The Sinners We Love |18+

[27] obsidian

𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚎 

—  𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚛𝚎

Hands laid on my chest, and I could feel it again.

The racing beats, and the running time. Time was passing with every beat of my heart. But where was it running? Who was waiting for it to arrive? Why did it hurt so much?

With a sharp breath protruding my senses, I shot up. I could finally feel my limbs. Vision blurred before it rested on my left, on the tremulous door. Transparent glass, bare without curtains, sheathed with a layer of fog rattled ever so lightly every time a stretch of dark green rocked beyond the door. A balcony.

"Am I dying?" My words throaty, as I moved my aching back.

The mattress dipped somewhere, my heavy eyes and numbed mind scattering open to see the intrusion. The man whom I identified as Piero raised his palm, ironically made a peace sign and asked. "How many fingers do you see?"

Feeling the dryness spreading my barren lips, I noticed him bending down to bring a sealed bottle. "Two?"

Piero tore the plastic seal, and offered. "Electrolyte water." He briefed, bringing the bottle to my barren mouth. 

Thanking the universe that I was receiving electrolyte water and not being electrocuted, I let the uninvited bitterness choke my tongue. "Where am I?"

Frightened yet with a low level of adrenaline, I waited for an answer which never came. Heavy eyes gazed heavenward in daze. Soft prints of damp marked the worn off white cast on the ceiling, and when my gaze trailed down it followed the lines of green leaves that designed the old walls. Faint white flowers— some full bloomed, some yet to bloom, nested along the branches and red petals dull under the low lights adorned the walls. Traces of vines— green and beautiful, like that in a forest creeped the sides of the encased glass door that rattled with the wind.  Two windows sat beside it, not alone. Rather a string of pearls curled and climbed and hugged the metal grid while the potted plants rested on the window sill.

"Is this a forest?" My tongue rolled in daze and my brain could register how less of a control I had on my senses. Everywhere I looked, the room moved with my eyes— like being stuck in a three-sixty view finder. Tears ran dry, yet like a muscle memory I murmured. "please don't hurt me."

Piero moved across the room, the wood groaned under his steps, and the curtains shifted with small whoosh, something heavy was kept beside me, and I meekly gathered my scattered mind under the dosage. There were only two doors. One was the main one, and the other one rattled, thick layer of fog sheathing the thin glass.

"That is the balcony." The depth of Piero's unfamiliar voice made me look at him. He pointed towards the door, and continued. "Don't try to jump, it is guarded. I would not suggest." Placing a strip of medicine on the bed, he casually stood beside the bed.

"Piero," My words rushed with the sudden agitating fear, fingers coiling around his forearm. With every second of consciousness and each rattle of the balcony door, the darkness of the night prevailed over me. "I don't know how I got involved into this, I don't want to die, I'm scared,"

The man uncoiled my fingers, and crouched to uncoil the tray of bottles that settled under the bed. Tearing out the seals from the bottles, he rose. "Sell your words carefully." Tossing one bottle on the bed with a soft dip, the man sauntered around the bed, making his way out.

Piero unlocked the door, guarding the world outside, he stood between the frame and the ajar door. "If I were you, I wouldn't be."

"Why not?"