Winkling my nose, I lowered my hand, staring at my fingers, which didn’t ache nearly as bad as they had. I forgot all about that, though, when I noted the dark fabric concealing nearly my entire hand.
That’s not my coat.
Lifting my other hand, I patted my chest, hand meeting thick, soft fabric and…a string?Chin falling to my chest, I looked down, taking stock of myself, and nearly passed out all over again.
Where were my jeans? My socks?Whose shirt is this?
Gaping, I pushed my fingers from beneath the too-long sleeve of the hoodie to cautiously lift the hem, revealing my naked thighs, and then farther up to heave a heavy sigh of relief.
My briefs were still on. Thank God.
The sleeve fell over my hand again when I dropped the hem, and I couldn’t even enjoy the feeling of being cocooned.What in the fresh chaos is this?
Bracing my hands on either side of me, I dropped my legs over the edge of the mattress. Wait. I was in a bed. A bigger bed than I’d ever been in before. It was like three of the shelter cots in one. And the bedding was piled on. I felt around, noting the downy comforter in white fabric that was actually white and not that old dingy brown. Across the foot of the huge mattress was another blanket, and behind me were at least six pillows. One of them bearing the indent of my head.
Fingering the bandages on my cheek once more, I let my gaze fall on the nightstand right beside the bed. Right there on the dark wood top in front of a glowing gold lamp was abrown paper bag and a tall white cup with a white lid and a brown sleeve around the base.
My stomach growled aggressively, and I put a hand against it, trying to quiet it. Guilty, I glanced around, searching the corners of the small room and finding nothing. Not even dust.
My eyes landed on a door that led into a bathroom, and a trickle of unease glazed my spine. Lips rolling in, I debated on what to do.
Call out? Run?
Accept my fate and get murdered?
Being as quiet and unmoving as I could, I listened intently, but the only sounds were honking horns and sirens from the street outside. Clearly, I was still in the city.
After another quick glance at the cup and bag on the nightstand, I cleared my throat. “H-hello?”
My entire body braced for attack. For someone to come flying out of the dark bathroom like a lurking demon to accuse me of trespassing.
But no demon came.
Though, all these demon thoughts made me very aware of the way my bare feet dangled over the side of the bed, exposed to whatever might be lurking beneath it. Uncomfortable, I pulled in my knees, tucking them beneath the black hoodie that was easily three times my size.
The inside was warm and soft, the material not threadbare or worn at all. It felt nice against my skin.
After my paranoia had settled a bit, I hopped down from the bed and padded over to the bathroom, flicking on every switch to illuminate the small space. I forgot I’d been lookingfor trouble when I caught sight of the wide shower with its white subway tile and glass door. Across from it was a sink with black countertops and a mirror that took up the entire wall.
I did a double-take at my reflection, moving farther into the room to examine the bandage taped across my cheek. The sudden memory of being punched and my cheek driving into the unforgiving ground washed over me.
As if corroborating the memory, the other side of my face was tender and dark with a fresh purple-and-red bruise. Everything rushed back: the shoveling job, the diner, the chili. The thugs following me out onto the sidewalk and chasing me into a dead-end alley.
I gasped, my hands flying to my chest to check the pockets of my coat. To see if they got all my money… but I was wearing the hoodie.
A hoodie that wasn’t mine. All I’d had on beneath my coat was a long-sleeve T-shirt.
Searching the rest of my memory, I tried to recall where I was, how I ended up here… whose shirt this was.
There was nothing. The last thing I remembered was being punched, thinking I was going to die, and then…
Watch out!
Words I’d definitely yelled echoed through me like a shadow. No. A ghost. Like a ghost haunting the recesses of my mind.
Someone else had been there. Someone who wasn’t with those three thugs. Someone who jumped in to protect me. I raced back into the other room as though the floor was filled with hot coals, looking around again, this time not withconfusion but with hope.
It was the same as before, though. Empty. Quiet.
