It was Friday afternoon and both Cecil and Yaeh felt the weight of their first week heavy on their shoulders.

  The withdrawal symptoms now persisted even when medicated. The effects had become profoundly noticeable within the classroom as the week had progressed, with each day taking a greater toll on the moods of those in VC37.

  A few more students had stopped attending classes as the week dragged on. Not unexpectedly, that had included Karkos.

  Each student’s range of symptoms was their own unique cocktail of misery, but for the majority, constant headaches, difficulties sleeping and persistent nausea were the most prevalent.

  Cecil hadn’t slept properly in three days.

  He was taking two pills every night, and while they helped him fall asleep, they didn’t help to keep him asleep.

  The resulting fatigue manifested as an excruciating ache that spread from his brain down into his spirit. Cecil had been blissfully unaware of how much suffering a lack of sleep could cause.

  Yaeh was faring slightly better. She could sleep through the whole night with the tablets, which helped to mitigate some of the worst symptoms, but she was struggling to keep food down and suffered from intense and painful waves of nausea and vertigo.

  Luckily, most of the symptoms of tank withdrawal would abate slightly as the day progressed, being significantly worse first thing in the mornings. As such, afternoons and evenings offered cherished reprieve.

  As they entered their home Yaeh sighed deeply and slung her bag onto the kitchen island before slumping onto the sofa to pull her blanket around herself.

  While she still hadn’t spoken a full sentence to anybody, she was starting to vocalise more often, such as answering questions with an affirmative “mmm” or by voicing displeasure with an occasional “ugh.”

  As far as Cecil saw it, if or when Yaeh decided to speak would be nobody's choice but her own and he had no intention of pressuring her, even if it was something he did hope for.

  He sat down at the kitchen island and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling at the deep roots of fatigue that lurked behind his eyes.

  God please let me sleep tonight. He begged the cosmos.

  Out of nowhere, a wave of homesickness came over him.

  His mind wandered back to humble family dinners sat cross legged on the floor of his parent’s living space, eating homemade food off of a dinner tray that sat on his lap while listening to his parents pleasant and affectionate conversations.

  He missed his mother’s cooking. Especially her gumbo which she made every weekend. This was going to be the second Saturday in a row that he’d not eat it. A thought which made him sad.

  Out of curiosity he searched his tablet for a recipe and found several.

  Traditional Louisiana Gumbo? Was that it?

  Cecil tried to parse the list of ingredients. He knew it had sausage and seafood in it, but quickly realised that the specifics had never been known to him. What type of sausage? What type of seafood?

  In truth, he’d never known that there were different kinds. Questions he’d never asked and now regretted.

  Hopefully they’d be able to contact people outside of the project soon. He missed hearing his mother’s voice.

  That topic had become a point of growing contention for the students of VC37, as most of the class had guardians, loved ones or friends outside of the project that they wanted to contact.

  Ms Amelie had said that outside contact was something that would be possible to earn within the points system down the line and that they’d learn more on Monday when the points were retallied.

  He hoped it was something they could earn soon.

  Yaeh made a noise to get his attention.

  She knelt on the sofa, wrapped in multiple layers of her blanket and patted the space next to her, expectantly.

  Cecil obliged and wearily rose from his chair to sit by her side.

  Immediately after he sat down next to Yaeh she snuggled up close to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

  Cecil had quickly come to realise that Yaeh was very fond of physical contact, to the point of being almost demanding of it.

  He didn’t consider it to be unpleasant or a burden to him in any way so he freely offered it to her and was pleased that she seemed to gain comfort from what he could provide.

  They often spent time like this after classes. Both of them were usually too tired or sick to do much else, so they would cuddle on the sofa and sometimes watch old movies if Yaeh’s vertigo wasn’t too bad.

  They had quickly discovered that the most modern forms of media didn’t combine well with their suite of symptoms, often exacerbating their nausea or motion sickness. And so, the pair had come to prefer watching 2D projections of classical films that the console would beam onto the blank wall opposite the sofa, over more immersive modern media.

  Yaeh had started to develop a taste for antique science fiction films, some of which dated back to the earliest decades of the artform.

  Cecil found most of them very dull, but that wasn’t always a bad thing. He enjoyed the time with the lights dimmed and would close his eyes to listen lazily to the long, dull films.

  The way that people talked back then had a really retro feeling to it, and cuddling with Yaeh in her fluffy blanket was as restful as he could get so denied by sleep as he was.

  “Wanna watch something?” He asked halfheartedly.

  Yaeh shook her head against his shoulder. Her eyes were closed and she rested most of her weight on him. She would likely fall asleep early tonight.

  Cecil wasn’t surprised, she’d risen early in the morning and had been active throughout every class, taking extremely thorough notes the entire time.

  Cecil had once spent a minute watching her tablet over her shoulder as she’d taken notes, curious about what she was writing as that particular moment in class hadn’t struck him as being particularly relevant.

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  But what Yaeh wrote onto the device had been nearly incomprehensible to him. It had been written in a cramped shorthand and seemed to be only barely related to the conversation taking place in the class.

  It was a mystery that he was entirely content to let Yaeh keep. He had more than enough to worry about on his own plate without pestering Yaeh to explain her study techniques.

  She’d grown independent in most aspects startlingly quickly, no longer needing his help to explain the basics of living physical.

  A part of him mourned the loss of his ability to provide that for her, but it was more than compensated by his sense of admiration for the girl as she had quickly become the foundation of the third floor's academic efforts.

  Yaeh was helping all five partnerships with their share of the assignments, offering vital advice and guidance on how each duo should proceed with their workload. Isla and Sana especially appreciated the support as they were essentially doing the work of two people.

  It reminded him of how she’d been before; in plugnet.

  Her tall owl-like avatar had often loomed near the back of the classroom space where she would quietly observe the rest of the class, speaking only when spoken to.

  Her grades had been good; always top five in the class, and other students would often ask her for help as she’d never turn them away. She’d helped Cecil once a few years ago in this manner when he’d been struggling with a physics essay.

  He’d always thought of her as an almost older, more mature presence in the class. Somebody who intentionally kept themselves at a distance, separate from their peers but never to the point of exclusion.

  More than once he’d had the thought that she’d make an excellent teacher.

  Sometimes it was hard to see her that way now because of how petite and clingy she was physically, but he knew it was how she still wanted to be perceived and so he endeavored to retain that old impression of her, overlapping the new things he had learned about her.

  Cecil closed his eyes and rested his head on top of Yaeh’s, enjoying the warm contact for himself.

  Yaeh’s hair was a lot softer now than it had been before, and no longer smelled of tank fluid. Instead he thought he could smell flowers, although that could have been his imagination.

  He enjoyed the feeling of it against his cheek, and took care not to rest too much of his weight on her.

  Yaeh made a noise of contentment and the two of them simply shared each other’s company like this for almost an hour before Aeon barged through their front door.

  “Yo yo!” The intruder announced loudly as he barrelled into the apartment.

  Cecil had been in an almost comatose state of relaxed drowsiness and Yaeh had actually been asleep. The noise caused Cecil to jump to his feet in alarm, making Yaeh fall off the sofa into a blanketed bundle on the floor.

  “Oh, sorry to interrupt cuddletime.” Aeon teased as Cecil helped Yaeh to her feet, glaring daggers at Aeon.

  “Would you STOP barging in here without at least knocking first!” Cecil barked at his irritating friend.

  “But that would take all the fun out of my dramatic entrances.” Aeon protested.

  “I will take that keycard off you I swear to god.” Cecil threatened.

  “No way brother, over my dead body.” Aeon laughed. “Anyway, just wanted to let you both know that we’re all going to the superstore tomorrow for a day out.”

  Cecil found himself unthrilled by the prospect. “I don’t know man, I-” He sighed. “I’m barely sleeping, I’ll probably just want to spend the day in bed or half asleep on the sofa or something, I don’t think I’ll be up for it.”

  “Nah, that’s exactly why we’re going out tomorrow! No seriously, we are getting more messed up by withdrawal every day. Tomorrow will suck but it won’t be so bad that we can’t force ourselves to enjoy a day out. But after this weekend… No way that will be true for long. This will be our last chance to hang out for weeks!” Aeon explained passionately.

  He made a good point.

  “Fine.” Cecil conceded. “Yaeh, do you want to come too?”

  She nodded blearily, kneeling on the floor still tangled in her blanket.

  “Sweet. Almost everyone else will be coming too! Sana even talked Petal and Forger into coming out! They’ve still not been to the stores.”

  Cecil immediately felt put out by the addition of two people he wasn’t as familiar with in the plans, but suppressed the thought.

  “Alright lovebirds, I’ll let you get back to snuggling. See you tomorrow.” Aeon said cheerfully as he waved goodbye and exited.

  Cecil wished he wouldn’t tease them about the cuddling.

  It didn’t necessarily bother him, but as the instigator of their contact, he was worried it might get to Yaeh.

  She often seemed to react when people made jokes along those lines, and Cecil worried that she didn’t like it or felt self conscious about wanting so much physical affection.

  She had never mentioned it though and the comments never seemed to deter her from requesting more contact time from him. If anything, he thought her appetite for closeness was growing. Every morning he woke up to her latched onto him in some way. When asked about it, all she would respond with was that he was “warm.”

  “Are you definitely Ok to go?” Yaeh asked, holding out her tablet.

  It took Cecil a moment to realise that she was holding the screen towards him for him to read. He was more tired than he realised.

  “Uhh, sure. Whatever. Honestly I’m too tired to put up a fight.” He chuckled. “I doubt spending the day out at the store will be much worse than just moping around here all day. I probably will be too sleepy to chat much though.”

  Yaeh nodded in understanding, then wrote a new note on her tablet.

  “You’ve been trying harder lately haven’t you.”

  “What do you mean?” He asked, frowning.

  “Social stuff. Even with all of your symptoms, I can tell you’ve really been putting effort into maintaining conversations and being more sociable.”

  Cecil was taken aback. Had he really been so obvious? Had the others noticed too?

  “Um, I guess.” He acknowledged awkwardly. “Am I doing a bad job?”

  Yaeh smiled warmly and shook her head.

  “You’re doing great. I’m proud of you for stepping out of your comfort zone.”

  Cecil felt a fluttering in his chest. The encouragement sank in deep.

  “Oh, um. Thank you.” Cecil muttered, feeling his ears grow warm.

  This wasn’t fair. Yaeh was far more deserving of praise than he was.

  “You too!” He blurted out, causing Yaeh to straighten in surprise.

  “We can all see how hard you’ve been working on all of the projects and I know how much the others appreciate all the support and advice you’ve been giving them. You’re really smart and capable and we’d all be lost without you! I’d be lost without you…” Cecil trailed off.

  He hadn’t intended to say the last part but everything had tumbled out and he’d been too tired to catch the embarrassing confession from slipping through.

  Yaeh didn't seem to react for a while, then he saw her rub a single tear away from an eye and Cecil panicked. Had he said something wrong?

  “Ah, sorry if that was too much. Are you upset?” He blurted out.

  Yaeh shook her head again and smiled. She leant her head against his lap fondly.

  Cecil heard her intake a breath and it sounded as though she was on the verge of saying something. But she never did. Instead, she wrote two words lazily onto the screen of her tablet.

  “Thank you.”

  It took less than ten minutes for Yaeh to fall asleep again.

  Cecil didn’t want to wake her so he scooped the girl up, still wrapped in her blanket, and carried her to bed.

  He ate a quick meal of rehydrated pasta then took two of the sleeping pills before joining Yaeh in the bed as he waited for the tablets to kick in.

  It wasn’t the night that the nightmares had started, that had been on Wednesday.

  But it was the first night that the nightmares had refused to end.

  Cecil tossed and turned in fits of restless sleep as his mind projected horrific and terror inducing flashes of imagery and upsetting scenes one after another.

  When he shifted to being awake in the dead of night, screaming, he didn’t even notice.

  When Yaeh jolted awake next to the thrashing boy and turned on the room's lights in a panic, Cecil didn’t notice that either.

  He didn’t see the world around him and he had no awareness of where he was. Instead, overlaid atop his vision were the lingering horrors of the nightmare that his brain insisted were more real than the signals sent from his eyes.

  Yaeh desperately tried to help him. She tried to catch his flailing arms but couldn’t. A wild elbow smacked her in the lip as she struggled with him.

  She attempted to call out to him, to tell him that everything was ok and that he was safe, that he was home with her and that nobody was hurting him. But the words caught and stuck halfway out.

  She cursed the lack of ability and her stubborn decision to abstain from speaking which had caused it.

  All of the reasons for which she’d decided not to speak now seemed so trivial and petty compared to the urgency of the moment.

  She hated herself for that as she tried and failed once more to catch his arms.

  He was clawing at his skin and she could see red scratches and spots of blood where he was causing himself genuine harm.

  Cecil however, felt nothing except what the nightmare induced. There was no distinction between the pain of the dream and the pain of the wounds. The agony was omnipresent.

  The only thing Yaeh could think to do was to grab him.

  She hugged his bare chest as tightly as she could, pressing her tear stained face into his scratched flesh.

  He rolled out of bed and onto the floor, still thrashing, taking Yaeh with him. She held on as tightly as she could despite being struck and scratched by his hands.

  The damage wasn’t severe though and she could take it. Better her than him.

  It took Cecil almost five minutes to free himself from the waking nightmare, and another few minutes on top of that before he returned to his true senses.

  When lucidity finally returned to him and he realised that it was not a demon, but Yaeh who lay on top of him hugging him tightly, he gently tried to pry her off. Was she asleep?

  “Yaeh what’s going on? Where are we? Is this the apartment, why are we on the floor? I think I had a really bad dream…”

  Cecil winced as he felt the pain in his wrist where it had struck the night table on his side of the bed, then realised that he was covered in hot and painful scratches all over his bare upper half.

  “Yaeh, what’s going on?” He asked more urgently, panic entering into his voice.

  Yaeh slowly released her grip around his body and pulled away from him, coming to a sitting position on top of him as they lay on the bedroom floor by the bed.

  When he looked up at her, he saw long scratch marks down one side of her face and that her eyes were red with tears.

  “Oh my god. Are you Ok? What happened? Yaeh, what happened!?” He asked urgently.

  He tried to sit up but Yaeh began to wail and hugged him tightly again, burying her face in his neck.

  He’d never heard her make such a noise. It shocked him into silence.

  He didn’t know what had happened, what was going on or why they were both hurt, but he embraced Yaeh while she cried. That seemed infinitely more important to him than answers.