Day 3
As expected, I didn´t find any sleep this night. With my blanket wrapped around my body, I leaned on the backside of my bunk, staring into the silent darkness of the HQ. It was 0400 hours, when I decided to get up. I switched the coffee machine on and sat down on the table. Now I had to wait for the morning. I felt exhaustion and tiredness took over me, so I supported my head on my flippers.
"Why is this happening? What did I do wrong? Why did I watch the video. Why?" I asked myself in thoughts, clenching my buring eyes. All those questions circled around my head, digging deeper and deeper. I got up to get my coffee in a even bigger mug than I used to use. After I put it down on the table, I sat down again. My body felt weak and sore.
How much days had passed, when I got the last poper night rest? I didn´t even know anymore, what a deep sleep felt like. Taking a deep breath I listened to the sounds here in the HQ. The clock was ticking, a low whistle of the wind ouside could be heard and my team was still snoring quietly. "They have no problems getting some sleep. Deep in my mind I felt a little jealous, not to say, almost grudging. A low moan came out of my beak, when I felt my temples started throbbing.
I rubbed my bloodshot eyes, trying to ignore the appearing headache. But it was getting worse, probably caused by sleep deprivation. "Oh god..." I moaned quietly, massaging my temples. With a slight blurry vision, I looked at the clock. 0500 hours. Way too early to wake the team. I sighed and got up with the mug in my flippers. All of the sudden, I had an odd idea, or more unexplainable impulse.
I walked into Kowalskis lab, right to the wall, where I hid the tape behind one of the bricks. A cold shiver went down my back, when I held it in my flippers once again. "What do you want from me?" I mumbled, my eyes focused on the tape. More and more it drew me in some kind of spell, making me unable to put it away again. It was almost it was mentally forcing me to watch it again. "No, no. I can´t watch this stuff again. I will never, again" I whispered to myself, collecting almost all of my strengh again to put it back into the gap in the wall.
I didn´t even notice, that I was slightly hyperventilating. I closed my eyes and supported myself on the wall. After a few minutes I felt my body was calming down again, so I was able to return to the living room again. All of my muscles seemed to be sore and my throat felt like dryed out. I sat down on the table again, taking a huge gulp of coffee. I put the mug down and supported my head on my flippers again. With closed eyes I tried to focus on something else, but I still felt a cold embrace around my body.
My feathers began to ruffle when I heard quiet, slow steps behind my back. Everything went so fast then, I felt a cold, wet hand on my back. I turned around and my heart almost bursted. She was standing right behind my. She, the dead girl. She wasn´t moving, but a loud gasp escaped my beak.
"What do you want from me. GET AWAY!" I finally managed to scream, jumping at her. I grabbed her wrist and pinned the girl on the ground. But soon I realized, that I made a huge mistake. "Skipper, you´re hurting me!" I heard a very familiar voice screaming. Suddenly the ghost disappeared and a pair of tearfilled eyes was looking back at me. "P-Private?" I gasped and my voice crackled.
"Skipper, what´s wrong with you? Why are you hurting me?" the little penguin asked and sobbed quietly. I felt a painful sting in my chest, as I realized that I hurt my friend just from sheer paranoia. Seconds after I felt my adrenalin rush subsided and the tiredness and exhaustion took over my body again. I wasn´t even able to move in that situation, my head just sank down on Privates chest.
"Private, I´m- I´m so sorry. I didn´t meant to hurt you. I would never. But I thought, you were someone else" I managed to stammer. "Its okay, Skipper. I´m fine. But you look like you´d seen a ghost. Are you okay?" Private asked with an obvious worried tone in his voice. "No, I´m not okay, Private" I was about to say for a second, but I thought it was the still for his own good not to know anything about this. "I´m fine, Private. I just can´t sleep, I haven´t for days, actually." I admitted.
"Oh, I´m sorry, Skipper. I didn´t know that" the little penguin said. I winced when I felt he began comfortingly stroking my back. "Maybe you need a week off. You´ve been training way too much lately. You need to relax, Skipper" Private said and I sighed. "You´re right. Maybe I´m really need to reduce the stress a bit" I whispered into Privates feathers. But I knew for sure, that a vacation wasn´t a solution for my problem.