She squinted at the artifact that he dangled from his finger. Trying to wrap her head around everything in the house was straining. The mess, the artifacts, the strange man. Caroline was not even really sure how to reply to what he was saying, except nodding as if she understood. To think all of these things were out in the world this whole time, and she was never privy to it. Amazing. 

“Very interesting,” she replied, fighting her eyelids that were growing heavier and heavier. The calm energy in the house compared to hers made all the exhaustion hit her like a brick. Instead of trying to fight it, she took the bedding, laid it out to her liking, nestled into the couch in a sort of fetal position, and smoothing the blanket out over her. The couch wasn’t necessarily comfortable, but it was serving its purpose. Sleep kept growing closer and closer as she let out a large yawn. 

“Thank you, Thomas, for letting me stay. Feel free to be as loud as you want, I’m usually a heavy sleeper.” She nodded reassuringly as her eye began to flutter. The strange thoughts and images that appear as one is falling asleep began playing like a movie in her mind. No matter how calm the house was, though, it may have not been enough to keep the nightmares away. Keith’s lifeless body, fights that they had, the being in their house – those were all things that ran through her mind as she fella sleep every night. It was torture. Sometimes, she wished she could just shut her brain off and wake up in a year where things would be totally different. Where the pain of losing Keith wouldn’t hurt so bad, where whatever was tormenting her had moved on to another victim, where she didn’t have to rely on a stranger to take care of herself. Caroline thought about maybe back to Georgia with family. New York was an awfully big city to be alone in.

Before the last final wave of sleepiness hit her, she took a deep breath and sighed. She optimistically hoped that Thomas could get rid of this [i]thing[/i] for her.