Chapter 41 - Du-da-du-da-du-da-du-da: BATMAN!
It's the heavy feeling in my arms and bones that informs me I've been drugged up.
My mouth feels disgustingly dry and my head spins deliriously as sweat drips from my feverish forehead. I whimper softly at the uncomfortable sensation of someone having stuffed a million cotton wool pieces inside my brain and turned the heat up to a hundred and fifty degrees'.
I distantly feel a strange floating sensation, as I manage to grasp a little control over my woozy thoughts. I know I've been in and out of consciousness for a while now; one moment I can hear people yelling at each other and the next I hear a calm low chatter, but every time I can feel a soothing spark racing through my right hand and fingers; a pressure delicately, comfortingly rubbing in circles against the rough skin but I'm so out of it nothing I hear or feel makes any sense as I continuously slip unconscious again...
Inescapable nightmares manifest in my brain; images full of yellow eyes and snarling mouths with blood and gore spilling at my feet. Others filled with my fathers decapitated head and my brothers torn chest. I'm never free of my living nightmares, the tablets that are supposed to stop them withering away as blood, so much blood spills over my fingers, swarming up and up until my head barely meets the surface and I feel my lungs burning with the effort it's taking to stay above as I groan, cry, scream, toss and turn through the fever gripping my violently trembling body...
When my mind manages to slowly gain consciousness for the final time something smooth skims gently across my forehead, a soft murmur of a male and females voice meet my sensitive, ringing ears. I become acutely aware of the soft bedding beneath me, something light settling on my chest, blanketing me in a smooth comforting embrace as I breathlessly focus on staying conscious, holding on to the familiar smell of vanilla and strawberries.
I'm home.
In my bedroom... but that doesn't explain why a stranger, my grandmother and Archer are in my room; their scents are stronger than ever, and I swear I can hear their steady heartbeats...
A soft groan escapes my lips, my head feeling tender as my stomach rolls dangerously, bile rising threateningly up my throat and...
Shit.
In seconds my eyes snap open and I bolt off the bed.
Someone yells behind me as I rise like an extra from a horror movie, but I ignore them, my hands slamming blindly into my bathroom door with a bang. As soon as I grasp the edge of the sink I'm throwing up, the food I'd ingested from the last couple of days explode out of my mouth as my vision wavers dangerously and I gag at the foul stench that instantly attacks my nose. Black spots appear as the putrid scent attacks my nose, burning the sensitive nostrils which seem to be working overtime.
My throat burns and the light pouring through the window attacks my sensitive sight – causing my vision to blur and my eyes to snap shut... it's too bright. Jeez, is the sun right outside my bloody window? Panting my knees seem to lose all strength as they buckle, and I fall in front of the sink still retching. I can feel my face paling, the skin feeling stretched thinly along the bones beneath as my insides churn and wither away at the acid racing through me...
Two cool hands brush against the back of my neck, sending the skin on high alert but I sense no threat as they pull my hair back and the familiar smell of peppermint wafts up my nose.
Nan.
I painfully retch over the sink a few more times, breathing heavily as I press my face against the cool, clean side of the ceramic. The sickly smell of my vomit wafting up my nose as I squeeze my eyes shut; my head feeling like it's going to implode. I focus on the fact it's just ringing, that I can't hear an onslaught of voices...
