The Passenger- Part 4

Morning light shined in the bedroom window. Long sunbeams touched Deloris on the face with just enough intensity to wake her slowly from what felt like the most restful sleep she’d ever slept. She stretched her arms out in front of her, yawning widely. She looked out the window from her bed noticing how lovely the day was and how lovely she felt. She hopped out of bed and went downstairs to enjoy a morning coffee. The microwave clock read “11:16”. No wonder she felt so good. She’d actually slept in for once. Deloris prepared her coffee maker and stood in a daze as it worked its magic. She thought about the night before, and how she went straight home from work with the intention of getting ready to meet some friends. But she’d felt so exhausted from her busy work week that she decided to stay in instead. She was content now with that decision, having woken up in the best mood she’d been in, in ages.

After 2 cups of coffee, 4 bowls of cereal (she was ravenously hungry this morning) and half of the latest “Marie Claire” Deloris decided to go take a shower. She entered her bathroom still groggy from her ample sleep. She disrobed and caught a glance of herself in the mirror. She noticed a wide scrape up the back of her shoulder. She touched it lightly and winced in pain. It was fresh.

“Now how the…” Deloris said to herself, as she peered over her shoulder into the mirror. She opened her cabinet in search of the peroxide. It wasn’t there. She looked down and noticed the bottle was in the trash can. She bent to pick it up. It was empty.

“Strange.” She thought. “I just bought this bottle.“She took another speculating look at her wound and got into the shower.

After about 10 minutes of showering she noticed the water starting to collect in the bathtub. She flipped the drain switch…. Nothing. She put her fingers in the drain to see if she could tell what was clogging it. She pulled out a large wad of coarse brown hair. Where had that come from? Her own hair was red and wasn’t at all this texture. She stuck her hand out of the shower and dropped the fur ball in the toilet.

“Gross!” Deloris said as the hair plopped into the bowl.

Deloris stepped out of her shower and grabbed the towel off the towel rack nearby. She heard the phone ringing from the kitchen. She took her time drying off, knowing the machine would get it.

“Deloris? Are you home?” the caller paused. Deloris perked up to listen to the woman’s voice on her answering machine. It was Nancy from work. “Deloris? Well it’s not like you to not call when you aren’t going to be into work. You never showed up Friday night and a few of us here at the office are getting a little worried. Call us.”

Deloris froze, perplexed. What did she mean it wasn’t like her to not show up to work? It’s Saturday! Deloris marched upstairs to her bedroom, opened the laptop that sat on her nightstand and waited patiently for the desktop to come up.

Monday, September 19, 2010

“What!?” Deloris exclaimed. “How could I have slept for….” Deloris thought for a moment, then in an astonished whisper she said to herself “…. Something like 65 hours?”

The Passenger- Part 3

When Deloris’ eyes opened she shrank back from the morning light shining through her car windshield. Her hands went up to her face, blocking the invasive sun. As Deloris grew used to the light she realized she was sitting in the passenger side seat of her car, which was parked in the driveway of her home. Her head was pounding.

“Hangover.” She said aloud, holding her head in her hands with regret.

Deloris opened her car door and stepped out onto the pavement. She walked to the front door, fumbling through her purse furiously for her keys. As she approached the door she looked up slightly, realizing it was opened, keys still dangling from the lock. She stepped cautiously through the threshold of her home, scanning the living room thoroughly for evidence of an intruder. Nothing seemed out of place. She stood in her living room for a moment wondering how drunk she would have needed to be to come home, unlock her front door, only to return to her car to sleep for the night.

Deloris made her way to the bathroom in desperate search of pain killers. As she entered the room she noticed all the cabinets were open, their contents pulled out and strewn around the counters and floor. Someone had been here. They seemed to have been looking for the first aid kit. The kit lye open on the toilet lid, a peroxide bottle spilled over on the floor, the gauze was opened and unraveled. She turned to investigate further and noticed a large bloody handprint on the edge of the sink. Not just large, HUGE! Impossibly huge. Her eyes followed a trail behind the bathroom door where a bloody blanket sat wadded up in the corner. She recognized the blanket as the one she’d had in the trunk of her car.

“What the hell?” Deloris gasped in confusion and horror.

What could she have done? Did she kill someone in a drunken stupor? Did she hide a body? Panic overcame her and she ran from the room, closing the door hard behind her. She ran upstairs to her bedroom. Breathing erratically and crying, she lied down on the bed struggling to get a hold of herself. She tried desperately to piece together the night before.

Deloris had left work early, she remembered that much. She was heading home to change her clothes before meeting some friends from work at a bar near her house. Then…

“What then?” Deloris asked herself out loud. Could she really have gotten so wasted that she’d deleted any memory of making it home? Some sort of retro-blackout? Deloris was not a heavy drinker, so this seemed unlikely.

“Someone must have roofied me!” Deloris exclaimed in horror. But where did the blood come from? What had happened to her? Before she could speculate further a high pitched ringing began in her ears. The room went black as she fell into her pillows.