Book 18: Evacuation

Fallon

I wake up in the early hours of the morning to footsteps echoing across the floorboards. Stuck halfway between reality and the dreamworld, I blink into the darkness, squinting to make out the familiar form of Zayn moving like the beast he is in my direction. I stretch like a cat, peeved to be woken up before the sun. Hours before morning, more like it. 

“What are you doing out of bed and dressed? It’s four A.M.!”

He sits on the side of the bed with a soft grunt. I feel like I just fell asleep beside him after he woke me up maybe two or three hours ago sliding into bed. He hadn’t smelled like smoke then. 

I sit up, brushing rogue locks of hair off my face, and reach for the lamp on the bedside table. Dull amber light flares. It’s barely enough to see across the room… but Zayn comes into full, startl