Chapter 19: Dull New World
The alarm blaring woke Emily up.
The alarm woke her, not a nightmare.
Blinking up at the ceiling, she let that little fact sink in. She had woken up exactly seven hours after going to sleep. The pills had done their job, that was good.
Despite her alarm having already gone off, Emily stayed in bed for a while longer, taking slow, deep breaths. Her blinks came with the speed of a sloth, her eyelids feeling weighed down. But she finally managed to not only keep her eyes open for longer, but to finally get out of bed.
She had slept through the night, that was huge, monumental. She should have been feeling...something. But as she got herself ready for work, whatever that hidden feeling was supposed to be, it did not surface, and tired of waiting for her brain to come up with something, she finally gave up, and went to greet her mom.
"Good morning, mom," She called, opening the door to her mother's room a crack. The older woman, encased in a cocoon of blankets, wriggled about, unintelligible sounds coming from her.
That...that was what good, restful sleep was supposed to look like. Emily thought, but she could not hold onto the idea, it disappeared as quickly as it had come, and she did not have the energy to try and find it again.
Closing the door, she let her mom enjoy her lie in. She would only be going into work later in the day, a rare treat, and in Emily's opinion, her mom was using the time wisely.
The trip to work was...strange. It was muted in a way the city never was. The lights a little bit dim, the noises distant, as though they were echoes. And when Emily finally made it to work, she was a bit dumbfounded to find other people there as well.
She was not late, but she had not come in at her usual time either.