Chapter 63: What Changed?
Emily felt as though she had been cheated. In fact, she really had been cheated. She’d had one night. One wonderful night to soar. Then it had all been taken from her. No warning, nothing out of the ordinary to tip her off, just her body deciding to gift her with a full night of uninterrupted sleep, and then taking it all away from her without notice.
If she could have, Emily would have abandoned her body then and there. Found a new one that did not think nightmares were just the right accompaniment to sleep. But, unfortunately for her, the soul and the body were a lifetime package.
Which meant she was stuck with her body, a nightmare free sleep being something that she only day dreamed about instead of having it every night.
And there was nothing quite like disappointment to dampen the mood. It was like finding a fly at the bottom of a soup that had tasted fantastic. It ruined everything, even the flavour that had been enjoyed beforehand now just induced nausea.
It was the same for Emily with her lack of sleep.
She’d had a single night of good rest, and now she did not have it anymore. She almost felt like she should have never had that good night. It had only made things worse for her. Giving her a taste of normalcy and then ripping it all away.
The first night after she had woken up from a bad dream, Emily had stayed in bed embroidering. Come morning, she had been up and about pretending that she had slept. Doing as she usually did, but apparently, that had not been enough.
"Are you alright, Ems? You seem a bit sad. Are you coming down with something?" Her mother had asked when they had crossed paths while both of them were getting ready for work.
The older woman’s cool palm had found its way to Emily’s forehead, and when she had found a normal temperature, she had frowned.
"What is wrong?" She had asked, and before her mom could piece things together, Emily had stepped back and ducked away from her mother’s arm.
"Nothing mom, I am fine. Just a bit of delayed exhaustion from the trip," She had told her mother.
The one good thing about that day had been that she had at least not had to fake being alright at work. For whatever reason, Derek had been feeling low too. And the two of them had talked very little, just staying where they were and not bothering each other. Keeping contact with the outside world to the bare minimum.