Sleepwalk by Ros Seddon

happened?’
    If I knew that I’d be able to tell you wouldn’t I? And maybe my eyes would work……
    ‘Flick. Oh my God, you’re bleeding! Shit! I’m going to get a Doctor….. an ambulance, I’m going to get an ambulance. Stay here!’
    I’m not really going anywhere am I? I can’t even open my bloody eyes……
    David turned and began to leave the room and by some amazing coincidence Felicity opened her eyes. Just like that. Her eyes were open and she was awake.
    ‘David?’
    He stopped.
    ‘Don’t.’
    ‘Flick? Are you ok?’
    ‘Yes…… Don’t phone. I’m fine really. I was just asleep. I couldn’t open my eyes and I thought they were stuck but I must have been dreaming they were stuck because look………….’ She blinked several times to clarify her eyelids did indeed now work which made him laugh.
    ‘What are you doing here? Oh my God what’s the time? I should be at work…..’ She tried to sit up and her head began to swim……….
    ‘Whoah. Don’t try to move. Your head is like……you’ve got this massive bump. Can you feel it?’
    ‘It…… It hurts, yes….. What happened?’
    ‘I was about to ask you the same thing. You didn’t answer your phone. I was worried about you. I took Ollie to Mums and came over and you…… you’ve obviously had an accident or…... or something.’
    ‘I had a bath……… I had a bath and went to bed……..’
    ‘But your head is like……… look’. He took her make-up mirror from the bedside cupboard and held it up for her. There was a huge lump on her forehead; a small cut at the side of her head and a lump of dark red beneath it where the blood had congealed.
    ‘I finally got you in my bedroom and I look like this……’
    He smiled that perfect smile.
    ‘I think we should call the police. Your back door was open……. That’s how I got in. Can you not remember anything?’
    ‘I was on a white horse…….’
    ‘Oh great.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Well it’s like this officer; she was on a white horse and…..’
    ‘I was dreaming.’
    ‘Oh please…’
    ‘Seriously. I was dreaming……. about the horse I mean. I don’t know how this happened. I had a bath. I had a bath and went to bed then I had this dream about the horse. I was on his back holding his mane and he was galloping along the beach. I fell and I saw the sand coming up to meet me and …….. then you woke me up’
    ‘Do you remember locking the back door before you went to bed?’
    ‘Yes. I always check that everything is locked before I go to bed. Do you think someone came in here and hit me with something?’
    ‘It’s possible you could have fallen out of bed but I wouldn’t expect an injury that bad from a simple fall from this height. Flick, do you sleepwalk?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘How do you know if you’re asleep?’
    ‘Why do you ask?’
    ‘Because I don’t like being unable to explain the unexplainable. She … Ellie that is; she sleepwalks.’ He told her about Ellie and how he’d found her in the garden that night; about her stay in hospital and about Abi, and how their relationship had faded when she had appeared. He told her about their current arrangement and how Ellie preferred the company of a woman. David stayed with Felicity and looked after her, phoned her boss and arranged for Graham to take over the office and he kept a close eye on her. As the day went on, with David’s help and a bag of frozen peas the lump on her head came down and her headache eased off until by mid afternoon she felt almost normal. She dressed and made her way downstairs to find him in the kitchen cooking something that smelled delicious. He had found her wok and was stir frying vegetables whilst chicken breasts were bubbling away in another pan enveloped in a white mushroom sauce.
    ‘Mmmmmm….. that smells good.’
    ‘Hey what are you doing up?’
    ‘I’m ok. Honestly. If I stay in bed much longer my body will cease up completely and I won’t sleep