Rorri

　　"Kings?"

　　"Go fish."

　　Rorri cursed under his breath, but still stuck his free hand out for Adar to brush his fingers with a new card. He`d knocked over the deck enough times that they`d both realized it was better that way.

　　"This is idiotic, you know," Rorri said, tucking the card into the rest of his hand. "I literally have no idea what`s happening."

　　"I do feel sort of bad," Adar said with a wistful lilt. "You know, winning all the time, what with your handicap-"

　　"So why are we still doing this?"

　　An image of Adar wearing a smug smirk lit up Rorri`s mind, though he knew he`d never seen such a smirk on him before. Across the table, Adar`s clothes rustled against the wooden chair.

　　"Because you keep agreeing to," he said. "Sevens?"

　　Rorri tilted his wrist so Adar could see his hand, feeling his friend pluck three cards away from him. "It doesn`t make any sense," he said. "How do I know you`re not just messing with me?"

　　BHUM BHUM BHUM BHUM BHUM

　　Rorri jumped, winced, and dropped his cards. His arm was still in a sling and his bones still screeched with pain when disturbed. It took him a moment to recognize the noise as someone knocking on the front door. They hadn`t had a single visitor in the weeks that had passed since the opera, and he was still getting used to relying so heavily on his ears. The wooden chair groaned across the floor, and Adar`s quiet footsteps faded from the kitchen, followed by the squeak of the door hinge. As Rorri waited, he ran his fingers along the outline of the table`s deep gash, somehow comforted by its familiarity.

　　From outside came a peppy voice speaking Human, a voice which Rorri recognized, but couldn`t quite place. After a brief exchange, the door shut, and Adar`s footsteps carried back into the house.

　　"Weird&"

　　The chair scraped loudly against the floor again. Rorri flinched, not realizing how close his friend actually was.

　　"What`s weird?"Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

　　"That was Trisman," Adar said. The memory of Trisman`s face - human, pale and weaselly, with thin features - popped into Rorri`s mind, though it was vaguely defined, like seeing the man through a fogged window.

　　"He said he heard about Bilge," Adar continued, "so he`s letting us slide this month. Not that we couldn`t have paid, but&"

　　Rorri raised an eyebrow. "Heard what about Bilge?"

　　"He didn`t say. He was just like& Oh, I`m so sorry to hear about Bilge,`, so I said, Oh, it`s alright, these things happen.` And then he said he was waiving the fee this month, and that was it."

　　"What&" Rorri pressed his fingers to his temple. "These things happen?` Why would you-"

　　"I panicked, okay?" The uneven leg of Adar`s chair tapped the floor. "He caught me off guard, so I just said, you know, regular things."

　　"But what if he knows something?" Rorri brought his fist to his lips. "He makes it sound like&"

　　Rorri`s voice trailed into a long silence. His mind replayed the painful memory of the opera, as he`d done countless times since becoming bedridden. Every second of the puppet show, the argument, and their last meeting on the balcony, over and over and over&

　　"You haven`t blinked in a while," Adar pointed out. Rorri started from his trance, eyelids fluttering. He shook his head and reclaimed his composure.

　　"You should ask him if he knows something," Rorri said.

　　"I mean, he`s gone now-"

　　"You`re fast. I`m sure you can catch up to him."

　　Adar gave a heavy sigh. "Fine. Let`s get you back into bed first."

　　The floor creaked beneath their weight as they shuffled across the hall. Rorri settled into his thin straw bed, and Adar`s footsteps bounced through the house. Rorri`s ears couldn`t keep track of his movement, and the scatter of sound set him on edge, never knowing how far away his friend might be.

　　"Might stop at the market while I`m out. Do you want anything?"

　　Rorri let out a slow, even breath. "If the apple muffin lady is there, I`ll take one of those," he said, bracing for the last bit of noise before Adar left.

　　"Okay. I`ll be back in a bit."

　　As the front door creaked shut, Rorri bunched his blanket around his neck, gripped by tension and ennui. The passage of time had become a maddening ordeal since he`d lost his sight. He no longer had a reliable measure for it, and he often had difficulty discerning whether he was even awake. Even though he couldn`t see, his eyes still filled the void with all sorts of vivid hallucinations, and when he did sleep, his dreams were even stranger than they used to be. Sometimes, they were nothing more than squabbling voices in darkness; other times, they were like parades of the past marching by, mundane memories, complete with the gift of sight. When he awoke from those dreams into the shroud of nothingness that had become his reality, it gutted him, each time as painful as the last.

　　Adar had become his only tether to his waking life, the only presence which kept him connected to his body, and for that he was grateful. But when Adar was away, Rorri could only float in the empty space, alone and aimless, whether for minutes or hours, he`d never know. Some days, he feared he might never feel solid ground beneath his feet again.