Mischa

A blurry couch arm rest came fuzzily into view as Abigael awoke the next morning. A soft groan escaped her mouth as she stretched her stiff body free of the blanket tangled around her, accidentally whacking her coffee table as she unleashed her foot from the fabric. Wincing a bit at the unexpected pain her toe was feeling she rolled herself off the couch until she found herself in her usual morning position sitting on the ground half awake.

Absentmindedly rubbing her toe, she looked up in confusion at the couch, wondering why she wasn't in the usual place next to her bed. The blurriness in her eyes was gradually lessening as last night began to resurface as a muddled blend of thoughts and pictures in her mind. Her eyebrows drew together in a frown as she squinted in the direction of her kitchen table.

[Why isn't the table where it usually is? And why is there a guy sitting there?] Believing she was still half dreaming she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and breathed deeply through her nose. Her mum had always said giving your brain oxygen would wake you up faster, but it seemed that this time all it did was make her a bit dizzy.

Swaying slightly from sleep or dizziness, or maybe both, Abigael put a hand to her head and closed her eyes to wait for the spinning feeling to stop before turning around and crawling to the bathroom so start her normal daily wake up routine. As she crawled down the hall she almost stumbled over some tea-towels lying on the carpet and bumped her head against the closed bathroom door.

She rubbed her head forlornly and reached for the bathroom door handle from her position on the floor. As she crawled onto the tiled surface and reached to close the door behind her she could have sworn she heard stifled laughter coming from the kitchen, but that was just crazy, she was the only one who lived in this apartment after all.

One hot shower later and she was feeling decidedly more refreshed and awake. Slipping back into her spare pyjamas she belatedly realised that majority of her wardrobe was probably soaking wet now, after a night's worth of storm water had entered her bedroom via the broken window after she had just closed the door on it yesterday. Not willing to deal with that right now she checked the time only to realise that it was already 10:15 am. A little shocked that she had slept in so much she ruefully decided that she may as well take a day off work to clean up her apartment. [I need to go get this taken off me anyway.] She thought, glancing at the watch on her wrist.

The symbol for {Daily} was highlighted in a vibrant purple colour and without realising what she was doing Abigael reached to tap the icon. {History} showed that she had yet again completed a task that she didn't even remember getting.

{Goal: GC/BC}

{GC: clean it up}

{OR}

{BC: make it worse}

{Goal: 'clean it up OR make it worse' Achieved: make it worse. 1 Credit (Bad) has been added to your account}

Sighing at yet another 'Bad' rating she put the strange goal out of her mind and swiped through the other sections.

{Current Goal}

{Goal: Unlock app}

{Choice 1: find a hiding place}

{OR}

{Choice 2: tell them}

{Goal: 'Unlock app' Achieved: find a hiding place. A new app is now being downloaded and will be ready in 10h 17min}

Well, no progress there. Curiosity niggled at the back of her mind as she wondered what kind of app the watch would give her for 'self-defence' like it claimed. Considering the joke-like and somewhat rude apps it had provided so far she was sure it would be something equally ridiculous. Smirking at the thought she shook her head and swiped to {New Goal}.

{Goal: GC/BC}

{GC: rubber gloves}

{OR}

{BC: knife}

Another nonsensical goal that she was sure she would be given the 'Bad Credit' reward for regardless of what she chose, if it really was a choice anyway. Swiping the screen again just to check if there was anything else the display showed {Credit History}. There were a bunch of different tables and graphs demonstrating the rate of achieving credits, when and which ones were achieved. Not surprisingly the 'Bad Credits' had a total of 3 whilst the 'Good Credits' total was still at 0.

Snorting in ridicule at the watch she resolutely let her arm fall to her side as the turned the bathroom door handle and walked out from the tiled floor and onto the carpet in the direction of the kitchen.

She had pulled her small kitchen table out from it's usual place by the wall to make space for the makeshift bed she had created last night. The table was now in the middle of the kitchen floor and this meant that to get to the coffee peculator, or any part of her kitchen for that matter, she had to go directly around the table. But there was one issue with this that she was only now just realising.

There was somebody sitting at her table.

Bright blue eyes stared directly at her from across the room. He had pulled his hair up into a loose bun and was leaning on the kitchen table with a glass of water in his hand. The sunlight coming in from the kitchen window refracted through the clear glass and splayed miniature rainbows on the surface of the table, the bending light glistening warmly as it outlined his morning stubble and the plant-like marks covering his arms. The whole picture was... somewhat ethereal.

She couldn't help the breath that choked her throat or the fact that her heart skipped a beat. How could she have expected that someone struck down by lightning the night before would suddenly be able to sit up and drink water just like anyone else after a mere night's rest?

'I... who... this is...' she began stuttering, trying to make sense of what she should do or just what kind of situation this was.

'Good morning.' the man said, causing her to gape slightly as she realised that he really wasn't an illusion, 'I was wondering when you were going to wake up. I was tempted to just wake you myself but you seemed so happy sleeping there that I just couldn't do it.' He stopped and turned his head away slightly, seeming to try and hide a grin before covering his mouth with a fist and coughing slightly. Turning back he couldn't help the somewhat suppressed yet also abashed grin.

'My name is Mischa.'