NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes

We got back to the room… I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to go anywhere with Jessica… Though I don’t want to get hurt, yet again.

Jessica sat in a chair for a bit, I think she was getting bored. “Hey Red, are you hungry?”

My stomach growled… “Yes…”

She smirked. “Alright, I’ll be back. I’m going to get us some food.” She walked out.

I’ve been in a coma for several months yet I wanted to take a nap… There wasn’t anything to do and I was waiting for Jessica, I figured she’d wake me up. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I woke up, not in the way I was expecting though. I could feel someone running their fingers through my hair, it felt nice but I didn’t know why they were doing it… I was startled by feeling something soft touch my lips, I opened my eyes… It was Elizabeth, she was kissing me. She opened her eyes and froze, she pulled away and stared at me…

She was stumbling on her words. “R-R-R-Red! Y-y-your awake!” Then she jumped on me and gave me a rather painful hug. “I thought you weren’t going to wake up!”

She was squeezing tighter then Jessica was. “That hurts! You’re squeezing to tight!”

She ignored me. “I don’t care!” She buried her face in my chest… It was strange.

I didn’t know what else to do, I was able to raise my arm and pet her… I rubbed my hand on her head and I could hear her sobbing… Was she that worried about me? When I was petting her, I felt something around her neck, I move her hair to see what it was… She was wearing my collar, it had red stains on it… I hadn’t even noticed it wasn’t on, they must have taken it off and she didn’t want to get rid of it.

I decided to play with her. “So, are you the pet now?” She stopped sobbing, but didn’t say anything; I heard some sniffles though. “I’m not too sure how good of a master I’d be, I might have to let someone else adopt you.”

She looked up at me. “I’m going to ruin you when you get out of here.”

What?! “W-what’s that supposed to mean?!”

She gave me a crooked smile. “You know exactly what I mean.” I refused to look at her a for a few minutes after she said that… “Your heart beat sounds nice… let’s keep it that way okay.” I didn’t say anything. She got up and walked over a bag sitting in the chair, I guess she brought it with her… She pulled out a collar, it was white. I guess she got her hands on another one then. She walked back over and put it on me. “It’s nice to see you awake.” She gave me a not so crushing hug this time. “Did you intentionally pull a sleeping beauty moment on me?”

I didn’t know what that was… “No? I woke up earlier today and decided to take a nap… I woke up when you were touching my hair, I was startled by the kiss and opened my eyes.”

She looked disappointed. “You couldn’t have just lied to me? It made it seem more special.”

Now I felt bad. “Sorry… Why are you wearing the old collar, it has blood stains on it?”

She paused for a second… “It’s not obvious? I was wearing it because of you… You got hurt, I couldn’t do anything so I put it on out of desperation I guess, for some reason I thought if I wore it you’d be fine... As it stands you’ve done a better job at protecting Jessica than she has of you though… Personally I think she’s the air head.”

The door got kicked open, it was Jessica. “Screw you to then Elizabeth!”

Elizabeth started laughing nervously. “Oh uh, hi Jessica. How are you doing?!”

Jessica crossed her arms and stared at her. “Can you get off Red… She’s supposed to be taking it easy not having her girlfriend laying on her.”

Elizabeth jumped up. “Oh, right… Sorry Red!” Jessica walked over and smacked the back of Elizabeth’s head. “Hey!”

Jessica laughed, then she handed me a bag. It had a sandwich in it. “Thank you!” I pulled it out, it was turkey, lettuce, and ham… It was good.

There was one chair and Jessica took it. Elizabeth was standing there, I felt bad. “Do you want to sit on the bed?”

There was a button on the side of the bed, I found that it raises and lowers it, so I raised the headrest up further. I was sitting upright at that point and what Elizabeth decided to do was odd. Instead of sitting on the bed she laid next to me, I didn’t really mind… Jessica was giving her the stink eye though. I leaned on her shoulder, it seemed to calm Jessica down a little…

For some reason, I wanted to talk about what happened at base one… “Can we talk about it?”

Jessica seemed confused at first. “Talk about what?”

Elizabeth just looked at me, I replied to Jessica. “What happened, at base one I mean… The attack.”

Jessica sighed, Elizabeth stayed quiet. “Depends on what part you’re wanting to talk about.”

I guess I should ask about what happened after. “What happen after the Pathfinder grabbed me?”

Jessica paused for a minute… “I was smacked away, I don’t know how long I was out though. I woke up and the building was on fire and I couldn’t find you. There was a black mark on the ground, eventually I figured out that it was something you did. Elizabeth was there, she was screaming your name. We both started looking for you, we did find you. One of the racks had fallen on top of you and we had a hell of time getting you out… Shortly after we pulled you out reinforcements from base three started pushing them out. They tried to evacuate and the AA guns took out three of the choppers.”

I wanted to know how I was. “How bad was I?”

She bit her lower lip before talking. “Bad… You were covered in blood and both your hands were gone, I don’t know how much worse you can get without being dead… I’m glad you’re here though, you’re a tougher nut to crack then I thought you were… Nice shooting though.”

I guess there isn’t much to tell then... I wonder how the fight with Keith went down. “You don’t have to say if you don’t want to. Were you angry at me when I shot Keith…”

Jessica looked down. “I was at first, it passed quickly enough. I’ve gotten over it by now though.”

I didn’t want to press any further into it, I don’t think their argument was a place I should stick my nose.

I did have one question though. I looked Elizabeth in the eyes. “You didn’t do anything dirty while I was asleep, did you?”

She looked like I had just insulted her, though Jessica laughed. “N-NO! I’m not some pervert!”

I hugged her. “Ok.” She hugged me back, it was nice… I remembered what Elizabeth said, she said she loved me… “What does love mean?”

Jessica started choking. “W-WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?!”

Elizabeth froze, did I say something wrong…? “I remembered, Elizabeth said she loved me… I don’t know what love means.” They both stared at me silently… “Is that a bad question to ask?”

Jessica cleared her throat. “You’ve been asking a lot of odd questions since you woke up… Are you sure you’re ok, this isn’t like you…”

I think I’m fine. “I’m pretty sure, I just feel like… Everything seems feels more important now though… Like, I don’t want them to go away. During attack that I wanted to keep Elizabeth safe, and I wanted to try and protect you Jessica… I wanted to be useful.”

Elizabeth hugged me, Jessica got up and hugged me as well. Elizabeth was the one who said it. “Red, you are useful just being around… I want to keep you safe as well, that feeling you have. It’s love, you just need to know what type of love it is.”