{"id":3816,"date":"2018-12-21T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T05:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3816"},"modified":"2018-12-20T19:44:47","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T00:44:47","slug":"eight-02-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3816","title":{"rendered":"Eight – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Thom closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling, forcing himself to stop twisting the shirt between his hands. He tore his gaze from his sleeping wife and turned, starting to tug the shirt on, down over his head, wincing slightly as sore muscles twinged and pulled.<\/p>\n

He could still put himself back into that time and place\u2014the day the world had ended, the time around it. He\u2019d decided not to go to Chicago for a job interview, decided not to go visit his parents. In hindsight, the decision had been easier than it probably should have been. The logic behind the choice had been sound\u2014but only if he\u2019d admitted to anyone that he was still hopelessly in love with Marin Astoris. Still, back then, there wasn\u2019t any way he would have missed saying good-bye to her. She\u2019d been supposed to leave for graduate school two days after the world ended.<\/p>\n

He never would have seen her again.<\/p>\n

Thom sank down on the edge of the bed, sighing. Behind him, Marin shifted in their bed, making a soft noise in her throat as she edged toward waking. He closed his eyes. Her fingers crept up his back, warm beneath his shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome back to bed,\u201d she whispered, her voice husky, still heavy with sleep. \u201cIt\u2019s early. Stay with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forever.<\/em><\/p>\n

He exhaled, head drooping. His knee throbbed. He tried to ignore it. He was already dressed. She laid her palm against his spine, the touch stirring fine hairs on his back.<\/p>\n

A shiver shot through him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n

Another sigh and he shook his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n

He started to take his shirt back off, started to stand so he could take off his jeans. Marin edged closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThom,\u201d she said softly, \u201cwhere were you going?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he murmured. \u201cA walk, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can\u2019t even be close to dawn yet,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said again, scrubbing a hand over his face before he stripped out of his jeans and crawled back under the covers with her. Her arms closed around him and he tangled the fingers of one hand in her hair as she nuzzled his collarbone.<\/p>\n

\u201cRest,\u201d she whispered. \u201cWhatever it is, it\u2019ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will it?<\/em> Thom wrapped his free arm around her. All he could do was hope she was right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] Thom closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling, forcing himself to stop twisting the shirt between his hands. He tore his gaze from his sleeping wife and turned, starting to tug the … 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":[299,310,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,149,148,168,147,165,158,200,146],"class_list":["post-3816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-08-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Zy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816","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=3816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3817,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions\/3817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}