrug as she walks past me.

“I thought you were gone,” I admit, slowly turning around to face her. She stares at me absentmindedly as she runs her fingers through her hair. “You can’t do that shit.”

She narrows her eyes as she stops brushing her hair. “Can’t do what? Take a fucking shower?”

“How was I supposed to know where you were? Someone could have easily come into the room and taken you.”

“As if they couldn’t have done that with me still in bed?” she retorts as she crosses her arms over her chest defensively.

“No one will get to you with me there.”

Dahlia huffsas she throws her hands up. “Jesus fucking Christ, Kai! Do you hear how paranoid you sound? What am I supposed to do, wake you up and tell you I’m getting a goddamn shower? Do you need to come hold my hand when I pee too?”

“Dahlia,” I start, but she interjects.

“No. You want to protect me, and I’m more than fine with that, but we’re not fucking invincible, Kai.” She shakes her head, brushing back past me, just out of my reach. “If they want us, they’re going to get us.”

With my feet glued to the ground, I don’t turn around as she storms off. I don’t turn around when she slams the bathroom door behind her. I stare straight ahead, with my eyes focused on the floral wallpaper, knowing damn well that she’s right.

We’re not untouchable.

It was merely a figment of our imagination.

The realization hits me hard and I take a seat on the bed as Dahlia finishes up in the bathroom. How could I have been so foolish? I’ve been setting us up for failure all along.

Dahlia isn’t gone long before she’s marching back into the room with her towel on.

“I have no clean clothes,” she declares. “I’m down to get dirty and shit, but a girl needs a clean pair of panties.”

Shit, of course she does.

I always keep extra clothes in my trunk, just in case, but hers were never a thought.

“I have a bag in my trunk with clean clothes,” I tell her as I grab my keys. “That will have to suffice for now.”

Dahlia opens her mouth, probably to argue, but I slip out of the room before she gets a chance. She may not like it, but she’s going to have to get the fuck over it.

Dahlia

Eyeing the door, I quickly glance over at the phone sitting on the nightstand beside the bed. I have a minute at best before Kai comes back through that door.

Moving quickly across the room, I pick up the phone and dial a number I weirdly know by heart.

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