SATe [✔]

[20] scintilla

I feel an older hand that is damp with determination grab onto my wrist. Turning to look, I see a man in a bleached white mask that has latched on to his skin and is tearing away at it. My body becomes heavy as I attempt to sink into the floor and hold onto myself, with nothing else to grab. Pulled from my home, a man staring at me with a dark smile stretched over his cold face, and as I looked back in terror, I heard three bone-chilling screeches. My feet squeal against the floors as I try to free myself, and the man attempts to keep me in his grasp. His arms are forced around my waist and are pulling me onto him and away from my home.

My mother ends up slouched just before the door, her hand sprawled over the carpet and her blood flowing from her body. I see him turn to post a sheet of paper on our door. Before he helps push me into the car, I stare at the notice that he'd stamped on, 'Authorised Crime' As the man chuckles happily, I whimper in agony, too afraid to scream or cry.

A dark howl coming from outside the window causes me to jolt up straight in the bed I'd crawled into last night and batter my head against the low beams on the ceiling of this bedroom. That sound mixed with the nightmare, causing me to sweat through my clothes and throw the pillows on the floor. I tended to bite on cushions in my sleep unwillingly and could feel that my mouth and teeth were numb. I can barely hear the sound of my breathing; sharp and rapid breaths. My muffled hearing was further blurred by my thoughts.

It was a deafening bang that truly woke me up. Blinding dust from my unknown actions causes me to blink rapidly; a pain shoots up my arm. I realise I've punched the wall with all of my might going into the blow. Pieces of paint and plaster are flaking away from the imprint of my knuckles. I bend over against the duvet in complete shock, clutching my right hand with my left. I push the duvet back in retaliation, pull my legs over the edge of the bed and force them to touch the cold, hard floor.

I shrug off my anxiousness and walk off into the bathroom just off of the bedroom, running some cold water. I had taken fresh clothes from the closet, folding them at the counter near the bath. Each cabinet in this apartment was organised in the same fashion; I wonder who'd gone to the effort?

I scrub my entire body down, creating severe pain through my skin then coat it with some coconut-smelling liquid that soothes the burns I'd constructed. My body gives up shivering after a few minutes, and I just lay there with tears running down my cheeks and falling into the bathwater slowly. When the water calms and the air seems to still around me, I dunk my head into the bathwater and keep my eyes locked shut, dreaming of peace, where I didn't fear for my life, and the anxiety I felt today was non-existent.

I treaded my way from the bathroom to the living room, tying a towel around my hair as I pressed myself onto the brown couch, back into the imprint I'd made last night. The cushions enveloped me in their familiar embrace, a blanket caressing my back as I wrapped it around me. I'd spent hours sitting here last night, staring at the boxes Percy had left me and debating whether I had the strength to go through them.