Waking Up Late

"Cress!"

Panting and disoriented, Cress jumped at the sound of her name and let out another shriek. She clambered across her bed, throwing stuffed animals and lacy pillows across the room until she curled up in a ball in the corner of her bed against the wall.

"Cress," Illia said again, striding across the room to the edge of the bed. She knelt down on both knees next to it and reached toward Cress, only hesitating when the girl recoiled, trembling. "Cress, let me help."

"S-Stay away!" Cress choked out. "You killed them! And you're going to kill me!"

"I have no intention of killing you," Illia said. Her thin shoulders sagged as a sigh hissed out. "It was a nightmare."

"Night…mare…" Cress's chest heaved, but between her clogged nose and swollen throat, barely any air reached her lungs. "C-an't…"

"You're safe," Illia said, her voice soft as an evening breeze. "I'm going to touch you now so I can help you, do you understand?"

Cress nodded before curling into herself tighter, burying her head into her legs. A moment later, cool, lissome fingers brushed her shoulder. Then a soothing warmth spread through her chest, cradling her heart.

"There. Do you feel better?"

Cress nodded again, sniffling. Every part of her, from her eyes to her lungs felt swollen and she could barely make out Illia's face even though it was only a few feet away. The details of her slender, heart-shaped face were hazy, hazy enough to make any inhuman features blur away. A warmth in Cress's chest swelled as she stared absently and she wondered if it was frozen or simply beating so fast she couldn't tell the difference.

"SCREE!"

A ball of blue feathers hurled across the room, battering against Illia's head, forcing her to take her hand away. The warmth Cress had felt lingered for a moment before fading. It had been enough, though.

"William," Cress whispered out, her throat too sore to yell the bird's name. "Stop it!"

"It's fine," Illia said, chuckling through William's pitiful assault. "Your tiny friend merely seeks to protect its mistress. There is no harm in that."

"I'm sorry… I woke you up with my screaming and now my bird is attacking you."

"Do not apologize. Neither your or your winged guardian's actions have given offense. That said…"

Illia's hand moved faster than Cress's eyes could follow and a blink later William was trapped in a cage of Illia's long fingers. The winged warrior fluttered and shrieked in protest, nipping at the bars of his prison and the finger slowly edging towards him.

"Calm now, brave one. You have defended your mistress well, though you misunderstand the source of her sorrows. I will not hurt her, nor you. So rest."

Illia's words lingered in the air like the last verse of a lullaby and to Cress's surprise, William settled and sat quietly. Even when Illia opened her palm he remained docile, leaning his head against her extended finger for her to pet him.

"That's… Did you use magic on him like you did me?"

"No. I merely spoke to the bird, one warrior to another."

"I don't get it, but it's still amazing. For a second I was worried she'd kill him. Birds eat spiders after all. Then again, it's not like Illia is a mindless monster who doesn't understand what a pet is."

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah… Thank you. Whatever spell you used helped a lot."

"Think nothing of it. My only regret is that it is not as effective on hu-" Illia paused, expressionlessly thinking of the right words. "It warms my heart to know that I was able to aid you."

"It felt different than the spell… different from Lionheart."

"Ah. So that… It is similar. But I believe it would be best for us to end the discussion there."

"Alright," Cress replied, looking down at the grey polish on her toes. "I… I'm sorry for screaming at you. I don't really think you'd hurt me. It was just my dream… You know what I mean."

"I'm afraid I do not," Illia said, bringing her hand next to Cress's shoulder for William to hop over. "I have never dreamed, so I am unable to completely empathize."

"You don't dream?"

"Never. I am unsure why. It is as common for my people to dream and have nightmares as it is yours, but I have never experienced such a thing."

"Does that… make you sad?"

Illia tilted her head, letting her loose brown hair tumble over her shoulder. "How can one be sad over something they cannot even comprehend? I am no more sad about my inability to dream than I am sad about never having ridden a horse. It piques my curiosity, but nothing more."

"Well you're lucky. I would kill to live a life without nightmares."

"Nightmares are not limited to the land of dreams…"

Illia's muttered words were barely audible and Cress had to stop herself from asking Illia to repeat them. She didn't know what the woman meant and though she was curious, she was sure Illia had a reason for not sharing.

"What time is it?"

"I cannot say, though the sun rose quite some time ago."

"IT DID?!" Cress rolled off of her bed, sending William fluttering through the air, and grabbed her phone to check the time.

"Shit! It's already almost nine? My shift starts in thirty minutes!"

"I have to get ready for work!"

"Work? You have yet to mention any sort of occupation so I had assumed your finances were managed by your family."

"Well they're not," Cress said, running to her closet. Unlike the mild chaos of the rest of her room, her closet was meticulously organized and she grabbed several articles without even looking. "Give me a second."

Without waiting for Illia to acknowledge, Cress pushed her from the room and slammed the door.

"I didn't mean to shut it that hard! She's going to think I'm pissed. Whatever, I can worry about that later, it's more important to get to the café on time. This will be my third shift in a row being late!"

Cress had always had poor time management skills. Though she couldn't say why, she suspected it was from the period in her childhood when all she did was hide in her room from spiders. Time hadn't mattered; each soul crushing day melded with the next until all she remembered was the paralyzing paranoia. Day or night, she'd kept her bedroom light on and after what felt like weeks of begging, she'd convinced her parents to completely cover her window in case a spider took up residence on the other side. In retrospect, she had unintentionally begged her parents to create a prison cell, though she preferred to call it a safe room.

Regardless of the reason, time felt like it moved differently for Cress. Unless she was checking the time constantly, an hour could pass in a minute or a minute could last a day. She didn't mind, but time blindness made being a functioning member of society (which she argued she was not) difficult. Thankfully, phones came with alarms and reminders, so she'd gotten better at knowing when she needed to leave or start an activity, but reminders only worked when she set them.

"This will work," she said, performing a small twirl in front of the full length mirror beside her closet. The café she worked at part-time didn't have a uniform, so she was free to wear whatever she wanted, though she had learned early on that it was better to wear colors that didn't stain easily.

On that particular day she'd chosen a loose fitting, chestnut button up blouse tucked into dark cream wide leg knit pants. Over top of her blouse she put on a diamond patterned brown and white cardigan with tiny bears on the sleeves matched with a pair of dangle earrings of her favorite bear-suit character.

"Now where are my glasses," she muttered, tossing drink cans off her desk into the trash can beside it. She had lost her last pair sometime between going to the other world and running from Illia. It hadn't been a problem since she could see decently without them, but having any visual impairment in the outside world left her vulnerable to… "There they are."

Pushing her spare pair of silver circular frame glasses onto her nose, she took a final look at herself in the mirror. "Looks… MY HAIR!"

It took longer than Cress had to finish getting ready and by the time she slid on her chunky brown and white sneakers, she only had ten minutes to get to work.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to make breakfast for you, but I have to go now or they'll fire me."

"Understandable," Illia said, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

"What's wrong?"

"I was hoping you would allow me to accompany you so that I might see more of this world."

"That's fine," Cress said without a second thought. "But we need to leave now."

A bright flash of excitement spread over Illia's face, reminding Cress of how her cousin's face would light up when they went to the ice cream truck as kids.

"I am already prepared to depart."

"Then let's go- Where are your shoes?"

The two stared at one another until Illia tilted her head. "What do you mean? I do not require shoes."

"Goddammit."