mother_love

Billy was startled awake from a semi-fitful sleep early that morning. The voicemail alerts all suddenly started coming without warning, his barely-used phone pinging nearly non-stop for a couple of minutes. As Billy listened to the messages, noting that many were apparently a week or so more, his eyes grew wider with each message he listened to.

It was Rebecca. Somehow she had managed to track him down- at least enough to know where he was and how to try and contact him. Or at least she had tried about 10 days ago. Voice messages dated every couple of days were coming in one after another, as if some block had finally lifted, allowing them to come through.

As shocked and surprised as Billy was to even hear from Rebecca after all these years, it was the content of the messages she had left that had him growing more concerned and anxious by the minute. It sounded like things were bad and she might be in trouble. As Billy finished reading the last message, dated just yesterday, he felt his heart jump into his throat.

Without even thinking, he punched in the number and held his breath, and waited. The phone started to ring. Rebecca didn't answer but her voicemail kicked in. He left a quick message, his mind racing with the implications of what it meant that he could finally at least get a call from her and to her. That meant...

Billy quickly punched in the number for the Portalcity office. If messages were coming in, then maybe whatever was keeping him trapped here on the island and unable to contact anyone was gone. Maybe he could get out finally. Maybe he could finally go and look for Rebecca... especially now that he knew she was in trouble.

And it had taken some time but the Gnomes finally did confirm it looked like they could get a portal out for him. But they couldn't give any sort of guarantee of how long the portal would stay connected. "It could last another 5 days, it could be gone in a couple of hours... we really can't say," was the extent of any information he could.

This sucked. But Billy knew what he had to do...



Just an hour or two later, Billy was leaving the apartment. His military duffle bag was slung over his shoulder and another small suitcase was in one hand. On his way out he stopped by Jon's flat and knocked. There was no answer, which might be for the best, though Billy did feel a twinge of guilt about leaving like this.

He took the envelope in his hand and slid it under the door. In it was the key to his apartment, that current month's rent, and some papers. One was a note explaining what had happened, letting Jon know he was leaving, and that he was sorry for it being so sudden.

There was a quick note saying that provided whoever might take over the shop, Jon was welcome to still use the simulations and Billy had jotted down the codes and brief instructions on how to get them set up. The other three papers were quickly scrawled out statements Billy was leaving for Jon.

The last note simply said that Billy hoped he might be able to make it back to the island eventually and that he would try and keep in touch if he could once he was off the island.

And with that done, Billy left and headed for the portal that was waiting to hopefully take him home.




(Yes Billy is leaving the island- don't know if he will be back at some point or not. The post is open if anyone wants to catch him at the apartments or on his way out.)

Billy considered himself to be a fairly tough individual. He had been through wars, zombies, and a lot more and had come through it in tact. He could handle some pesky little withdrawal headache. Right?

Well, turns out dealing with a pesky caffeine withdrawal headache was bad enough, especially considering his recent attempts at forgoing sleep entirely. But add to that the annoyance of no booze, of any kind, and it was a double-whammy that was starting to get to be a bit too much.

Wonder if I could get some more sleeping pills from Will..." he mused to himself as he leaned against the balcony railing. "Could always just sleep all this off. Cant have a headache if I'm passed out right?" Billy shook his head and gave a scoffing laugh as a final thought passed through his mind- "Not sure really what would be worse.... the nightmares of this bloody headache!

And so, Billy had sat out on the balcony most of the morning so far, burning through his last pack of cigarettes like a man on Death Row. And if he wasn't so distracted by the pounding in his head, he might have appreciated that irony a bit more. But as it was, Billy was hoping the combination of the smokes and the cooler air outside that day might at least take the edge off the migraine.

Wasn't looking very promising though as he snuffed out the last of the pack and collapsed into the armchair in the living room... but no one could fault him for trying at least.



(Post is open for anyone who wants to commiserate about the current state of the island!)