Free Fall (Pyramid of Gold) Chapter 25: Sweet Dreams

The was a small group of irritated people in front of the bathroom door on the second floor. I pushed through them, gathering a few less than friendly stares.

'Hey, watch where you going!'

Ted was sowhere downstairs, checking the guest bedrooms. I stopped before the door and hesitated.

'Who's in there?'

The guy who advised to watch my step made a face.

'Dunno. So chick. Can you, like, get her out of there? I'm going to piss myself, dude.'

I knocked on the door.

'Claire? Are you there?'

No response.

I turned to the angry guy.

'How long has she been in there?'

'How the fuck should I know? I've been waiting here for, like, twenty minutes.'

I checked the door. Locked.

There was a muffled sound from the inside. Then I heard Claire's voice, slurring her words.

'Go'way.'

I could hear the water running.

'Claire, are you okay?'

'Who the fuck cares, man! Just tell her to open the damn door, I need to piss!'

I took a deep breath and slowly looked at him.

'Go piss sowhere else.'

He must have heard sothing in my voice, because his attitude montarily changed.

'Uh... no problem, man. Like, peace. Be cool.'

He backed away, turned and made a hasty exit. The others looked at nervously and followed, whispering.

I tried the door again.

'Claire, please let in.'

'I ssaid, go'way.'

Her voice sounded shaky.

I swallowed, then put my hand on the door. I could sense the cold tal of the latch through the wood. tal was easy to affect, unlike living beings. But what if she was staring at the door right now? Should I risk using the Ability for the second ti this night?

I made the latch move, at first slowly, then in one swift motion. The door moved, and I stepped inside.

Claire was sitting on the floor, her hair wet and disheveled, stuck to her skin. She was hugging her knees, completely out of it. There was a lost, sad expression on her face. The shower was running, and I could sll vomit in the air.

'Whoos it?'

I kneeled beside her and moved a wet strand of hair away from her eyes.

'It's . Matt.'

It took her a couple of seconds to recognize .

'Matt? What're you doin' here?'

'Searching for you.'

She looked at , uncomprehending, and then grimaced.

'Lem the fuck alone.'

I took her by the shoulders.

'Claire, listen...'

She made an angry move to push away.

'I said l-leave alone! Mother... motherfucker! G-go bother that girl o'yours!'

I winced, trying to keep her from falling.

'What girl?'

Claire stopped struggling and leaned on the side of the bathtub. Her eyes shut close.

'Fuck you, Matt...'

She covered her face with her hands.

'J... jerk. You could have just... fuck... said! Thanks but no thanks, man...'

He flinched awake, and looked at with wet eyes.

'Am I, like, too young? Talk too much? Do you think I'm crazy?'

I looked away, a painful feeling in my chest. It hurt to see her like this, to know that this was because of and my lies.

Why did she even care about a broken, foul thing like ? Up until now, I was so full of self-pity. Poor Matthew, wanting for a girl he couldn't have. I never even considered how Claire felt on the other side of this equation. How it might hurt her too.

'You're a loser, you know that? A f-fucking nobody! Go away. I don't wanna see you.'

She closed her eyes again, half-unconscious.

I swallowed the bitter sting of her words.

'Let's get you ho, Claire.'

Her skin was cold. I lifted her up from the floor and felt her body shaking, pressed against mine. She weighed almost nothing.

'Co on, Claire. You need to stand.'

I put her arm around my neck and bent to minimize the difference in our height. She moved, trying to find her footing. We walked outside, swaying. I pretty much carried her down the stairs.

There, Ted rushed to us.

'Hey! You found her!'

I nodded.

'Yeah. She's pretty drunk.'

There was a clear relief on his face.

'Good! I an, bad. But it's good that she's okay.'

He hesitated.

'Will she be alright?'

'Apart from a wicked hangover? Yeah. But we need to get her ho.'

Ted got that guilty look again.

'Right! Of course. It's just... uh... I kinda promised that guy to, you know, uh, leave together...'

I stopped him.

'It's cool, Ted. I got it.'

He smiled.

'Are you sure?'

I nodded.

'You're the man, Matt! Thank you.'

Ted blinked a few tis, then searched in his pockets and produced a well-worn set of car keys.

'Here, man. Take my car. I'm too wasted anyway! You're okay to drive?'

It was a while since I sat behind the wheel, but I knew how to handle a car from my days working as a courier. And I only made a few sips of beer to keep up appearances.

'Sure.'

I took the keys and said goodbye.

I carefully put Claire in the passenger's seat. She was asleep by now. In the darkness of the night, she looked so vulnerable, so beautiful. I moved a stray lock of hair from her face and closed my eyes for a second. Looking at her just then broke my heart a little.

I got into the driver's seat and fastened her seatbelt. Unlike Mickey's primordial beast, Ted's car had a proper electric engine. It started quietly, and for a long ti, the only sound surrounding us was the rustle of the wheels on wet asphalt.

The snowflakes were dancing in the white beams of the car's head lights.

I let myself relax a little. My face was pulsing with dull pain. My mind was quiet, heavy with the weight of my many failures. I let down Mickey. I let down Claire. And, worse of all, I felt like I let down my mother. It hurt.

Everything hurt. The past hurt. The present hurt. The future hurt worse of all.

It wasn't fair.

Claire murmured sothing in her sleep, too quiet for to understand. I looked at her, cold. Frozen. Then turned back to the road.

'It's not tomato juice,' I said in the darkness. 'On my shirt. It's blood. My blood. I got beaten.'

Claire didn't react. She was asleep. She was too drunk to rember any of this the next morning.

'I really thought I was going to die today.'

The words felt cold on my lips. I kept driving.

'I'm so scared. I don't even rember the last ti I wasn't afraid. I imagined that mont so many tis, and I thought... I thought when sothing like this will finally happen, when they co for , I will be ready. But I wasn't.'

'I wasn't ready at all.'

'And in that mont, sitting in that car... all I could think about was that I will never play piano for you again. That I will never hold your hand. That I will never hear your voice. That I will just... cease. '

'...'

'And I one day soon, I will.'

#

I parked Ted's car in front of the small house Claire and Nelly were renting. I never saw it before, but it looked just like Claire had described it, a long ti ago. Neat and tiny. I climbed out of the car, and let snowflakes cool my throbbing face.

Fucking Mitchel and his fucking fist.

Claire murmured sothing when I lifted her out of the car. She slled like booze and vomit.

I wanted to hold her forever.

Instead, I carried her to the door and rang the bell. Then I rang a couple more tis.

Nelly must have been asleep already, because it took her at least ten minutes to co to the door. I saw the lights in the house lit up, heard steps, and then the door opened. She was sleepy, her short blond hair sticking up. She was wearing warm PJs and a blue robe decorated with white stars.

Nelly looked at , then at Claire, and frowned. Then she raised an eyebrow.

'Hi, Nelly. She, uh, had a little bit too much to drink.'

Nelly sighed. Then she slled the air and shook her head. Finally, she moved aside to let in.

Inside, their ho was very cozy. There were two bedrooms and a living room, which was paired with a kitchen. There were guitars positioned carefully on the stands, heavy tal posters on the walls, and a wild assortnt of paperback books lying here and there.

Nelly led to Claire's room and turned on the lights. I looked around with curious hunger.

It was small and tidy. Her bed was made up, and there was a very old plush monkey looking at with judgntal button eyes from it. Clothes, mostly hoodies and black t-shirts, were hanging neatly in the closet. Her laptop was adorned with colorful stickies. I looked closely. On one of them, there was a crude drawing of a viking helt, with handwritten text reading: "Achievent! Seven full nights of sleep in a row. Aweso Helt of Sweet Dreams, 5 to Constitution". Other notes bore similar rewards. There was another plush monkey, this one in a red hat, sitting near. It was guarding two photo fras. In one, Claire was hugging a tired-looking woman in her forties, smiling. On the other, Claire, much younger, was laughing with a little boy in a warm purple jumpsuit, two handfuls of autumn leaves in the air around them.

I put her carefully on the bed and stepped back. Nelly patted on the shoulder and made an O with her thumb and index finger, letting know that she'll take it from here.

'Alright,' I said, a small smile on my lips. 'I'll be going then.'

Before I left, she went into her room and ca back with a notepad. She wrote sothing on it with a black marker and then turned it to . There, in neat handwriting, was written:

'YOU'RE A NICE GUY, MATT.'

Nelly looked at , making sure that I read it. There was no smile on her face.

'Thanks, I guess.'

She kept looking at , a strange intensity in her eyes. Then she turned the page and wrote sothing else.

'IF YOU HURT HER, I WILL KILL YOU.'

I stood there for a few seconds, silent. Then I gave her a smile.

'Fair enough, Nelly. Sweat dreams.'