I awoke with a long bottle of red champagne rested against the inside of my arm.
I had no memory of ever getting down the bottle.
I kept a small supply in the cupboard above the fridge.
Maybe I had asked her to get it down for me but that fridge was nearly 6 feet and the cupboard were at least a foot higher up and since I was over 6"3 i could very well reach without much trouble but for her it would be another story.
The place looked rather untidy.
It wasn't quite a mess, there were just certain things that were out of place.
A few pillows were on the floor.
There was a pile of papers on the counter that hadn't been there before.
A few drawers in the kitchen had been opened and there was a jug of milk standing upright on the tiled kitchen floor.
Had I been sleep walking?
I'd heard some rare cases of sleep walking where items where food and drink was involved.
There wasn't any food out at least but the bottle that I was holding onto was half way empty.
Great apparently I was a sober man during the day but at night I was a drunk.
I don't know what possessed me to do this but I had this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that drove me towards her room.
I opened the door, peered in and I wondered if it would be wise to turn on the light.
She could be sleeping and switching the light on might just wake her up rather prematurely and that wouldn't be very considerate of me.
I decided to call for her but softly at first.
There wasn't even a murmur coming from her bed.
I couldn't even hear the steady sound of breathing so I decided to flip the switch.
The bed was empty and the covers looked as if they had been torn off in rather a hurry.
This was very strange.
Had she run away?
If she had wanted to run away, night would be the perfect time to do so.
Then I remembered I had placed a tracking device into that little accessory of hers, so she wouldn't get far.
If she had escaped I could alert security yet I didn't want to make a report just yet until I was absolutely sure she had actually run away in the first place.
I searched every room carefully and rather non chalantly.
Finally I came to my room with the bright green walls and my lively king size purple bed with a massive brass frame, the filigree whirled, twirled, curled and braided itself all the way up to the ceiling.
I had specifically requested that all the sheets, blankets and bedspreads be a pleasant purple, even the mattress itself was purple.
I saw a small little heap on the floor that appeared to be merely a dark shadowy stain on the rug.
I switched on the light to find that shadow was my little rebel leaning against my bed.
I wanted to shout at her but she was asleep and her face was so endearing like the face of a child I thought against waking her.
What was I supposed to do in the meantime?
Should I just leave her there?
This was most irregular, well at least she wasn't in my bed, but still it was a rather awkward situation.
What was she doing my room anyway in the first place?
I had to get her out of here somehow. I didn't wish to wake her but at the same time I was curious how she managed to fall asleep in my room.
How was I supposed to take her out of my room without her waking up?
I'd have to pick her up somehow.
Yet even the slightest touch at this point could wake her. Oh what was I so afraid of?
If she wakes up she'll have to explain if she doesn't she'd explain in the morning.
It was as simple as that.
I quietly sauntered over to her and I bent down on my knees but then she murmured something strange.
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again...I promise".
"Are you still asleep? Oh I see you must be talking in your sleep. Do me a favor and stay asleep. I don't feel like explaining why I'm carrying you. You'll probably be wondering what you're doing in my arms in the midst of my bedroom, you'll jump to your own conclusions, probably start screaming, and running for your life...again.
This way if you don't wake up, I'll be that kind gentleman in the morning rather than some sick sadistic monster that you already think I am.
Just stay asleep".
Indeed she did, she said a few things in her sleep but I managed to remove her from my bedroom and all the way back to her own.
I carefully placed her onto the bed and straightened the covers and lifted them up over her, so she was properly tucked in.
I then decided to tidy up the place so to get rid of any evidence of what had happened while I was asleep.
I placed the bottle of red champagne in the the usual cupboard above the fridge.
I went back to my bedroom but my mind was too wide awake for sleep.
I kept wondering what had happened.
I decided to grab those papers I'd seen on the counter.
I nearly gasped to discover they were the papers that she had spoken of earlier.
Those papers were in my office and I had placed those in a labelled folder in my desk.
What were they doing here?
It had the picture, all the details of her past history and the number of escapes.
It had her age, height, and weight, her eye color all those meticulous and trivial information and then at the bottom of the page was a line designated for my signature only this time it wasn't empty.
My name had been rather drunkenly scrawled out on the line.
I had no memory of doing this either.
How could I sign a piece of paper in my sleep? That was impossible.
Eating and drinking was one thing but signing important documents was really pushing it.
You don't sign death certificates in your sleep.
It wasn't really a death certificate but it was close enough to one.
I had to get rid of this, better yet I could destroy it.
I could burn it.
I rushed to the kitchen and searched for a lighter.
When I was sweating and nearly at my wits end I finally found some matches.
I struck the side of the box and held the flaming match to the papers.
The paper folded in to itself and darkened to yellow and then shifted into charcoal black, the flames weaved in and out, eating away at the paper edges until I let it go into the kitchen sink where only a speck of black was left.
I turned the water on to wash away the last piece of evidence of that paper.
I wanted to just slide onto to the floor and collapse into a heap and finally let out a long awaited sigh.
I felt like I'd destroyed a part of me, but it hadn't hurt, in fact I felt a warmth around my heart and I felt my mind unravel itself.
I jogged back to my bedroom and eagerly awaited the morning to come.
