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She listened to the darkness, to the nighttih the vents, the occasional creak of her house, a dog barking in the distancetoo far away to be bothersome to anyone but those ere already awake She kneasn’t any of those things that troubled her She kneas Ja dead in the ue, miles aho kept her awake
She’d tried to slow her breathing, to concentrate on finding that inner calht, for some reason, inner cal with the weight of the echoes cloaking her in a mantle of sorrow and despair She hoped the bodies would be buried soon, hoped they would find peace at last
Frustrated, Violet sighed and shoved away fro through gelatin, gu her down Every movement felt slow and strained
She wandered to her chest of drawers and pulled the top one open, peeling back a layer of clothing she’d used to conceal the pill bottle Dr Lee had given her She picked it up and jiggled it, letting the white capsules rattle together, like tiny graveyard bones picked bare
Violet s would be so much easier if she’d just take one of the chalky pills Maybe she’d sleep then Maybe she’d feel some peace at last, even if it was only tehed once more as she closed her eyes and let the bottle fall fro herself to even open the stupid bottle
Yet here she was, sapped, a bone-deep kind of exhaustion that s feel like rubber as she listlessly closed the drawer again
She blinked, her eyes feeling gritty, abraded by her own eyelids as she shuffled back to her bed She would keep trying She refused to let the echoes consume her
She collapsed heavily onto her bed and punched her pillow before rolling over When the phone on her nightstand rang, she was reaching for it, checking the caller ID, and pressing Talk before the first ring had ended It was one thing to have the home phone in her bedroom, a poor substitute for the cell phone that had been taken away from her; it was another to have it wake her parents in the htstand 1:57 "What are you doing, calling so late?" She glared into the darkness, hating how easily her curiosity was pricked
Rafe’s voice was low and gravelly on the other end "How coive off kind of a hostile vibe, you know that?"
She curled her hand around herto wake her parents as she whispered frustratedly "I wouldn’t if you’d call at a decent hour You could have wokenlook on his face as he pointed out her poor word choice
"Wellyou knowI was just" She faltered, and then shrugged as she gave up, sitting up and crossing her legs in front of her She balanced her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her pal, that’s all But you didn’t know that I should have been asleep"