Beyond Life

Chapter 33 : Natalie

Rose's P.O.V.

Voices swirled around me, but without images to place to the strange noises my mind I struggled to identify who was speaking, or even if I knew them.
Never before had I appreciated lilts and specific little pronunciations of each letter, word and syllable that left somebodies mouth.
I had also never even appreciated accents so much, how dramatically they changed and influenced someone's vocal chords.
I wonder how anyone could come to have an accent when most of them had spent most of their lives in a maze or in a cold, sterile building, hardly ever seeing the outside world for more than a brief few moments.
"Who are you?"
Thomas. My mind stuttered to life, surfacing images of the dark haired, brown eyed, tall limbed boy with a big heart and a bigger smile.
Fond memories flashed through my mind of him laughing, his teeth flashing in the sun, another of him staring absentmindedly at the floor, completely oblivious to the conversation happening around him.
A memory twisted with many mixed feelings, jittery nerves, excitement, apprehension and multiple others I could put my finger on, flashed through my mind burnt there longer than any of the others; Thomas leaning in, words leaving his lips that didn't really even matter to me at that moment, his lips almost on mine. And then the memory was gone fading images of things blurring as my body turned, leaving me with the impression that I had fled that scene.
Confusion made the memories floating around my mind tumble to a halt, a question popping up in bold.

Why.
Why didn't I let him kiss me?

I brooded on it for awhile, unable to do anything else, my body not responding to my brain's prompts to move.
I could feel and hear everything happening around me but I can't respond, can't move a single muscle not even an eyelid.
A voice that I recognised, a female voice, split through my altered conscious state.
"What happened to Rose?" Her voice is full of distress and something similar to anger.
"You!" There's a soft thud, as if someone had been pushed or hit, and a strangled gasp of shock that didn't sound at all familiar. "Was this you?!"
"What?! No, heavens no! I would never hurt anyone!" A feeble yet sickly sweet sounding voice said, sounding like it was coming from the floor, or at least somewhere beneath me.
"Bloody hell what's happened?" Another voice joins in the conversation, a strong accent that brought an instant image to mind of a tall, dark blonde, handsome guy to the blank slate of my mind.
His voice had an air of confidence to it that I felt sure I had noted on before.
"Newt!" The second voice that had spoken yelled, giving a name to the confidently spoken boy. And then with the memory of Newt came Cat, the small black haired, green eyed girl full of spirt and laughing eyes that always had a sparkle in them.
Right now her voice didn't sound like my memory told me it was supposed to, usually so happy and bright, lifting the spirits of anyone who heard it; now it only sounded scared and upset, demanding a different spark of emotion as she spoke to whomever the last unknown voice was, a spark of compliance. Demanding everyone who spoke to listen and answer.
"Cat- Rose? Thomas- what the bloody hell is going on? Who the hell is this now?!"
"Uh I'm Na-"
"Be quiet!" All three of them chorused at once, drowning out the still unfamiliar sounding female voice that reminded me of my time spent in WICKED, of all the condescending adults talking in sickly sweet voices that leaked poisoned images into people's minds, altering their perceptions of reality and good motives versus bad motives.
My ability to hear seemed to slip and slide in and out like a radio, one moment able to hear the conversation around me crystal clear and the next all I could hear was a whooshing silence, accompanied by a terrifying darkness that threatened to overwhelm my very existence.
What is happening to me!! I wanted to scream. But I couldn't. I was frozen, a prisoner in my own mind.

And I couldn't think of anything more terrifying.

Natalie's P.O.V. (Same time as Rose gets hurt ;) )