five

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in a daze, his world twirled in a haze-filled madness, sinking into the crevices of his soul. clutching him in craze and desperation as he looked for her all throughout the crowd.

he looked for her, and he didn't get tired of doing so.

but the only person she looked for that night, was her mother.

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wrapped in the comfort of the hospital couch, penelope breathed out a short exhale, furrowing her eyebrows for a moment before pulling the edges of her sweater closer against her chin as she kept count of her warm indrawn breath.

the sunlight penetrated through the faint hospital curtains, penelope's mind was still thick with sleep. her mind was telling her to wake up, every other part of her body ached in the thought of getting up.

penelope sucked in a soft gasp, opening her eyes wide. finally, she was able to properly process that she had been sleeping since four in the afternoon. also, the fact that she had been spammed by asha, and now had more than seventy-three unread messages, seven missed calls and three voicemails.

she couldn't hear her mums usual breathing  and with that thought, her insides were now intricately knotted and twisted up into tangles of worry, she swung her legs over the tiny edge of the leather loveseat and tiptoed towards her mothers bed throwing her phone onto the cushion of the loveseat.

the elderly woman had blankets wrapped around her in an inescapable cocoon. one sweater-clad arm was spread out to the side, while her face remained uncovered, facing the ceiling. penelope faintly recalled doing the same as a kid, and how her chest always ended up pressing in on itself to hinder her ability to breathe. there was no way her mother could be breathing properly under the thickly layered fabric.

penelope's steps were quick and powerful as she scurried over to the woman, kneeling down beside her and struggling to pull out the edges of the furry cloth from under her weight. unfortunately, the way the blanket was wrapped seemed too complicated to be undone, so she just left it after it has loosened considerably.

"mum," penelope whispered, the word coming out louder than she'd intended. she reached up to cup her mother's cheek, fingers lightly tapping in hopes of waking the older woman. 

"oh my god," she muttered, moving her hands to her mother's shoulders and shaking them more harshly. she ended up repeating the action at least five more times before her mother made a noise of discomfort

"penelope, why are you here?" the older woman groaned, her memory failing as she grabbed onto her daughter to halt the shaking. my god was this never-ending terrible disease, consuming the remains of her mothers brain every day. her mum didn't genuinely realise as it happened.

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