Scream Silently

They stumbled into Dalton’s room, taking care to stay quiet as to avoid waking anyone else in the house. He helped her sit down on the bed. “You can sleep here if you’d like,” he paused, “I’ll just take the couch right outside.”
Scarlett looked into his eyes, but said nothing.
“Is that okay?” he asked, “Should I be closer?”
Still, Scarlett remained silent. Dalton bit his lip, never having been in this sort of situation before and having no way of knowing if any of his actions were hitting right or wrong.
“Would you like a glass of water or some tea or anything?” He shifted the subject and asked.
Scarlett nodded. “Yes, we should have some tea.”
“Okay.” Dalton headed down the stairs to brew some. Scarlett followed him and watched in silence. Soon, the tea was ready, and they sat at the counter to drink it.
“Dalton, I don’t feel comfortable taking your bed from you.”
He gave her a confused look and took a second to respond. “I don’t mind. I’m just worried about you…. I’m sorry, maybe I’m taking this way too far…” His glance shifted to the window.
“It’s okay,” she said, “um… I’ll just take the couch. I don’t want to impose on anything. So I can just stay there and you’ll be right in your room. Is that okay?”
Dalton nodded, taken aback. “Y-yeah. If you want to do that. I’ll get you some blankets.” He left and set up the couch for her. “You’re sure you want this?”
“Yeah.” Scarlett smiled and nodded. “As long as it doesn’t cause trouble for you.”
“No, you’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” she crawled into the blankets, “goodnight Dalton. Don’t be afraid to wake me in the morning.”
He looked confused again. “… Alright. Well goodnight. Sleep well, Scarlett.” He smiled at her tenderly before retreating to his own bed.
Hours went by as Dalton joined the world of the sleeping, letting his lucid dreams create a new reality in his mind, where everything went faster and the events of a day only took an hour to unfold.
Scarlett wouldn’t sleep. She kept her eyes pointed at the ceiling, glazed over and empty. She didn’t know what was wrong, because nothing was really wrong. She was loved, cared for, she had everything one could need in life. Happiness was right there, she just couldn’t swallow it. Something had to be wrong, she had to find a reason to have a problem, even if the only problem she had left to dwell on was the existential angst she continually gave herself.
It only took one problem, though.
She felt someone’s gaze watching her and she saw shapes in the wall. Owls had flown inside, how had they gotten there? They didn’t move, not even a twitch, but they were watching her. What was this about? How was that even natural? She turned the other way and tried to ignore her delusions, but she felt their eyes piercing deeper. They were watching her, something had to be after her. Why did nighttime always bring this?
She couldn’t escape it, she was at Dalton’s house. Why did he take her here? Scarlett began second-guessing his reasoning, and eventually, her legs became mechanical and lifted her off the bed. She walked over to the kitchen, the left-over water from the tea was still sitting in the kettle on the stove. The cabinets were kept up nicely, painted smoothly and held up straight. For some reason, the doors seemed intimidating, but her hand still reached up to touch the smooth, rust-colored knobs.
The whole time her mind felt blank and mechanical, she stopped thinking about what she was doing, where she was and why she was feeling compelled to do it. There wasn’t a reason for this, it wasn’t an attempt to go to sleep but it wasn’t an attempt at suicide, either. It had no purpose, other than for Scarlett to create another problem for herself.
And so she found a bottle of pills and swallowed them all, then another and another. She wasn’t sure what they were, thought it didn’t matter. The chemical swirl was all she was going for, and now that it was there, she returned to the couch.
Dalton heard footsteps outside, but they blended in with his dreams. He was hearing the sounds of a mistaken suicide, masking them in an alternate reality of fancy cars and natural happiness.