From one coast to the other. Then over the pond. January 21 - 30, 2006.

[royalamusement]

Tink had sunburned her nose as they sailed back from "New Atlantis." It kept her up as she stared at the ceiling. It was disturbingly filled with occasional silver sparkles, clearly having been redone in the seventies. Posters of bands she had never heard of had started to creep over onto her side of the room, ignoring the ducktape dividing line on the wall. Across the room her niece's even breathing indicated she was the only one awake. Listening to the older girl's rhythmic breaths, Tink soon joined her in slumber.

.....

The notes she needed to jot down filled through her head as she laid down to sleep. She had forgotten to hand even the ones she finished over, she had been so excited about the grimore and in such a rush to get back. Perhaps she should have stayed, but she didn't want anything to get in the way of tomorrow. As the cold of the room increased, she wondered the wisdom of that decision. Even though she was in her own bed, the cold and the anticipation of the next day were enough to cause her a restless night.

.....

Monday night should be left unmentioned.

.....

Amtrak closed the food car for the night, and Tink laid down inside it. Tink hated sleeping invisible; she was always afraid the spell would completely set during the night and she'd never be seen again. She had seen that episode of the Twilight Zone once when Smoke was watching late night TV and it never really left her. She didn't think she'd get much sleep - the food cart had closed late and opened early and the floor was hard. Eventually pure exhaustion won out.

.....

Her shoulder was brusing and the back of her head swelling slightly by the time her head hit the freshly laundered pillow. She couldn't feel any pain. Nothing like a simple bar fight to make everything in the world feel alright. He smacked her ass, she knocked him out, the bar did shots. It was a simple equation that made all the rest of the chaos better. The world spun drunkenly around her as she crashed into slumber.

.....

Tink stared at the meshwork pattern the grate on the window made as she felt sleep start to overtake her. The battered old couch held her carefully, and a glass of tepid water sat on the floor next to her. Even as she shut her eyes, she could still feel him in the room. There were few places safer. For now. As long as her life didn't become an unnecessary evil. Wordless reassurance brushed those thoughts away and, secure in the mind that touched hers, she slept soundly.

.....

The bed was at least twice as wide as she was long, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach any of its sides while laying down in the middle. The room bespoke of immense wealth, but she found it sterile and cold. She gathered another pillow to her and curled up around it. This one smelled like Rabbit, and the familiarity made the room seem less alien. Being rich didn't seem to make things less easier; it just meant they had to work harder to screw shit up. She fell asleep reviewing how very much work they put into ruining their lives.

.....

She hurt, and the damn pain was resistant to magic. The uncomfortable airport chairs provided no relief from the ache in her back. She was six hours early, but its when the bus got her here. Trying to sleep in an airport, with a tweaked out back, in a horrible little chair, and the blaring security announcements was about to drive her over the edge. Somehow she managed to fall asleep in the gate area for her flight.

.....

The guest room was familiar - little trinkets and memories that would mean nothing to anyone but her were spread about it. He could be hauntingly sentimental under his mask. Her eyes fell on the open closet door were a old brown leather jacket hung. She left her warm cocoon to go pull it down. Curling up around it as if it were a teddy bear, she quickly fell asleep.

.....

They say home is where you keep your stuff. As she stared at her ceiling in DC, she wasn't so sure. Home was a weird word that other people seemed to understand much better than she did. But she was here. Her brother was here. And her stuff was here.

Her last thought before she fell asleep reassured her. She was going to spend two nights in a row in the same bed. Tomorrow she would wake up here, and tomorrow she would sleep here.

The day after offered no such assurances.