Survival

28. You Won't Fall Alone

It hadn't been ten minutes before Stephanie wearily picked herself up from the bed. She wasn't sure exactly why, but an eerie urge had put her on auto pilot. Like so many other times in the past two and a half years, a bone deep resignation had settled into her very being. She knew what it meant, but this time she wasn't in control of it.

Padding around her bedroom, she picked up her backpack an emptied the notes and books out of it, stacking them on the shelf underneath the window. She didn't give them a second look, instead turning to her dresser and emptying the drawers. Not having very much in the beginning made it easier to pack necessities, but as always, some things would be left behind. After packing her clothes back into her extra duffel bag, with a spare emergency set in her backpack with her laptop and cell phone, Stephanie took a look around the room.

The room she'd stayed in for the past month looked just as bare as when she'd first moved in. Decorating wasn't really something you did when on the run constantly, waiting for the next moment to pick up and move. Even so, it was almost a little sad, knowing that she wasn't going to leave a mark, a sign that she had been there. That all of this hadn't just been another stop in a journey to nowhere.

At the last moment, she picked up the worn, dog-eared copy of 'Of Mice and Men' and slipped it into the front pocket of her backpack. She couldn't explain why she did it, only that she felt the need to.

With a sigh she slipped into the adjacent bathroom, stripped off her clothes and got into the shower. The water washed over her skin and she scrubbed as if she could get rid of the scent of melancholy and hopelessness off her skin with just the right amount of soap and hot water.

***

When the power blinked out, Stephanie had a deep feeling of wrong sitting heavy in her stomach.

The spray from the showerhead slowed from a steaming downpour to a cold, depressurized drip in less than a moment. No one had ever noticed, really, the ever-present hum of electricity radiating from the walls like the house's own personal life force, until it drained out, leaving a still silence to take its place. Stephanie froze for a moment, listening carefully beyond the plink of gravity-bound water against the shower drain. Apprehensive, she stepped out of the shower, keeping her weight on the balls of her feet out of born instinct and learned suspicion.

Her skin was still slick, and her hair was sending rivulets of rapidly-cooling water down her back, but she hastily pulled a towel around herself and slipped out of the bathroom into her adjacent bedroom. The curtains billowed with the small, spring breeze, revealing other house lights flickering out. At the same time as her muscles relaxed slightly, it could be just a power outage, the back of her throat stung with acid, a shadow of the past reaching up from within her.

Downstairs, she heard Miranda call for Lily, telling her to stay with her brother- that she'd hurt herself wandering around in the dark. The front door opened and shut. Absently, Stephanie watched Miranda and Jonathon stride out into the street, the man slightly behind his wife. She tried to reassure herself that everyone was still okay, still there. Other adults stepped out into the neighborhood, their faces creased with the same irritation and confusion that showed on Miranda and Jonathon's face. It was just a power outage: annoying and inconvenient, yes, but rarely ever fatal on a mild spring night.

Her door at the other side of the room clicked open, revealing Daniel with Lily pressed close to his leg.

"You alright?" He asked, averting his eyes suddenly.

Ruefully, Stephanie remembered that she was still wrapped in a towel, and fought not to let the blush creep up her neck into her face. "Yeah, I'm fine. Did a line go down or something?" It was difficult to remember what he'd admitted just a little while ago when she was preoccupied with pretending not to be bothered about her state.