Present

O N E

Up above: Her bedroom

...

     12:00 A.M. when the sun was at its zenith, she woke up. "Shit!" she shouted as she jumped out of bed. Practically hurling herself down the stairs and into her kitchen, she grabbed a mug for her cabinet and poured tea leaves into it. Tripping over her wide-legged pajamas, she managed to find her way to the faucet where she filled up her mug to the brim. 

      She swiftly opened her microwave door and popped the mug inside where she left it to heat up for a solid four minutes. With no time to waste, she bolted upstairs to the guest room where everything inside it was a scattered mess. Shelves were empty, the couch was flipped over, and the glass model of the Eiffel Tower lay on the coffee-stained floor, shattered. 

     In disbelief, she stood in the doorway. And then the memories came rich back, flooding every single crevice of her mind, a tsunami of trauma washing over her continuously, as if on replay. The memories of the incidents stuck on repeat, the sound of someone's screams echoed through her head as she fought to break free, the waves of memories threatening to drown her if she could not find a way to break free from the mottled mess.

     She writhed, the pain of the headache was almost unbearable. Her heart felt as if ready to leap out of her chest. When is this going to stop?  She wasn't supposed to be feeling like this, this only happened years ago, why now of all times? Am I going crazy? What's going to happen to me? Will I be okay?  Questions continuously sifted through her head.

     Darkness, coming from an unknown source, pulled her back into the depths of her mind. 

...

     Slowly opening her eyes, she looked around. Where am I?  A light shone in her eyes, immediately, she put her hand up, her eyes not adjusted to the brightness of the unknown source of light. She looked down, putting her hand down in the process. She saw concrete and bits of rubble, small gravel rocks, bricks, glass. NO! 

     Images flashed through her mind, a replay of the incident that happened years ago. All those years she worked so hard, to erase everything, to start new. Still, the images showed no mercy, the images still played, and she stared, unable to draw her gaze away. All her hard work, gone, everything she tried so hard to forget was coming back. 

     She looked up, someone was running towards a building, who is that? A man and... a woman? Two people, dark brown, almost black hair, they look familiar. Her gaze followed the two people, as they ran into the building. 

     The building was... glowing? Why was it glowing? 

     Realization hit, the fire. She screamed, unable to control her body. She was reliving the moment. She was hit by a cold wave, it's taking over. Her feet started moving, running after the man and woman, the people she called her parents. 

     Unable to do anything, she let her feet carry her, this had happened a countless number of times before. She was powerless, her body controlled her. Tripping, she fell to the ground, but still desperate to save the ones she loved, she got up and kept running. No, turn back. Turn back! TURN BACK!  

     She was so close, she could stop them, "Mom! Dad!" But... they disappeared through the doors, the flames engulfing them. BANG! 

     She was thrown back, yards away from the entrance of the building, she landed, a nasty crack. 

     Now on her back, she raised her head, pain shooting through her body. She looked down at her hands and saw red. Her conscience told her it was a nightmare, the brain told her otherwise. Is this real? 

     Yes, it's real, don't you feel the pain, don't you see the blood, don't you see the disaster in front of you?

     No, it's not real, you can think outside your body, can't you see that? 

     Your parents are gone, you know that this is real.

     They are gone, but this already happened, you can think otherwise. You have no control

     No, this is reality, you are present

     Voices. voices. voices. Talking. Arguing. SHUT UP!  

     Darkness.

  ...