𝙷𝙾𝚄𝚂𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝚁𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚂 | 𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝙾𝚍𝚊𝚒𝚛

𝚂𝙸𝚇𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽

Valeria woke up disoriented and confused, clinging onto whatever she had buried her head into.

She sat up at the sound of a gunshot, a startled gasp leaving her mouth as she felt her heart freeze in her chest. All she found was an empty room as the city lights crept through the window shades. Valeria glanced down at the warm body beside her, pulling back when she found Finnick Odair lying there. After a few moments of registering what he was doing there, she found herself leaning forward slightly, taking in his blonde curls that covered his face as he slept peacefully beside her and unaware that she had awakened. 

Another gunshot, and Valeria's head shot to the side where she swore it came from. She closed her eyes as she released a deep breath, reminding herself that it wasn't real. None of it was real.

Valeria pushed the covers off her body, inviting the coolness of her apartment to leave goosebumps up her skin as it kept her grounded. The floor was much warmer than the air, no doubt due to the heaters her grandfather insisted she install, but she hardly noticed as she entered her bathroom and shut the door tightly behind her before flipping the lights on.

She released a deep breath as she managed to make it to the sink, her hands gripping the side until her knuckles turned a deadly white. When she glanced down, she wasn't surprised to find blood running down them.

It's not real, she repeated to herself.

When she opened her eyes again, nothing had changed. Her body trembled as her eyes wandered to see her terrified reflection in the mirror. It had been so long since this had happened, she almost forgot how terrified it made her.

Her shaky hands reached up to the mirror, ignoring the bloody handprints it left as she pulled it open. She fumbled to find the right bottle, her eyes blurring from the tears that threatened to spill. 

Scared. She was so scared.

Her hand eventually wrapped around the familiar bottle, one that she saw every morning when she woke up to make sure nothing like that happened. It usually worked, but yesterday's events had triggered her. She popped the bottle open, not caring that she grabbed too many pills to consider it healthy as she threw them in her mouth. 

Valeria glanced once more at the bottle, the words staring back at her mockingly before she shoved it back onto the shelf as if it would make the words disappear. 

Schizophrenia. 

She just wanted it to disappear.