Ghosts we leave behind

chapter 14; below

That night, Nora struggled to sleep. She kept waking up, wondering if she had dreamt the sounds or not. Tossing and turning, her mind began playing tricks on her. At around 2 am, she fell asleep again and woke up at 4.30 am. After that, things began to blur.

So when she finally awoke at 7am, she wasn't entirely sure how much sleep she'd gotten at all. But it didn't matter because it was time to get up and get ready for the day ahead. She slipped out of bed and into the bathroom down the corridor to refresh herself and change clothes.

Nora yawned as she put the slices of bread into the pan. The butter sizzled and she turned to break the eggs into a small white bowl. Tea. The kettle had seemed to slip her mind.

Upstairs, she could hear Eleanor leave her room and come down the stairs. "Morning," she said, sleepily.

"Morning," Nora replied, too groggy to notice how restless Eleanor appeared to be.

Eleanor sat down at the table and yawned, covering her open mouth with her sleeve. Pouring the beaten eggs and chopped herbs into the pan, Nora watched them cook for a while before filling up the kettle with water.

"It's cold," Eleanor noted, her head resting on her arms on the table.

"I'll increase the temperature," Nora replied, returning to the stove to flip the egg and bread.

After doing so, she walked over to the wall where the fridge stood and checked the thermostat. It was switched off so she turned it on and increased the temperature to 32 degrees. She tried to remember if she had turned it off the previous night and found it hard to believe that anyone would have done it in the bleak winter.

"Is it on?" Eleanor asked.

"Yeah, it'll get warmer soon," she mumbled, putting the food into plates and carrying them over to the table.

After the tea was ready, Nora brought over the cups and sat down beside Eleanor who had already taken a few bites of her breakfast.

"I wondered why it was so freezing last night," Eleanor shook her head. "You closed it."

Nora shook her head, "No, I didn't. I thought you did."

Eleanor shook her head, too. "Of course I didn't."

Nora felt her stomach churn but she tried to push the feeling away and took a bite of her food. "Well, probably one of us forgot about it."

Or something else had caused it.

But Nora was determined to keep it together until Elijah got there and they could find the answers in the tunnel she'd discovered. Until then, she wanted to have a normal breakfast and pretend, at least for a little while, that there wasn't a faceless creature terrorising her.

✞

Dread loomed in as the clock read 1.30.

Nora checked her phone and deliberated if whether she should call and check on Elijah. Fearful that she may annoy him, she decided to wait a little longer. She sat in the kitchen, fidgeting with her fingers in her lap. Beside her, on the table, sat a bottle of sleeping medicine and the seal she'd taken off an hour earlier.

She worried about the time she had, now that Elijah was clearly running late.

Shit, she thought.

Finally, around 2'o clock, she called Elijah and waited for him to answer. But he didn't and that's when the she could begin to hear time 'ticking' away in her mind.

To inspect the basement, she would have to get started soon if she wanted Eleanor to stay asleep. She sighed and called  Elijah again. When he didn't pick up, she left him a voice mail and a few texts.