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{ CHAPTER NINE , THE CHINA POND AND CHERRY BLOSSOMS }
"OPEN THE DOOR!" CAROLYN yelled, pounding on Blake's bedroom door. After Richie left, she came bombarding Blake for being a 'slut.' "C'mon! You had no problem letting that Richard into your room! Open the damn door!"
Blake was huddled in the corner closest to her bed, her hands over her ears to shut out the yelling and white noise. She wanted to scream, destroy everything she saw; she was angry and scared. "Little whore! Open up!" Blake bit down on her bottom lip to stop the urge to scream. Her nails dug into her ears, her knuckles turning white and small drops of blood clotting itself under her nails. Her eyes were tightly shut to keep the tears from falling. The loud groan from outside her door told Blake that Carolyn had gotten tired.
Silence. That's all it was after Blake removed her hands and opened her eyes. Blissful silence was a harm for her. But the yelling that started again was like a million knives stabbing her over and over again. This time, her screams weren't covered and the loud bellowing echoed as tears streamed down her face like a river. The noise bounced off the walls, always coming back in the same place: her ears.
Blake fell to the floor, pounding on it and yelling for it to stop. Her fist was red and her throat was flaming, but she couldn't feel any of it. Heaving for a breath, she felt her lungs cave in on her but then refill themselves with a big gulp of O2. She was dying and she wasn't afraid of the inevitable darkness called death, she was more prepared. But as her head hit her floor, her eyes clasped shut, she felt like she was floating on water. A peaceful area she once called a utopia; it was on a pond in China, cherry blossom pedals placed perfectly in her blonde hair and scattered in the water. Grass flowed around the pond, the warm breeze moving Blake like a Hawaiian dancer.
The blissful noise of water and the breeze flowing was ruined when the demonic laughter echoed around Blake. Her eyes jolted open, though this time she wasn't in her bedroom like any dream, she was still in the water. Though this time, it wasn't water. Bringing her hand up, noticing the same dark red color as she saw yesterday morning—blood. Right before she could scream, the floating stance she had failed and she was dunked in the sticky metallic. She climbed back up, noticing the pond was gone and she was in the quarry, the blood, just, all gone.
The chuckle rang in her ears; it was the same noise that haunted her dreams at night, leaving her shooting out of her bed in a sweaty and crying mess, only to have Richie pull her into a hug and tell her everything was fine, then make a sex joke and they'd both fall asleep. Though she didn't feel the gentle apprehensive touch of Richie's arms around her or the soft fingertips of Beverly's touching her crimson cheeks, she felt the effect the laugh had. The cackle—that's what made her sleep with one eye open.
