When I come to, it’s morning.

I know this because the sun coming through the window sets off a headache that rips me from my rest like two sledgehammers to the backs of my eyelids.

“Dear god, what fresh hell is this?”

Jonah immediately sits up at the sound of my voice, standing from the kitchen chair which he’s moved to the foot of the bed.

From the looks of it, he’d been playing some handheld gaming system while waiting for me to wake. He sets it down in the seat he vacates as he moves around the edge of the bed to sit next to me on the blankets.

I’m relieved he seems back to his normal self today; fresh shaven with not a bruise or cut in sight.

“How do you feel?” He frowns as he asks this, and from the way he’s looking at me, I get the feeling I look just as bad as I feel.

If not worse.

I sigh as I press my palms to my eyes and try to block out the laser beams coming in from the window. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

I feel the bed shift and, peeking through my fingers, see that Jonah is no longer looking at me but, instead, stares down at his hands as he plays with his fingers—the universal sign for “we need to talk.”

“Ugh, what is it? Just tell me.”

“We need to talk.”

The sledgehammers upgrade to industrial drills.

“It’s about last night.”

“Before you say anything else, I swear I won’t make a big deal out of it. It was just a little blood. No biggie.”

“Well, actually—”

“Ah!” The clock on the nightstand reads 10:34AM and I groan as I will myself to ignore the pain behind my eyes, throwing the blankets off and pushing myself out of bed.

It’s only after I stand that I realize my body is shaky and I’m still light headed.

Jonah catches me when I stumble and I shoot him an apologetic smile.

“Thanks. Look, I know you want to talk about what happened last night—although I promise it wasn’t a big deal—I get it. But I can’t right now because I’m super late for work. So can we rain-check?”

I don’t wait for his response and instead grab a handful of clothes out of my drawer and cut down the hall to lock myself in the bathroom.

Jonah wrapped my wrist. I notice the gauze as I strip down in the bathroom and pull the bandage carefully from my skin. Due to the fact that it was a clean cut with a sharp blade, the wound has already closed up nicely. As long as I don’t do anything too strenuous it shouldn’t open back up.

I get a two-minute shower, rinse off the blood from last night, and attempt to wrangle my hair into something manageable which turns out to be a messy pony that I’m going to pretend was a fashion choice. I brush my teeth, throw on a pair of jeans and a white, snug fitting tee and call it good.

Jonah calls out to me from the living room as I speed around the house collecting my purse, keys, wallet, and phone before stumbling toward the door while pulling on my shoes and a jacket.

“Shouldn’t you eat something before you go?”

I pass by him, sitting on the couch with his handheld, as I head for the door. “No time. I’ll grab something at work.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard today.”

I close the door on Jonah’s voice, but his reminder rings clear.

As much as I would like to pretend last night wasn’t a big deal, I’m way more exhausted than I would like to admit. Probably a combination of the revenant and Jonah.

God, and people give blood voluntarily?

My hands shake as I pull my keys from my purse and my knees feel weak when I walk. Hopefully today won’t be too busy at work, I’ll just be sure to tell Donny I’m still recovering from being sick.

I pause as I reach the driveway.

Standing before the empty space where Iris would be sitting if I hadn’t left her at the mall last night, it occurs to me that today might not be as easy as I was hoping it would be.

Thankfully, there’s a fairly simple solution to this problem.

“Jonah!”