This Is The Place Where The Rap Breaks Down

Penny drifted off as she heard Jasper wish her the dreams of angels, but she was too far gone to respond with anything more than a slight murmuring sound. If she dreamed of him tonight, she would have to apologize for her abrupt exit from the conscious world. She was never able to be asleep long, and now that she was alone inside her own head, she would be able to try to make sense of the days events. She had always been kind of shy, and she knew that she had withdrawn over the years with the lack of human interactions, and what really surprised her was how strong of a reaction she had to Jasper, a man who, not 24 hours previously, she had not actually believed existed outside of her own mind. But what to her was more surprising was that he seemed to have a similar reaction to her. She hoped on some level that she wasn't a disappointment, although the thought was never fully formed.

These thoughts and musings slowly drifted into the confusion and chaos that is the dreaming mind. The room was silent, but her brain was full of the lights and noises of the city. Traffic and alarms. Strange people having muffled and unintelligible conversations as they walked past. God she hated cities. Why was she back here? Her chest hurt. She missed her parents. She missed things she couldn't remember she had forgotten. She missed Jasper. Why couldn't she feel him? The blurred lights and loud, fast noises were too much. Her head hurt. She wanted to scream. They began spinning and spiraling, reaching towards a climax of breaking when out of the silence -- "Penny."

She jerked awake hitting hard against the headboard in the silent room crying out a little. She wasn't entirely sure where she was and she tried scrambling about, getting slightly tangled with the pillow she was clutching. She found herself in the corner of the bed, breathing hard and looking around the room, recognition slowly sinking in. Jasper was beside her within seconds, holding her close, his soothing voice washed over her in waves, and she clung to him as if he were the only real thing that ever existed.