{"id":3764,"date":"2018-10-31T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2018-10-30T20:18:22","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T00:18:22","slug":"five-01-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3764","title":{"rendered":"Five – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have grass on your shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan straightened from tending the pot over the fire, brow furrowing as he watched J.T. approach.\u00a0 The other man looked like he hadn\u2019t slept at all the night before, which was cause for concern enough, but it was less the dark circles under his eyes than the expression on his face that gave Phelan pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d he asked, not wanting to speculate\u2014odds were good his mind would come up with something far worse than whatever had kept J.T. up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that coffee?\u201d\u00a0 J.T. asked, ignoring the question.\u00a0 That won an arched brow from Jacqueline, who sat cross-legged nearby, settled in to resume work on a quilting project even as Phelan busied himself with the coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be soon,\u201d Phelan said, still watching him as he unceremoniously dropped into a sitting position near Jacqueline.<\/p>\n

\u201cFantastic,\u201d J.T. said, leaning back against one of the split-log benches and covering his eyes with one hand.\u00a0 \u201cI need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realize it\u2019s nearly ten o\u2019clock,\u201d Jacqueline said, peering at him.\u00a0 \u201cAt least as near as I can tell.\u00a0 What\u2019s going on?\u00a0 Did you oversleep?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOversleeping would imply that I slept.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that answers part of my question,\u201d Phelan said, tone wry.\u00a0 He started filling the French press with coffee grounds.\u00a0 \u201cSo answer the rest.\u00a0 What\u2019s going on, Jay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just\u2014I can\u2019t\u2014\u201d he broke off, making a frustrated sound.\u00a0 \u201cI just keep thinking and it goes around and around and I try to stop but it doesn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you\u2019re not making sense,\u201d Jacqueline said, brow furrowing deeper.\u00a0 \u201cWhat<\/em> keeps going around and around?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cIt doesn\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t lie,\u201d she warned.\u00a0 Phelan turned away, concealing a wince.\u00a0 He\u2019d come to know that tone over the last year and it typically didn\u2019t presage much good if it wasn\u2019t obeyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe asked us to help her and we haven\u2019t,\u201d J.T. said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd it keeps eating away at me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want it to but I can\u2019t help it.\u00a0 It just keeps bubbling up.\u201d\u00a0 He sighed.\u00a0 \u201cI think time is running out but I don\u2019t know what to do about it.\u00a0 I\u2019m not even sure where to start.\u00a0 How the hell do we figure out where to start?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] \u201cYou have grass on your shirt.\u201d Phelan straightened from tending the pot over the fire, brow furrowing as he watched J.T. approach.\u00a0 The other man looked like he hadn\u2019t slept at all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[299,307,14],"tags":[150,171,170,160,174,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-05-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-YI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3765,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions\/3765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}