027 – Concussive Maintenance

Day 1

I couldn’t tell why I had expected a proper bathroom, like one would find in a regular house. Of course a fire station had a larger shower room, for multiple people. I eyed the single blue dot inside suspiciously and opened the door. The front of the room looked much like a locker room, sans the lockers. From the back of the room I could hear a shower running.

“Knock, knock,” I called out.

“Eve, that you? Come in, it’s fine,” Liz answered.

Liz. We had barely talked throughout the night. But she had handed me that water when I really needed anything to distract myself and had made short work of the Wyrm’s bullshit in the mall.

I slowly undressed. Sharing a communal shower with people with whom one had faced the dawn of the Apocalypse was a perfectly normal thing to do—for normal people. A glance in the mirror gave me a fresh burst of resolve. I looked like a wreck. The collar did live up to its name though. The padding was pitch-black, but the notable feature was a ring of silvery metal that looked like quicksilver and ran around the outside. It even felt soft to the touch, giving easily and returning to its ring shape when I eased the pressure.

I just hoped it wouldn’t give me mercury poisoning. I hesitated for only a moment before I took the collar off, too. It had been a huge contributor to my survival last night, but I certainly wouldn’t need it here. I could face a naked woman without needing to rely on it.

In the back of the room, Liz was just standing there, head leaned back, letting the hot water run over her. Her stature surprised me the most. She’d been wearing rather loose clothing last night, which had hidden her muscles well—that girl was buff.

“It’s free and infinite, you know?” she said, looking over at me.

I quickly looked away. I hadn’t meant to stare, and I don’t think I did, but I really didn’t want to give a wrong impression.

“What is free?”

“Hot water. Sanctified spaces come with unlimited electricity, water, heating. I’ve been standing here for twenty minutes now. At home there was something wrong with the shower and I had to take lukewarm showers for months now.”

I turned on the water. “That is indeed pretty nice. I had just moved into my new apartment. Literally just plugged in my computer. I never even got to use the shower there.”

“Huh. Where did you live before?” Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Liz had zero hesitation to look at the person she was talking to. I had no idea if I was being rude or she was.

“Lived in LA for a year. Had gotten a new job there when I wanted to get out of New York. Job was a bad idea and now I’m back.”

“What kinda job was it?”

“Software development. For a big company which you’ve probably heard of. Hated it there.”

“Software, huh? Did that teach you how to fight the demon apocalypse?”

“No, I think playing MMOs did. What did you do?”

“Mostly survived the gig economy. Barista by day, bartender at night. Only recently made it to bartender from waitress. I think I’ll miss that job.”

“The muscles… Those from the coffee or the cocktails?”

Liz had a delightful laugh. “Bouldering. Girl gotta have some hobbies besides surviving, right?”

The water flowing off my body steadily changed. From a thick red, to a dirty grey, to finally something approaching clean water.

“And you, Eve? Got a perk that gave you laser eyes?”

“What?” I blinked at her.

“Looks like you’re scared of eye contact.”

I started several failed attempts at a clever reply, until, mercifully, we both started to laugh.

“Sorry. When I’m not fighting demons I can’t help but be an awkward mess.”

“Honestly? Better than someone who treats every conversation like something to win.”

“Talked to Claire, did you?”

Liz kicked over a bottle of 2-in-1 shampoo+body wash. “Can’t say I did. She creeps me out.”

“Yeah…” I agreed.

She turned off her shower. “I’ll give you some privacy. See you later, Eve.”

“See you, Liz.”

Throughout all those moments of struggle last night, I had been bracing myself for this moment. The inevitable collapse when I was alone and my life not threatened. And it wasn’t like there wasn’t pain. Whenever I thought of Mike, I saw that moment when that demon took his life. I had accumulated a lot of hurt. Never had I been this afraid, this angry, this anything.

Maybe it had become too much. More than any mind could handle, and thus it didn’t all burst out at once. There simply wasn’t the capacity for it all. That, or I was accumulating a debt I had no idea how to pay off. Hopefully someone out there had gotten a Therapist class. I needed one.

#

After the shower, I was welcomed by the glorious scent of ambrosia made manifest. Someone had brewed coffee, and thanks to my Heightened Senses skill, I could smell it all the way from the shower.

When I entered the common room, Liz was leaning against the kitchenette, bouncing a tennis ball.

“Don’t dodge,” she said, before she lobbed the ball in my direction. Not one of her deadly throws, just a casual underhand toss.

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I stood there and let the ball bounce off my arm.

“Damn,” she said.

“Ability science?” I asked.

“Perk science. Essence Infusion. Can imbue my projectiles with the essence of anything I have in my inventory. For a price.”

“What essence did you want to inflict on me?”

“Coffee, just filled a thermos. But doesn’t work unless it’s an attack. Sorry for pilfering some of your coffee.”

“Mine? How so?”

She turned and I saw a Post-It note on the coffee machine. “You said you needed coffee, so I brewed some. Cheers, Ash,” she read.

“Huh, nice.” I finally walked over and went searching for a cup.

Liz kept her eyes on me while I did.

“You know, Eve. For a girl who stares at other girls like that, you sure have a talent to enthrall the boys.”

I locked eyes with hers. “Do truth bombs like that usually result in more or less tips? Also this means nothing, he’s a nice guy. Like, nice-nice. Not pretend-nice, you know.”

She bounced off the kitchen and turned. “Yeah, sure. But he also joined the other boy in being worried sick from the moment you went down. And you should have seen that guy when you went on your solo trip.”