"Elina?" someone was shaking me but I heard the voice as if from a very long distance.
The person kept moving me over the bed rapidly. "Jeez, you're burning up. Ellie?"
The familiarity of the voice began to filter in and recognition did as well. Yes, my sister, Ysolde. Yesterday I'd come home and found her in the house. I tried to move my mouth in acknowledgement but my tongue felt very heavy and thick.
"Elina? Are you okay?" Ysolde asked still shaking me.
I groaned in shock at the pain I felt all over my body when I tried to move. I managed to move my hand but only just a little bit, it was shaking. My sister took hold of it and I forced my eyes open, she was blurry at first but slowly moved into focus.
"Wh…what happened?" I finally croaked, trying to sit but she had me down.
"I came to tell you what was happening all over your house but I found you shivering on the bed, and yet sweat poured out of you like you were in a sauna." Her brows furrowed in worry. "Were you sick yesterday and it got worse today?"
I shook my head and groaned as I instigated a headache. My stomach began to churn and bile grew in my mouth. I leaned over the edge of the bed.
"Oh shit." My sister left me and returned quickly with a small gardening bucket filed with a bit of water, just in time for me to throw up into. I must've emptied the entire contents of my stomach into that thing. She held my hair back during the process.
She left to bring me icy water which I used to brush my mouth and rinse my face. The icy chill went a low way to making me feel better. Almost as if whatever id thrown u was responsible for how I was feeling I began to get better, or at least the headache waned.
"You feeling better?" Ysolde asked once she returned to my room after disposing of the contents of the bucket outside.
I nodded groggily and splayed on the bed. I turned to her, "Can you pass me the bag?" I pointed to my work bag, she stretched for it and I pulled my phone out, thumbing through till I found Oh's number.
"Elina, you're never late. I was about to call." Her motherly tone came through the line and I sighed.
"Don't know what happened, woke up feeling like absolute shit. Feeling a bit better but I don't think I will be coming in today." I finished on a yawn.
"Hmm," she paused. Ysolde stood and bade me a silent goodbye, I nodded. "Did you find out anything about the case yesterday?"
"Yes," I sighed. "It is not good; I will brief you when I come in tomorrow."
"That's good. Get well soon." She cut the call and I was eft staring at it before I threw the phone in the bag and turned away from it. Sleep tugged at my eyes and I was out like a light in no time.
The next time I woke up, I was freezing. The room was so cold and I felt it all the more because I didn't have my blanket on, the heater was on a 12-hour timer I had to reset it every time I came home from work. Since I never went in yesterday and spent the whole day sleeping I hadn't turned it on last night.
There was baby crying in the house, I jack knifed to a sitting position before I remembered. "Ysolde." I groaned and fell back, turning my head to look at the digital clock blinking its red light through the room. On. Off. On. Off. 4:37. I sighed, there was no way I sleeping again.
I slowly got off the bed, cringing at how murky my mouth felt, did I wake up and throw up or was that a fever dream?
I slowly padded into my bathroom and began taking my clothes off. They felt damp for some reason. I jumped into the shower, enduring the cold water till it heated up. I didn't dawdle, I got out a got dressed in a clean pair of sweat shirt and pants, I grabbed the blanket for equal measure and stepped out of the room only to slapped with a full face of leave.
I sputtered and fought my way through the foliage. Foliage? I found the light switch and turned it on, only to gape at my living room like an idiot. "What the actual f-"
"I tried to tell you yesterday."
I turned to where I'd heard my sister's voice. She was bouncing the baby again. "What?"
She came closer. "This is what I came to tell you yesterday before I found you shaking on the bed. The doctor at the rehab told me even if I never used for the rest of my life, my brain had been damaged for a long time and sometimes it would just…skip. When I woke up yesterday I thought it had been that way when I arrived but my Skippy brain just had forgotten it. But guessing from your reaction it wasn't like this yesterday, right?"
I frowned at her. "No, it wasn't." I sighed and pulled my hair away from my face and taking another look at her, "Why are you up?"
She looked down at the baby who was wide awake and kicking, bags under eyes. "She woke me up, it's too cold for her."
I looked at the baby. "She told you?"
My sister nodded, "I did my research, all denizen communicate mentally, babies latch onto the first person they feel safe with." She chuckled still looking at the baby. "I should have run when I realized her father couldn't hear her." The baby gurgled and smiled, a wide toothless smile that lit up her mother's face. "Yes baby, yes." She nuzzled the baby and I turned away.