Chapter Ten
Camila woke up slowly, curled up under the thin, folded sheet and blanket. She stretched her body out, ignoring the early morning chill. First, she slipped out of bed and went to the window. She took in a deep breath of fresh air. Then, she left the room.
The door was left open. For the past few nights, Adrien hadn't been locking her in. At first, she didn’t know if he was trying to trick her, or if it had slipped his mind, so she hadn't thought to do anything about it.
He hadn't come to wake her for a while, either, so she could be up and moving whenever she wanted.
Still, she was cautious as she walked to the living room, where she found him. He had disappeared to his room early last night, so it was a bit of a surprise to find him in the living room, lying back on the couch. After yesterday, she figured he’d stay in his room, but if he still had energy to be moving around, then she needed to be cautious.
“Would you like some breakfast?” she asked.
Adrien stirred, and just barely managed to turn his head to give her a narrow-eyed stare. She froze, because that gaze was so unsettling, but after a minute, he let his eyes close, and his body relaxed. Slowly, she let go of the tension that had built up, then walked toward the kitchen.
She was trying her best to take shallow breaths through her mouth, because if she breathed through her nose, the painful retching would start. The smell wasn’t going away, if anything, it was getting worse, and she was slowly getting used to it. She knew that was a bad thing. Living with a rotting corpse wasn’t healthy with all the stuff that could carry in the air. Even if they left the basement door closed, she didn’t like this kind of risk to herself.
After all, she didn’t know when she’d be able to get out of this, and she didn’t want to be really sick once she was home.
How long is that going to be,she wondered, wistful.
It was getting easier and easier to put up with Adrien as he grew weaker. Now, he barely even spoke to her, so there was nothing for her to fear. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. When he looked at her sometimes, she couldn’t help but go weak in the knees with fright, because she had no idea what went through his head, and felt like she’d rather not know.
She got into the kitchen to look for something to eat. With Adrien’s strength going down, she had to keep hers up. She couldn’t say yet that she would win if they got into a fight if it came down to it. Also, she knew Adrien had weapons, she just didn’t know where he’d kept them, so she had to be extremely careful now that he was at his weakest.
Adrien had proven that he wasn’t an idiot. Even with the infection taking him over, he was clearly trying to keep up appearances, and his mind wasn’t totally gone yet.
Can I handle food?
She looked around for what they had and grimaced. She was already sick of all the canned food, no matter how she cooked it. It was enough so she didn’t get hungry, but she had a feeling, once she got back to her life, there were certain foods she wouldn’t mind going without seeing for the rest of her life, with beans being right at the top.
Camila pressed a hand to her stomach, and decided her stomach was settled enough that she could keep something down. She just had to be close to a window so the smell from the basement wouldn’t bother her. Adrien didn’t look like he was drinking anything today, so the alcohol smell wouldn’t be a problem, either.
Maybe I’ll be able to keep down two meals today.
She readied the food, and went to the living room to leave Adrien’s plate on the table. He didn’t move, but she didn’t wait to see if he did, going back to the kitchen to eat there.
After eating, she went back to the living room, to find Adrien hadn't moved from his spot, his food untouched. She didn’t dare get closer, but she looked a little more intently.
Adrien was starting to look noticeably sick, and all the booze and drugs only helped. Before, he could at least pretend and she would think he was actually okay, but now…
His skin looked so pale, his cheeks appeared hollowed in. Underneath his eyes were dark bags. If she didn’t know better, she would say he was completely lifeless. She decided not to do anything immediately, to wait and see. So, she left him alone.
She checked up on him around lunch, and the food on his plate was half gone, but he was still lying on the couch.
Could… I manage today?
He didn’t seem like he was going to move. Her heart was already beating fast in her chest as she wondered if the time for her to make her escape had finally come.
Dammit! Now if I could only get away…
There was still the car. She didn’t know how much fuel it had, but if she could find the keys for it, then she could go away fast. But, she’d been looking around for several days now and she had yet to find anything.
At the very least, she needed that damn remote.
Once it hit afternoon, she got to searching. In the end, just like before, she ended up frustrated, even after she checked a few more places. She was starting to wonder if he’d found some loose floorboards or something, or hidden the stuff in the ceiling somehow.
It was late when she wound up back in the living room. Adrien didn’t look like he’d moved at all.
Something occurred to her, and slowly, she walked closer to Adrien. She looked around him carefully, and sure enough, there was something sticking out of his pocket.