Jack opened his eyes and felt the dull throb in the back of his head dissipate. The ringing in his ears had started to go away too. He looked around and saw he wasn't alone. Someone had placed a pillow under his head. People stared at him with their angels hovering over them. All faces showing concern. Jack chided himself for letting his imagination of the angels to go unchecked. "I'm okay." Jack said trying to lay their concerns to rest.
"If you don't mind me saying you don't look okay. I don't know how long you were laying here sir, but I just found you about ten minutes ago." Said the man kneeling over him.
The man stood and reached down to give Jack a hand. Demons were easy to ignore given that they were of darkness. Angels on the other hand were harder. Their magnificent bright light gave off an intoxicating pull whenever they were around. Jack still tried to look at the man's face rather than the angel next to him. His headache was just going away and if he made any attempt to acknowledge the angel then it would return worse.
Jack took his hand and allowed the help up. "Thank you, sir." Jack gave him a nod.
The man nodded back and turned to leave. As the onlookers started to walk away, Jack stood and pulled out his phone. He had a missed call from Kristy. Looking at the time, it seemed he had been out for about twenty minutes. "No one had seen him for me for ten minutes? No. No one stopped to help for ten minutes. Everyone is busy in their own worlds. They probably thought I was some druggy passed out on the floor." Jack thought to himself and became angry. Mind still reeling, Jack attempted to call Kristy via going to missed calls and hitting the call back button. His vision was so hazy that he could hardly see if he was clicking on her name or not. Giving up on account of his hazy vision he felt for the button on the side of his phone. When he held it down and heard the Bing he said, "Call My Love."
It responded with "Did you want me to call Kristy?"
"Yes."
It trilled and he waited as the phone call dialed through. He pressed the phone to his ear. It didn't take long for Kristy's beautiful voice to fill his ear. "Another episode I take it?"
"Yeah. They seem to be getting more frequent. I don't know what to do to make them stop. Beginning to wonder if there's even a medication out there that can remedy this problem. I didn't run away this time. I fought back. It felt so different."
She sighed, "Make sure to tell the therapist. You know she's gonna want to know... Maybe not about the fighting back part... They've always told us to run."
"I know. I know." Jack allowed the frustration to subsided. He was tired of this happening to him. It was embarrassing to say the least. Waking up with eyes on wondering if you just got a bad batch of drugs, or a drunk trying to sleep of his hangover.
Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, he took a deep breath trying to further clear his head.
"I love you. It's gonna be okay and we're gonna get this all figured out, okay? Just come home and we can snuggle up on the couch and watch the movie i picked out." She smiled at him through the phone. Jack thought, "she really does do a good job of bringing me comfort." He loved her so much for the rock that she was in their relationship. It was the number one reason why he wanted to marry her.
"Okay, You're right. I love you too and I'll be home soon." A smile touched his face. As long as he had her, he knew that nothing could ever keep him down.
Hanging up the phone he picked up the Reese's cup he had originally came there for. He headed to the check out. "Tonight will be a good night after all."
It was getting dark when Jack had reached home. He reached over to grab the bag of candy. His hand rested just above it. He hesitated. After the evening he just had he couldn't understand why he still thought of doing it. He imagined the hand hold of the plastic bag coming up to his hand. In his mind he watched it go up to his fingertips and heard the rustling of the plastic. Weird how the mind would allow his senses to hear things and see things as they happened. Even the feeling of the plastic brushing his fingertips. Once again the headache he had earlier threatened to return. He stopped imagining it float and it lazily went back onto the seat as it had been before. Thankfully the dull ache in his head went away as well.
He grabbed the key and turned off the car. The engine sputtered out and was silent except for the ticking of the hot engine. He grabbed the bag and got out of the car. Getting out of the car he was greeted by the sound of crickets. Living in a township was better than living in the city. He longed for the country, but this was the best they could afford at the moment.
He approached Kristy and his tan colored house. He smiled. He was finally home. It wasn't a big house and not the prettiest on their street, but it was theirs. The tan of the siding was paled, the house was a little over fifteen years old, and in need of a little touching up. The windows had been recently updated in some parts. The windows in the master bedroom and living room were the new ones, but the ones in the guest bedroom, kitchen, and washroom were not. The only real problem with them was they didn't open very easily. You had to use quite a bit of force. Now if you wanted to close them and latch them that was harder yet. It required Jack to put all of his two hundred and ten pounds down on the window, then having Kristy latch it while he held it in place. Needless to say, Jack and Kristy left the windows alone.
Still walking up to the house, he could feel the peace of being home with the woman he loved taking hold of his heart. He could already smell the her raspberry and vanilla hair. The thought of being able to embrace her quickened his step to the front door. The black door had a gold knob that wasn't nearly as shiny as the golden door knock above. Unlike it the knob had seen many years of use.
With Jack and Kristy's shared history, it didn't matter who was home. the door was always locked. Knob, deadbolt, and chain. Normally Jack would text or call that he was almost home so Kristy could unlock the door for him, or at least get the chain. The fact that he had just talked to her on the phone was reason enough for not texting ahead of time. She knew he was going to be home soon.
While pulling out his keys from his pocket, he was already feeling for the hexagonal shaped key. Finding it and putting it into the deadbolt, he turned it right expecting to hear the thud of the bolt going back. The sound never came.
"Weird," he thought. He grabbed the door knob and twisted. It turned freely. Panic started to rise in his chest. They had both endured so much at the orphanage that she would only ever get the chain before getting home. He had stopped asking about the other two locks because he could get to those himself.
His nerves threatening to fray, millions of scenarios started racing through his head. "Had someone from the orphanage come back? Why now of all times did this have to happen? Is Kristy going to be okay? Did the therapist know that I'd been lying about how well I was doing not using my imagination?"
Jack slowly opened the door not knowing what to expect or what he would see. Realizing he was holding his breath he slowly let it out as he pushed the door further open. The first thing he noticed was that it was dark inside. Not a single light was on except for the dim lights coming from the dark time sensing plug in light. They had them for Kristy's sake. She worked nights and it allowed her to see when she got home without having to blind him.
With his eyes already adjusted to the dark, Jack stepped slowly in. All of his senses were on high alert, ready to register anything that would portray danger. The first steps would have to be quiet and light. The first couple feet of the flooring was made of tile, and his boots would clack loudly against it. If there was someone in his house the last thing he wanted to do was alert them he was home.
Getting to the carpet he was a little less careful about his steps. He focused on getting to the corner of the wall. At the moment he had a couch and living room to his left and wall to his right about six or seven feet ahead. After that it opened up to an entertainment room. The living room was clean and delicately decorated. Kristy had an eye for perfection, thus decoration always fell to her. Beyond the living room was the master bedroom. The master bedroom wall and the kitchen wall met adjacently. The kitchen wall extended on another three feet. The door to the bedroom was closed. He'd have to come back to the door af-
"Boo!"
"Son of a-!"
Kristy had been hiding just around the corner of the wall in the entertainment room. She was waiting for him to just show his face give him a big scare. In that she succeeded professionally. Jack had jumped back and stumbled over his feet and fell down on his butt. Landing hard, he was still quick to look up and eye her. The sly grin of her face turned to one of terror. She knew she was in for it now. Turning slightly to her right she tried to bolt to the bedroom. Jack lunged forward and caught her ankle tripping her up. Kristy was giggling as she fell, Landing on her hands gracefully and springing forward doing a front handspring. Jack, forgetting himself, shook off his awe and ran after her. Barely getting through the door before she shut it. He grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled, wrapped her up and tackled her onto the bed. He stared into her intoxication, chocolate eyes and smiled.
"You're lucky that you're cute. Otherwise, I'd have to get you back worse." He said winking.
She smiled coyly. "And what makes you think that you'd ever get the chance. You're quite predictable."
Running his hand through her hair he kissed her forehead. Then putting his fingers along the side of her neck and palm flat against her cheek he pulled her close and kissed her soft lips deeply. "I missed you."
She smiled and kissed him back fully. "I missed you too."
"We should probably get up and get this movie started before it gets too much later. Otherwise, you're going to be laying there with your tongue hanging out snoring halfway through the movie." Jack said laughing. Imitating what she would look like.
She punched him in the arm and wriggled free from underneath him. "Shut up!" she laughed walking out into the living room.
Jack followed just a few steps behind her. As Kristy walked over to sit down on the couch, he continued past to grab the bag of candy he had left by the door. He slowed down to where he was roughly six feet away from the bag. He was still in her peripheral vision. Jack raised his hand and willed the bag to come to his hand. As if the bag had the ability to fly it came over to his hand. He closed his hand around the handhold and went to turn around, half believing he actually had it. The headache blew up in his mind. He glanced at Kristy who was rubbing her temples. It didn't make sense to Jack why if something he did also caused Kristy to have a headache too. He willed the bag back to where it had been and walked over and picked it up. The headache subsided.
"Maybe that's the reason your nightmares have become more frequent. Stop imagining things and give your mind a chance to relax and you'll feel better." She said with compassion instead of the frustration he was expecting.
"Yeah I guess you could be right." Jack replied, though not believing his words.
He walked over and picked the bag up from the ground. Jack turned around and headed back toward her on the front side of the couch. Holding out the bag of candy just out of reach for her, she tried to take the bag from him. Jack pulled the back just before she could close her grip around the bag. She eyed him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Again, he held the bag out to her for her to take. This was their game and the only time their imaginations were allowed to run wild without consequence of getting a headache.
Time seemed to slow. They never timed how quick they were or had someone see how fast they were. All Jack and Kristy knew was that time slowed and it was an exhilarating game of keep away. Every time when one would the other would see it in slow motion and was given the opportunity to react. Their reaction was perceived as slow and thus the counter was presented again. It didn't matter if it was an attempt for the bag or turning to run. The moment someone made a move the other saw it in slow motion.
Kristy reached out to grab the bag again and Jack whirled around bringing to the other side of his body. He had his other hand out to keep extra distance between her and the bag. Kristy brought her hand up and back down over top of his arm, shoving his down while jumping at the same time. Going forward and using the forced momentum, Jack ducked below Kristy as she sailed over him almost grabbing his hand with the bag. Pulling his hand down towards his chest he was able to keep her from getting it. A millisecond slower and he was sure to have lost too soon for the game to have been appropriately fun. Kristy was still in the air twisting so her feet would land on the wall. She pushed off the wall as soon as her feet touched it she pushed off will full force, tackling Jack to the ground. Again he used the forced momentum to bring them into a roll with him ending on top of her. He tossed the bag once he was securely on top so that he could use both hands to hold her down. It was no easy task. Not only was Kristy feisty but she was also quite strong, especially for someone of her height and size. Thrusting her hips up and forward she was able to throw Jack off balance enough that she could twist and wriggle her way free from underneath him. He still had her arms pinned down but she was able to take her legs and wrap them around his waist. Jack realized he was in a predicament. Now she was in the dominant position. Keeping hold of him with her legs, Kristy pulled him close and licked his neck. Jack was so surprised that he faltered on his grip allowing her to get a hand free. She squeezed herself to his body with his arm pressed against his side. The unbalance of weight caused him to roll to the side. Now she was on top with her knees against his armpits. Ripping her other hand free she jumped from her knees with enough force to follow up with a handspring. Jack tried to twist and up before she get to the bag. Her feet touched the ground and he grabbed her foot. Kristy let herself fall forward and was able to grab the bag. Victorious she turned toward Jack and held the bag up in the air waving it back and forth. Moving her hips side to side and alternating pumping fists in the air she said, "I win!" in a mocking tone.
Jack laughed and got to his feet. He raised an eyebrow and grinned, "Did you though? Or did I let you?"
Her smile disappeared and an edge came to her voice. "No you didn't. Why must you always take a defeat and make it as if you let me win?!"
He sighed and rolled his eyes while holding a coy grin. "Alright, alright. You won. But I will say that you cheated. That lick on the neck was a cheap trick."
Satisfied with herself, Kristy walked over to him and kissed him on the lips. Looked into his brown eyes and said, "There's no shame in losing. I'm hurt though. I'd never pull a cheap trick." She winked.
Together they went and sat together on the couch to start the movie. Kristy opened up her bag and pulled out her winnings. As she always did she split the snack with Jack. Always pretending to be reluctant, Jack took his share of her snack and ate with her. She nuzzled up close to him and put her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her and brought her even closer.
The movie she picked out was a Rom-Com. She laughed and laughed throughout the movie. Jack pretended to not be as interested but laughed when she did all the same. It was a pretty good movie. A good movie and good company is all Jack could ask for. He smiled and took a deep breath of peace. After a long day it's what he longed for. They both fell asleep on the couch before the movie was over. They had their own room because they weren't married yet. Though it wasn't ideal they still liked to wake up in each others arms. It was subtle and quaint, maybe even a little corny, but it was everything to them. The wedding day couldn't get there soon enough.
While they slept, something else was happening. Far away from Ohio, back in Wisconsin. Back at the Orphanage.