Chapter 13: t h i r t e e n
Tobi's unconscious state on the balcony doesn't last long before she hears loud banging on the door of her apartment and someone yelling on the other side. A woman shouts, "Hey, everything all right in there? I heard ya screamin' and if the actual owner of this place doesn't open the hell up, I have nine-one-one on the line right fuckin' now!" Pulling herself off the ground, Tobi makes her way to the door, her drenched clothes leaving a trail of water in her wake.
When Tobi finally opens the door a crack, the woman sighs with relief before asking, "Hey, what's goin' on, kid? What's with the screamin'?"
Making sure her body fills up the small crack in the door so the woman can't see the blood she'd heaved, Tobi makes up an excuse by mumbling, "I'm just pissed at my boyfriend is all. He's being kind of a douchebag." She chuckles nervously and tries to close the door, saying, "It's nothing serious. I was just overreacting."
With a raised eyebrow, the woman makes a gesture to the door and mouths, 'Is someone there?' Exhausted, Tobi sighs and shakes her head. "No one's here, it's just me. I'm really okay so you can go home now." She doesn't mean to let it happen, but an angry edge slips into her voice and her brow knits in frustration. "I'm sorry, but I'm very tired at the moment, so I'm going to go to bed." Without waiting for a response from the woman, Tobi closes the door and locks it.
Once the door is closed and she turns around, it feels like a sea of red engulfs the entire apartment even though only a portion of it actually is. Even though exhaustion pulls at her consciousness, Tobi sighs and walks to the laundry room. After grabbing some towels and her mop, she walks back in and drapes the towels over the already coagulating blood, the towels turning a dark red as they soak it up.
After ten minutes, she picks up the towels and throws them onto the balcony and into the rain where the blood rinses into the water and turns red. With a small elastic band, she pulls her short curls out of her face, a few of the shortest ones bouncing back onto her forehead. Once she has her hair up, she begins mopping at the red stain she'd left as well as the water she'd dragged in from the balcony.
The white pad of the mop turns a dark red. Sighing, she sprays the floor again and continues scrubbing at it. It takes nearly an hour for her to finally scrub the last of the blood off of the floor, and by then the towels sit a sopping pink mess on the balcony. She pushes the mop away from her and lays on her newly cleaned floor, some of her hair dried to her neck from the blood and rain. Exhausted from all the events that had just occurred in the past two hours or so, she sighs and lets her exhaustion carry her to sleep.
❀❀❀
Hours later, Tobi wakes on the floor, the night well settled over the city and the rain still pouring from the sky. Still laying on the floor, she turns her head to stare out the balcony door, water pooling into the apartment. She sighs and walks onto the balcony, the water almost instantly soaking her skin. Picking up the drenched towels, she stares at them, thinking back to the blood she'd spewed on the floor.
A shudder travels down her spine as she remembers the burn in the back of her throat and in her lungs as she'd kneeled on her hands and knees. She hugs the wet towels to her own soaked body, a frown etched onto her face. What was she supposed to do? By now, she could practically feel her time ticking away, each second another closer to her impending death.
Her heart hammers painfully against her ribcage as she thinks about everything at once, a headache setting in. Tobi staggers inside, still feeling exhausted as she pushes the glass door closed, the action dimming the sound of the pounding rain to a dull roar. Giving a long sigh, she goes through the living room and kitchen, turning out the lights. As she passes the laundry room, she haphazardly tosses the towels in a heap in front of the dryer.
Giving a groan, she walks into the bathroom and turns on the shower before stripping her clothes. Tobi rubs her neck and stretches her limbs as she steps under the spray of the shower. Emotionally and mentally exhausted, Tobi doesn't resist as tears overflow from her eyes and mix with the oncoming water from the showerhead. "I'm sorry, Ash." She mumbles, the rush of the water drowning her out. Sinking to the floor of the tub, she whispers, "I wish I was stronger. Strong enough to make this go away."
Tobi coughs once, but this time, there are no petals in the mix. It's just blood. The blood rushes down with the spray and swirls into the drain, disappearing. Another cough bubbles up, this one spraying more blood than petals. The petals wash up against the walls of the tub and sit there.
She stares at all of it, the petals and the blood washing down the drain. When she opens her mouth, no sound comes out, but her body shakes with sobs. "What am I supposed to do?" Her sob echoes back to her in the empty bathroom. "I don't want to die, so what am I supposed to do?"
Sniffling, she stands and pushes her hair back. She licks her lips, tasting the salt of her tears and the copper taste of her blood. "I should go to bed." She mumbles to herself, still thinking about Ashton. He's her main concern, now. Everything in her mind is about him. It always links back to him. She lets out a shaky breath and whispers, "Ash, I'm so sorry."
❀❀❀
Tobi opens her eyes the next morning to the sound of her phone buzzing on her nightstand. With a sigh, she answers it with a groggy, "Hello?"
"Mornin', moron!" Her brother's voice yells from the other end.
He laughs obnoxiously into the phone when Tobi yelps, now wide awake. "Ugh, it's just you, Dean." She groans as she flops back onto her bed, splaying out her limbs.
"Just me? Okay, you know what? No birthday present for you then." Dean says. It's easy for her to picture him throwing his arms in the air in mock anger.
"Oh no, I'm so devastated," Tobi responds sarcastically, her voice monotone.
"You are such a little shit, you know that? Anyway, I'm comin' into town for your birthday since I love you or whatever, so have my old room ready, wouldja?"
She scoffs and replies, "I haven't even gone in there since you moved out, so I'm sure it's exactly as you left it. I mean, just with a shit load of dust."
He sighs and mutters, "Such a little shit."
"Yeah, but you know I'm still hella awesome." Tobi laughs before wheezing, out of breath and feeling slightly lightheaded. She sits up and clutches at her chest, her lungs burning. "Dude, I gotta go. I'll see you in a few days."
Before she can hang up the phone, Dean snorts and mocks, "What're you gonna do, go back to sleep or somethin'?"
Giving a roll of her eyes, she responds, "Yeah, 'cause that's a way better use of my time than talking to my idiot of a brother."
"God, you are so lucky I'm not there because you would be getting a serious punch in the face."
"Yeah yeah, sure I would." She chuckles and repeats, "Okay, I gotta go. Love you."
He sighs and replies, "Love you too. Try not to be too much of an idiot."
She laughs. "I'll try."
She hangs up the phone pushes the phone back onto the nightstand. Pulling her knees to her chest, Tobi turns her head towards the ceiling and asks herself somberly, "Am I even gonna be here when he gets here?" With a long sigh, she slinks back down and lays her head on the pillow, her eyes unfocused. "I dunno if I'll even make it through the day at this point." Curling into a fetal position, she drags the covers over her head and lets out another long sigh. "I just don't know."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone