11 - Chances

Kari groggily registered muted voices but was still too deep in the clutches of sleep to understand what was being said.

Sleep had taken a long time to come last night, and he was unsure how long he had lain awake with his thoughts swirling around in his head. It made whatever time it was feel extremely early, though.

A hand gently shook his shoulder and he grumbled, curling into himself to escape the prospect of getting up. It was unfortunately persistent. The voices were more distinct now but Kari’s foggy mind still couldn’t decipher the speech. After a few more unsuccessful tries, the hands gave up on shaking him and pulled him, albeit gently, sheets and all, to the edge of the bed. He was manhandled out of bed and into a standing position.

He swayed drunkenly on his feet in his sleepy state, far too out of it to be bothered about his lack of modesty as the bedding was removed. He vaguely reg