Page 47 of Claim the Dragon
She knew it was time to get up but she didn’t hear the music that normally came on as scheduled.For a few seconds she lay still, sensing something different in her surroundings.It was a subtle change, but she knew it the moment she opened her eyes, she just had to figure out what it was.
Could someone be here with her?
Of course not.This place was secured tightly all day and all night, and besides, nobody knew they were down here.It had been their secret for the last four years.Even when they allowed new people to come, they were always blindfolded when they were brought to the location.Only a handful of them went above anymore and they were all sworn to secrecy.No, nobody could be here.
Then why did she feel so freaked out and why was she keeping her words in her mind, instead of talking to herself aloud the way she normally did, because she knew there was no one around to answer?
Proving how foolish she was being, Ravyn pushed back the sheet and comforter and eased her legs off the side of the bed.When her feet touched the rug beneath her bed and she stood, her legs wobbled.She gripped the table beside her bed to steady herself.Seconds later she let go of the table and stood on her own.Extending her arm to switch on the lamp, she looked around her personal space the moment it was filled with the warm glow of light.
Everything was the same.Her desk, the dresser, the door to the bathroom only halfway closed, the door leading out to her office securely closed, but not locked.She rarely ever locked that door because the door to her office was locked.
“You’re being ridiculous,” she told herself and took a step toward the bathroom.
Everything around her slanted to the side and she felt a wave of nausea so severe, she immediately stopped and bent over grasping her stomach.Stumbling to the bathroom, she pulled up the toilet seat and was prepared to chuck whatever was roiling around so violently in the pit of her stomach, but the feeling stopped as quickly as it had begun.
“Great.I thought that was over with.”
When the flu symptoms had finally eased she’d been ecstatic.Now, she turned on the water in the sink, washed her face and brushed her teeth.When she was done she stood back and looked into the mirror, expecting to see a familiar face staring back at her.It was, but then it wasn’t.Her lips seemed swollen and her eyes a little brighter than they normally were first thing in the morning.With a shrug, she dismissed that as silliness and set about her day.
Thirty minutes later Ravyn stepped out of her room and into the hallway.The light here was brighter and echoes of laughter, music playing and what she thought was someone stacking boxes sounded in the distance as she began to walk.
“Whoa, mornin’, Ravyn,” Lorna said when they almost collided at the next corner.
“Good morning,” Ravyn replied.“I was just coming to see what you’d prepared for breakfast.I’m starving.”
Lorna raised a brow, but then smiled brightly.“That’s good to hear.You hadn’t been eating much in the past couple of weeks and I was getting worried.But we’ve got some oatmeal with plenty of brown sugar the way you like it and I cooked up the last of those spicy sausages.”
“Oh really, that sounds delicious.”Ravyn loved those sausages she’d scored when the butcher was having a huge sale and she’d managed to get all he had early that morning.The money she’d received from Happy for those utility belts with guns still attached that she’d lifted from a security closet in the industrial section of town had brought them a good chunk of change.
“Yeah, everybody loved those.You should put them on your list for when you go out in the next few days to stack up for the winter months.”
Lorna had started walking and Ravyn fell into step beside her.The only woman who’d been in Safeside as long as Ravyn—well, actually, the Megs had been their first residents three months after Cree and Ravyn had put the place together—was a few inches shorter than Ravyn.She had her graying hair pulled back into a ponytail that hung down the center of her back and a pencil was stuck behind her ear.Lorna always had that pencil there and if it wasn’t, you could bet the woman was running around Safeside cursing about someone taking it.
“Yeah, fall’s gonna be settling in this next couple of weeks.We’ve got to get some funds so we can get stacked up.”
“I thought you already had some funds you were planning to use,” Lorna said.
Ravyn frowned.“We’ve been living off the last payments, but that was a few weeks ago.I’ve gotta come up with a plan to secure more.”
“Oh, I thought Jorge told me you already had more and that you and Maurio were planning on going above to start the winter shopping in the next few days.Maurio said the market was closing down so you two were going to get there early tomorrow morning to get some of the discounted stuff.”
Ravyn was concentrating more on Lorna’s words than the two kids who’d just ran past her, bumping into her so that she then bumped into Lorna.
“Y’all slow down.And get to the common area, stay out of the hallways where people are trying to go about their business,” Lorna yelled at them.
“You said the market is closing?”she asked as she and Lorna walked down a narrower hallway and then down a couple of steps into the kitchen.
“Yeah, Jorge said you, him, Maurio and Cree talked about it yesterday morning when you were double-checking the perimeter.You know Cree still thinks someone tampered with the door or was near the entrance.”Lorna was moving toward the stove now, shaking her head as she reached over to take the handle of a pot that had been on a back burner.
“He’s itching to get outta here, Ravyn.You may have to talk to him,” Lorna was saying.
She only half heard Lorna’s words as she wondered more on the statement that Cree thought someone had tampered with the door.Hadn’t she just thought someone was in her room?But that was impossible.Nobody knew where they were.
“And I think maybe he should go up with you every now and then, just so he can get some air and see that the world is still moving, even though we’re down here.He’s so young and missed so much out of life.Not like us, you know.We had longer up there dealing with the bullshit.”
Lorna touched Ravyn’s shoulder, giving it a gentle shake.“You alright?”
“Huh?Oh yeah, I’m fine.Just think I have some of the remnants of being sick going on.But, I’m fine really,” she said, trying to shake the eerie feeling that she was missing something.“You were talking about Cree and you’re right.I’m concerned about him too.He’s been talking about all of us moving above.Says we’re hiding down here.”
