Everything ached. When she turned her head to look at him, her neck crackled. He seemed blurry, distant, and she blinked at him; the words were just sounds, with no meaning. It took effort to unlock her arms from round her knees, before putting her feet to the floor. After what seemed a long time, the sense of his words penetrated.
She nodded, slowly.
Derek didn’t have to look back at her to know she was hungry. He remembered how she had eaten the night before. He prepared some eggs, his eyes focusing on the food that was being warmed up in a pan. “Hopefully you were able to get some rest.”
She just shrugged. Rest? In a strange place, where she wasn’t sure of her welcome, but was sure she was being kept? She supposed she might have dozed off a few times, but what she remembered was the blankness of a white night. Pushing her hair away from her face, she stood up, wobbling a little. Everything felt numb and distant, like it wasn’t part of her body. She crossed into the kitchen to watch him cook, leaning on the counter.