Eliose:
For the first time in months, I woke up slowly, my heartbeat calm, and my breathing easy as I found it easier for myself to actually breathe.
Just a sense of warmth that my body seemed to give in to, maybe crave at this point.
My mind surfaced from sleep gradually, like drifting upward through still water. The first thing I noticed was the quiet, the deep, steady quiet that only came when the world wasn’t trying to kill you.
Then I realized something else.
I wasn’t alone.
My eyes opened halfway, still hazy with sleep, processing the fact that I truly was not alone in the room.
Marcel’s arm was draped across my waist.
For a moment I didn’t move. My mind was still catching up with what my body had already accepted sometime during the night.
His chest was warm behind me, r
