Caleigh Lightbreeze

A Reason to Sleep...

Two screws, a bundle of twine and a pair of scissors already long forgotten...

The underside of Caleigh's bed held a number of hidden items, but all of them would likely remain in their places as the woman had made no movement to lift her head from the cool wooden ground in the hour that she had laid there. Her gaze flit over the empty space beneath the frame, the thin wafting cobwebs that needed to be removed, the lingering scent of new linens from this morning's change over.  That sinking feeling in her chest was overwhelming tonight, and it would quickly come to tears. She'd wait for them, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to move after that.

It was a terrible feeling, knowing that when you speak your words are often misheard. That when you try to speak as plainly as possible, that people still believe you are hiding something behind your words. "I like you." Clearly, that means, I don't like you. Or, I only like you sometimes. "I don't know what I want." That means, I most assuredly don't want you. "We'll take it day by day, see what happens." That means...

The tears began to well then, the first hitting the ground with a soft plink. The liquid darkened the space between the wood grain. Her lips parted long enough to take in a breath of air, that sinking feeling filling her chest and causing her body to finally lay flat on the ground. Whoever would find her in the morning would likely think her dead. It wasn't uncommon for her to take a day to sleep, but she typically called it a camping night- or went and stayed at her house in Falconwing. She'd not crashed at the tavern, and secretly - she prayed she'd locked the door after crawling inside to avoid anyone finding her.

-----

All she had done, was asked that he didn't comment on her appearance. He had sweet words. He had to know that he had sweet words. She'd told him a hundred times that his compliments made her stomach flip. It was new- attention, concern. Flirting. Renrael had the same effect, Handrin, Orli- Meli, Shade...the kind words had flipped her stomach a hundred different ways. She was tired of swallowing it down. She was tired of trying to figure out who actually meant something more behind the words, and who just wanted to be polite- be nice.

Why this, why him? Who knew- but as she felt her mind start to slip, her cheeks began to dampen with tears. Kay's eyes grew into existence, the smaller gaunt blonde woman, laying across from her beneath the bed. Caleigh swallowed hard, knowing full well what would happen next. She was falling asleep, or...likely had already done so. She only ever saw Kay when she was asleep. Her chest felt like it had grown into the ground, fingers weakly lifting towards the memory of her sister under the bed.

There were nights when Caleigh remembered why she stayed away from people for so long, and why it was that she never had friends like others did. She had Kay- she had her sister, she had the other half of her soul that understood her completely. She never had to explain her words, she never had to second guess herself. 

 She had a hole in her heart where she desperately needed to fill- but couldn't bring herself to even consider it. How do you replace half of your soul, and why would you ever choose to?

-----

The knocking on the door was heard, but there was nothing that was going to pull the woman from her place on the ground. Her hand had found the edge of her sister's now fully visible fingertips- and they lay there in silence, as they had as children. The silence of the room, the soft air that filled her lungs, exhaling to match the speed of the corporeal girl across from her.

Meli's voice broke the air between them, something about cookies. There would be no response though, Caleigh having fallen into a deep state of sleep on the ground of her room. Her fingers were gripped to the rug, body curled towards the bed as if she were holding onto something for dear life.

There was an importance to naps, but there was also a need to sleep- and her body had finally won that fight.  She would likely stay in her fugue state for the better part of the next day. Her appointments at the Clinic stood up- the families at the Outreach would find the office closed, without indication that it would open. With hope, she would wake before her shift at the tavern...