Purity of Essence - Chapter 6 - Sleep
Purity of Essence
By Wrin Chikaya

Chapter 6 - Sleep

"Baby, if I could keep it together, don't you think I'd try?"

AndrAIa looked about her blearily. The cold realization smacked her; she was at Bob and Dot's. Oh, how she had hoped it was all just a bad dream. She squeezed her eyes shut and steeled her nerves. It wasn't a dream. It wouldn't be a dream. It was staying a reality. This was her life. She must live it.

She pawed the warm dip in the mattress where Frisket had been sleeping. It must have been early. Very early. The light coming in from her window wasn't the yellow of day; rather the whitish-gray of a miserable morning. Too early. She sat up, the frigidity of the air clasping at her shoulders; she fought an urge to sink back under the covers. Frisket. Where was Frisket, anyway?

Swinging her feet over the edge of the bed, she attempted to wipe some of the bleariness from her eyes. She grabbed the end table for support, but her attempt at standing was halted briefly when she felt the scrap of paper laying there. She rumpled her eyebrows, and picked it up.

AndrAIa:
Enzo and I are at the go-kart track. Should be back within the micro. Dot wants to speak to you.
-Bob

Humiliation swelled inside her. She shoved it down. Opening the door, she caught a whiff of java. She may as well speak with Dot. Spammit, she thought to herself. And I had been hoping to leave quietly.

Dot raised her head when AndrAIa walked into the room. Setting down the mugs of java on the table, she pulled out a chair and motioned for AndrAIa to sit. AndrAIa obeyed, strangely zombie-like, feeling curiously empty and drained. Fitful sleep.

"Glad to see you're awake. I got Bob to take Enzo out somewhere so we could talk." She pursed her lips in thought. AndrAIa kept her hands on her lap. She felt strangely cornered; even though Dot hadn't really meant for that.

"I'm going home, you know."

"I had assumed that," Dot nodded. "I think it may be for the best."

AndrAIa squinted at Dot. "I had thought you would oppose an idea like that."

"No," Dot said, then sighed, as if in contemplation. AndrAIa shifted, slightly more relaxed, still skeptical. Then, Dot spoke. "Honestly, if I were you, I'd likely do the same."

"For your brother?"

"For Bob."

"Oh." AndrAIa lowered her eyes, suddenly self-conscious. "I don't want Enzo to see. I think Matrix is frightening him enough as it is. It makes me uneasy. I'm scared that... that.."

"That Matrix would do something to Enzo?"

AndrAIa nodded. She felt that lump in her throat again, and swallowed. Maybe the java would help.

There was an awkward silence as AndrAIa drank her java, then Dot spoke. "I know you don't know me. I know this is weird. I know you spent a long time with me as the mother-figure in this system; I know I still am. I know this is weird." She licked her lips.

AndrAIa leaned forward, elbows on the table. She couldn't sense what was coming. She hated it when she couldn't sense what was coming. Dot sat at the table and steadied her gaze at AndrAIa. AndrAIa raised her eyes to look at Dot, and blinked. There was more of Dot in those eyes than AndrAIa had ever seen. She listened.

"I do want to get to know you. I do think you and Matrix are good together. I do think he has some unfinished business to get to. I do think he's a good person. I don't think he meant what he did."

AndrAIa blinked slowly, then rubbed her temples. "I think Matrix and I need to sort this out. Would you mind keeping Enzo for a little while, say, maybe a cycle?"

Dot bit her lip. "I'll take Enzo. It won't be forever. But for now."

AndrAIa nodded and pushed her way away from the table. "Where's Frisket?"

"Out with Bob and Enzo."

"Enzo loves Frisket."

"I know," said Dot, looking at AndrAIa with a half-smile. AndrAIa realized shortly how much she liked Dot. It had nothing to do with trustworthiness really; Dot's personality demanded trust. Dot's aura demanded other things; demanded that AndrAIa like her despite her instincts. Despite the fact that she had found it difficult to trust people after a time in the Games. Dot smacked of friendliness. More importantly, she seemed a friend.

AndrAIa's thoughts scattered when she noticed Dot's hand on her forearm. She was shaking. This wasn't like her. This wasn't proper. This shouldn't have been real.

AndrAIa self-consciously snaked her arm underneath the table, hiding it from Dot. Dot frowned slightly, fractionally. The Game sprite stood anyway, the chair creaking as she slid it back into place under the table. She swallowed. Matrix would be at home, and she would have to face him.

She looked at Dot. The Command.Com looked back at her, facial expression steeled, and nodded slightly. AndrAIa blinked. Whatever could she be nodding about?

"Go home," Dot said gently. AndrAIa understood.

"Frisket?"

"Leave him with us," Dot said, her eyes playing thoughtfully across the room, coming to rest on the couch, picking their way over the rumpled blankets left by the Game sprite the evening before. AndrAIa nodded.

"You don't mind keeping Enzo for a little while..?" AndrAIa ventured. The small sprite was so unlike her Matrix. She shifted uncomfortably, mindful of how much he -- how much they had both changed.

Dot shook her head soundlessly. AndrAIa sighed deeply, and eyed Dot squarely.

"What will you do if he pulls something stupid again?" spoke the older sprite. The thought of it made AndrAIa's hair stand on end.

"Come back, likely."

"And then?"

"I.. I'm not sure."

Dot remained silent, and AndrAIa took this as her cue to leave.

The door slid shut with a finality that made AndrAIa uneasy.

-

Matrix stirred. The blankets smelled of sweat, and booze. The ROM he had drunk the night before had done very little except put him to sleep. A pounding headache assailed his skull. His tongue stuck to the inside of his mouth, dry, dehydrated. The pleasant chime of the doorbell seemed like speaker feedback. He roused himself to answer it anyway. Where was everybody?

AndrAIa greeted him at the door, and he felt surprise well up in his chest. His vision blurred into several shades of red, and he reeled.

AndrAIa had begun to whisper a muted greeting when she noticed Matrix was on the verge of falling to the floor. She lunged to grab at him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she would never have been able to support his weight. He staggered to the side and crashed to the floor, clocking his head on the wall, falling beyond AndrAIa's reach. She withdrew her hand and stood up warily.

The red blurred to purples.

He stood, feeling an almost euphoric disorientation, reaching forward. He saw Megabyte!

AndrAIa's eyes widened sharply and quickly as Matrix's fist swung up into her face. The wet smacking sound it made when it connected with her nose was sickening. She staggered back and curled up on the floor in a fetal position, the blood from her nose staining the carpet. Matrix stood up drunkenly, disoriented, and spying the heaving figure on the floor, pounced on it.

AndrAIa pulled her bloody hands away from her face long enough to thrash about, fighting to get out of the apartment. It was a mistake coming here. It was a mistake. She managed to squirm her way out of his grip and dashed for the other end of the apartment. If she could make it to the window, maybe ...

She felt her course change direction in mid-air as Matrix shoved her aside. She clattered to the floor, feeling her knee twist oddly as she landed. She winced, wanting to scream.

He was yelling in tongues now, she grateful that Gun wasn't in his grip. A Game sprite and a system sprite, circling each other in their own apartment. AndrAIa extended her claws, ready to strike should Matrix lunge again. She limped around him. "Matrix?! What are you DOING?!" she screamed in disbelief.

His vision blurred to green. Megabyte! He jumped at her, shoving her aside, feeling a stinging, piercing sensation drumroll itself across his collarbone. Making fists, he beat mercilessly at the face of the virus, until suddenly, he felt himself growing weaker, and his vision cleared.

AndrAIa.

He began breathing heavier, less with the exertion he had been feeling before, but more with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. A knowledge of what he had done. He attempted to justify himself in thought. My hate .. it consumed me. I didn't mean to! I love her!

A gargly moan, and the creature beneath him stirred. His stomach churned, and he felt his elbows buckle. He rolled off of AndrAIa as the paralysis of her nails seeped into his blood, his vision fading.

She moved jerkily. Was he asleep? She prayed so.

Her bike was idling outside. She could hear it. The pain in her side and in her leg was intense, disabling even, but she threw herself atop her motorbike and made tracks for Dot's.

Bob answered the door, his eyes wide, concern evident as he helped her to the couch.

"I.. Matrix.."

"Don't talk, AndrAIa.. just don't talk.." Bob stuttered as he struggled to stop AndrAIa's nosebleed. Dot emerged from the den. Her face painted in a grimace of horror, and she withdrew from the room, shutting the door. AndrAIa could hear Enzo's pleas from inside, and she groaned.

"Enzo..."

"Don't fight with me, Andi," Bob chastised as AndrAIa squirmed on the couch. "I need you to lay still!"

"I'm not .. ever going .. back .." she rasped.

"Lay still!"

AndrAIa gulped blood and closed her eyes. A burning sensation tore through her body, and all awareness left her.

-

Matrix cried. His chest heaved, great heavy sobs racking his muscular frame. He had hurt AndrAIa. How could he have...

His love!

He chided himself thoroughly and harshly. Without mercy.

He fell asleep a victim to fitful dreams, and watched by a pair of glowing red pupils.

The time has come, thought the filth to itself.

---
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