Duplicity [h.s]

94

thank u for your patience, we're getting close!!

Aven Brooks

The ringing in my ears doesn't stop as light shines into my eyes. It's the type of ring that feathers the deepest part of your brain in the most uncomfortable way possible. The deep reverb of my heartbeat accompanies the ring, bringing me to the surface of consciousness. My head, it pounds maliciously. The ache follows down the back of my neck and to my shoulders. I'm stiff and I can't seem to change that, where even am I?

I wilt my eyes open, taking in the aggressive white light invading my pupils.

Am I in heaven?

No, heaven doesn't have headaches.

"Av..."

I shut my eyes from the piercing light above me, trying to ease the throb that aches down my jaw. I breathe calm, my drowsy thoughts a wasteland to movement. I couldn't piece one thought together. My brain has powered down completely.

"Av, open your eyes for me..."

I breathe gently through my nose, on my back for what it feels. Through the pound in my head, I couldn't help but imagine that this white light fighting its way past my eyelids is actually the warm sun blanketing me in a glow. I imagine a grassy field and swaying trees—singing birds and abstract clouds. To feel a breeze through my clothes and a ray of sun tanning the bridge of my nose coils a smile up my lips. I couldn't help it.

"Aven!"

My brain finally registers that I'm hearing my name being called this entire time, somehow skimming over it until now. I open my eyes again to see the white light, realizing it's nothing like the sun because I'm cold like death. I suck in a sharp breath as it feels I'm being brought back from the dead, realizing I am in no way of knowing of where I am. The fatigue of my brain starts to fade away, allowing the conscious trait of fear to make an entrance.

The ache to my head not only throbs but feels sharp like I had some sort of open wound to my skull. In human instinct, I lift my hand up to the place it hurts the most. My three fingers shake in weakness while meeting my hairline right behind my temple. The second I make contact, I feel a wetness coating my fingertips and welted into my hair. Pulling my hand back, I lift it up so it hovers over my face and blocks some light, seeing blood covering the tips of my three fingers. I blink in my half-conscious state, trying to remember how my skull started bleeding.

My head drifts weakly to my right, my body laying flat on my back.

The first thing I adjust to seeing is metal bars, bars of a jail cell. I blink through clouds hazing my sight and try to recognize more of my surroundings. Focusing past the tall metal bars, I take in the view of eyes behind them.

Green eyes and hands gripping the steel bars.

Alert washes my blood as my brain catches up to the fear of this situation, my chest beginning to rise up and down. My eyes go wide with my lay on my back, still trying to adjust.

Harry was on his knees, gripping the bars that separate us. His face is destroyed with damage. Blood stained down his nose, fresh down his hairline, and bright red across his teeth. His eyes are heavy like he couldn't keep them open. One slightly swollen so it really couldn't stay fully open. Cuts and early red bruising covers his face, marks like that needing to take months to heal. His nose may even be broken, it's bleeding so much.

In instinct, I sit myself up with a headache so bad I couldn't see straight. The room spins in my transition. My head aches down my muscles and throbs up at my gushing temple.