#event: nightmare / celena

[zofi-persson-quotes]

The Divine Crown Constellation

Something I made for lore for my Fantasy-ish Au (under cut bc it's long- drawing by me, btw! Hella proud of how it came out, especially bc it's the first time I make a constellation. The first designs were just... horrible-)

Basically, in the Outernet there's a constellation shaped like a crown.

It's composed of 21 "stars", and it was created by the 21 Gods of the Outernet.

Each one of these "stars" are actually condensed Elemental energy, and each God made and owned a star. For example, one is made of Life and Death energy, while another is made of Sun Magic, etc

Each one of said Gods also owns a piece of these "stars", in case a catastrophic event happened and they needed some more power to fight, but these pieces were never used.

Nowdays people think that it's just a legend, alongside everything else regarding the Gods, but the constellation is still admired and studied.

The Star's names and to whom they belong to

Stars of the Primordials

Seren: belongs to Abner, Primordial of Energy and Creation.

Aegle: belongs to Kiran, Primordial of Light and Darkness.

Eon: belongs to Aika, Primordial of Time and Space.

Elu: belongs to Karasi, Primordial of Life and Death.

Sunyata: belongs to Nihil, Primordial of the Void and Destruction.

Stars of the God-Children

Solara: belongs to Mehr, Minor Goddess of the Sun.

Celena: belongs to Aibek, Minor God of the Moon.

Naiad: belongs to Moros, Minor God of the Abyss.

Chirat: belongs to Mirai, Minor Deity of the Continuum

Stars of the Gods

Afi: belongs to Vestja, Goddess of Fire and its sub-elements.

Thalassa: belongs to Aalto, Deity of Water and its sub-elements

Kaya: belongs to Zora, Goddess of Earth, Metal, Crystal, Sand, Dust and Glass

Naseem: belongs to Rangi, God of Air and its sub-elements

Caley: belongs to Aspen, Deity of Nature and Animals

Kallik: belongs to Strela, Deity of Electricity and Technology

Dara: belongs to Maibe, Goddess of Gravity and Stars

Åse: belongs to Afeni, Deity of Healing

Roha: belongs to Enyde, Goddess of the Astral Plane, Dreams and Nightmares

Rigmor: belongs to Sage, Deity of Mind

Xinyi: belongs to Blythe, Deity of Emotions

Illisha: belongs to Naiche, Deity of Illusion and Guise

[untxld-stxries]

Closed Starter: The Shadow of Pixie Hollow

Celena sat up straight. She'd felt that. Out of them all, the one she'd been most concerned about was James.

And he was awake.

"DAMN IT ALL!" she screamed, rising to her feet, breathing heavily and seething with rage. She twitched, screaming again. "We're going to pay that wretched little king a visit." She turned, flicking her cloak as she did, storming off.

Cassandra blinked. She didn't like that. She drew her sword, glancing at Audrey and wincing. She didn't even recognize her friend. Not like that. She followed after Celena, sword in hand, silent.

Audrey lifted her chin, clutching her scepter tightly. Her scepter. Hers. She followed along after Celena, reaching up to adjust her tiara as she walked, not even glancing at the others.

@merbxtch

[nxtsojoyful]

Closed Starter: I’m Already There

Wynn manages to keep himself together until he gets to his room, but hearing the door close behind him breaks him in a way he wasn’t expecting and his knees give out.

He’d just seen his best friend off.

And he was alone, again. Trapped, with no one who understands him, and he has to make it through this, as if that’ not the case, as if he’ll be okay...

And he just wants Ziva back.

Sobbing, he wraps his arms around himself, digging his fingers into his sides as he curls up in a small ball, falling apart.

@untxld-stxries​

[xts-just-melxnda]

Closed Starter: Whispers in the Dark

It’s just getting worse. She was hurting people, she was cornering people, her power seemed to be getting stronger and-- and out of her control, even. Melinda cries, though it never visibly shows.

She’s a monster, and there’s nothing she can do about it.

-----

Sylvia skids up to Melinda in the library, sighing, looking at Sam. “Let’s do this.” She reaches out to grab onto Melinda’s arm.

Nova rubs Sam’s shoulder and steps back, letting him do this.

@untxld-stxries​

[leavingwitchmxuntain]

Closed Starter: Bend and Not Break

The sky goes dark and it startles her, but not as much as opening her eyes and finding herself strapped to a lab table.

No, no, no, this can’t be real, this can’t be happening, as she sees people in white coats passing by, making notes and flipping through pages on clipboards. Her eyes dart to her left, seeing the medical instruments beside her--

“Ah, you’re awake,” one of them says, and she looks to him, panicking. “Good, good, just in time.”

No, no, no--

@untxld-stxries​

[timcisdcad]

Closed Starter: Why Do All the Monsters Come Out at Night?

It’s fun being a dream demon during something like this, Marella’s decided. Waltzing through nightmare after nightmare, discovering exactly how so many students’ psyches would break completely if she wanted to play with reality like her dad...

It’s always useful information to have. So when she wakes herself up, she takes notes, notes, so many notes about everyone and everything. How some kids were afraid of themselves, how some were afraid of Auradon not existing, how some were afraid of losing loved ones. All good bargaining chips.

But she has something far more interesting that she’d learned from one girl’s nightmare in particular that she had a feeling she should share. So Marella closes her notebook and tucks it back away where she always hides it, between her mattress and her headboard, and goes out carefully, practically tiptoeing around sleeping students.

For a minute, she swears she hears little footsteps, but she brushes the sound off quickly and keeps walking, leaving the noise far behind and looking for Celena.

“Oh, goodie, I was thinking I’d never find you,” she giggles. “I learned something you might find interesting.”

@untxld-stxries​

[nxtmyweird]

Closed Starter: What Happened in My Nightmares

In fact, between what her bosses had known and a little tiny bit of a quick internet search, Sylvia had figured out exactly where the Winchesters were. The easy part was getting into town, all things considered.

But finding the men, specifically, proved near impossible till she found the car outside a graveyard... in the middle of the night.

For fuck’s sake, they didn’t make it easy on her. She parks, quietly getting out of her car and going to find them.

Her heart pounding in her ears, she visibly relaxes when she sees him, not even thinking about anything to do with the circumstances as she rushes over. “Sam! Thank GOD you’re okay.”

@untxld-stxries​

[asktheheartsprincess]

It’s a Dangerous Game (Celena Nightmare Event, Part 3): Solo Para

Continued from here: 

Find part one here: 

Time was a blur after Ardenzana’s execution.  Cora found herself imprisoned in a corner of the palace, but this time it was a room dedicated to “The Atrocities of the House of Hearts.”  Sometimes people passed through on a tour, and Cora realized from their discussion she was also considered an atrocity.  An abomination.  Some people poked at her cage, trying to see if they could get her to slip.  Much to Cora’s dismay, it happened more often than she’d like.  Yet she couldn’t bring herself to care. 

What was there to care about, after all?  Her mother was dead.  Her queendom was gone.  Her friends had abandoned her.  And her father had married the woman who’d executed her mother. 

Cora had nothing anymore. 

“Thought you would have run out of tears by now, princess.”

Cora blinked, red-rimmed eyes making contact with the person who previously was her greatest nightmare.   Unlike everyone else in Wonderland these days, he wasn’t wearing blue or white, but then again, he never had.  He wore black, though the leather was less worn than she remembered it.  His cloak swept the floor, but if she knew him as well as she thought she did, she knew he could still have concealed weaponry on his person.

“Thought you would have stopped pretending to care,” she shot back. 

“Am I pretending?” he asked, stepping closer to the bars of her cage.  A smirk played at the corner of his lips, and Cora wished Alice hadn’t taken her daggers, because she would loved to rip the smirk off his face personally.

“You always were,” she said, daring him to contradict her, “So why stop now, Raphael?”

The name fell from her lips like water, but it burned her as though it were acid.  Cora hadn’t spoken his name in years, vowing to leave him behind like the terror he was, but what was a little more terror now?

Raphael shrugged, “Are we laying all our cards on the table then, princess?”  He smiled, stepping even closer, and Cora hated, just hated, how he looked so confident.  And guiltless.  Then again, while he understood how to manipulate others’ guilt, he’d never seemed to really apply the concept to himself.

Determined to restore some semblance of dignity to herself, Cora wiped away her tears.  Sitting on her knees- which she’d learned was the best way to maintain her balance in case someone pushed her cage –she narrowed her eyes at him.  He had no reason to be here, and taunting her was too juvenile for a game of his.  So what was he here for, exactly?

“You still doubt me?” Raphael asked, seeming almost surprised.  He shook his head, and said, “Fine.  You want the truth?  Father’s price to get back into the Church, to repent for having me, was bringing in thousands of souls who’d previously never known God.  The Isle wasn’t a place for that, but Wonderland would certainly work.  And what wickeder way to start than with its princess?”

“I know that, Raph,” Cora said, “I get it.  I figured it out, though I’d really like to stop losing this goddamn game over and over.”  Despite herself, she was perversely pleased to see him flinch at her swear.

“Besides, what does it matter now?  Wonderland’s got a new royal family, in case you missed it.  I’m an abomination,” Cora wrapped her fingers around the bars, gesturing to the various posters in the room, “I was back then.  Your father said I was cursed by God, which is why I have slips,” after all, that’s why they’d broken up.  Cocking her head at him, Cora added, “I still have them now.  I may not be royal anymore, but I’m still cursed.”

Raphael was so close to her cage now she could feel his breath on her lips.  He ran one hand through her hair, and he murmured:

“God heals all.” 

Fast as lightning, her hand grabbed his, wrenching it away from her hair, “I don’t want your God, Raph.  And I don’t want you.” 

 A long moment passed between them, Raphael’s hazel eyes meeting her own with a self-satisfaction she wanted to crush. 

“Then why,” Raph asked, voice low, as his lips brushed hers, “are you still holding my hand?”

Cora felt as though her brain had short-circuited at his touch.  Her heart, which had seemed frozen for days, actually started to beat again, and she gasped- but once his words sunk in, she threw his palm away from her as though it were ablaze.  

Raphael rubbed one of his hands in the other, a smirk playing at his features, “You’re right, princess.  You’re not ‘royal’ anymore, but I’m not holy either.  The Church won’t let me take Holy Orders because they say I was living in sin.  My father disowned me for it, saying he’d hoped his son wouldn’t inherit such proclivities, but here I am.  And here you are, locked up.  Just…if I’m going to keep sinning, wouldn’t you rather sin with me, princess?  Out of that cage?”

Her heart pounding, Cora tried to regain her senses.  There was a reason they had broken up, and it hadn’t just been because of Frollo’s disapproval of her…condition.  It was also because Raph treated everything- and everyone –as a game.  Including her.  As much as she wanted to believe him, there was no reason for him to change.

No matter how much she’d always wished he would.  That somewhere, buried underneath the charm and the smirks and the lies, was the love she’d given him, returned in equal measure.

Like the devil had tempted Eve with the apple, her own devil tempted her with the key to her cage, holding it before her, “Come on, princess.  Let’s get out of here, leave it all behind.  Go to a place where no one knows our names and maybe, just maybe, they can heal your slips.”

For a brief instant, she allowed herself to dream about it.  They could run far away, somewhere past the Boiling Seas, past the Agrabanian deserts, outside Auradon’s borders.  They could be together, safe, and free, and in love.

Cora shuddered, ashamed at how much she still wanted it. 

“You should go before the guards catch you.  My soul’s beyond saving, Raph.  We both know that,” she said finally, turning away from him.   There was a long silence, and if she didn’t know wickeder, she would have thought she heard Raph sigh in disappointment.

“Though yours, my son, is apparently not.” Judge Frollo walked into the room then, resting a hand on Raphael’s shoulder with a fond squeeze.  To Cora’s horror, Raph smiled:

“Thank you, Father.”

“And as you, Corazana, have admitted to heresy, have no desire for forgiveness, or to seek God at all…” Frollo- now attired in the robes of an Archdeacon –pronounced, “You will burn.   Queen Alice wants this room destroyed anyway.  You will perish in it.”  Not even bothering to give her the Sign of the Cross, he swept away. And Cora was left wondering how much of what had Raph said was a game.  Again.

As for Raphael, he lit a match: “Enjoy hell, princess.”

Refusing to cry for him again, Cora spat, “I will when I meet you there.”

Then Raph threw the match to the ground, and Cora watched him leave her for the last time.

[ask-enchanted-daughter]

Flashback Double Solo Para: Take a Break

“I’m just saying, you really could use a break,” Rebecca is saying as the pair get their smoothies. “Auradon isn’t gonna break if you leave for a week or so.”

“It might,” Grace laughs. “We all know I’m the canary in a coal mine around here when it comes to good and evil.”

“Yeah, but that’s just it,” Rebecca points out. “You have to get really sick for us to know something’s up. Look, everything’s been fine for a while, and I have a gift certificate for a spa getaway for two that’s gonna expire soon. Let’s just take a week and finally give you a chance to relax, I’m very certain that if Fairy Godmother can excuse Audrey’s sabbatical before she came back and went all evil, she can excuse this.”

Grace sighs and sips her smoothie with a shrug. “Are you sure? I don’t wanna take up that slot, I know you miss your sister--”

“Well, college is less forgiving than AP, Morgan’s got a full schedule at the moment. I’d rather have someone I know can make it. Come on, please?”

Sighing, Grace nods. “Okay, fine, let’s do it.”

“Sweet, I’ll book our tickets. This’ll be so exciting! And when it’s all over, Auradon will be totally fine when we get back and you’ll see you’re allowed to take a break without everything going to shit.”

[impish-wxys]

Solo Para: In the Looking Glass, I Come to Light

Iris frowns a bit to herself when the sky goes dark, looking over to the window from the mirror she’d set up at her desk.

More confusing is how things feel... backwards, when she does. She shakes her head dizzily and looks back to her mirror... gasping at the sight.

Looking back at her is most definitely not her. But it has her exact face, simply...

“Hello, Iris.”

“Siri.”

She’d grown accustomed to referring to her reflection in the reverse. Backwards speaking about it, about the dark thing that slept in her that she had thrust into the looking glass... somehow made it feel like it was something else. It wasn’t her.

Something feels wrong. “What’s going on?”

“Simple, really. I think, perhaps, I can call you Siri now, and you can call me Iris.” There’s a smirk, and Iris feels her heart sink.

“No. No, that’s-- that’s impossible.”

“Is it?”

Iris doesn’t like that. Not at all. But she likes it less when Siri cocks her head... and Iris feels herself doing the same.

No.

“What are you going to do?”

“I think you’ve kept things a little... too perfect, don’t you?” There’s a cold smirk. Iris gasps.

“No-- no no no--”

“Oh, don’t worry, we all know you’ve really been thinking about doing something like this,” Siri stands, and Iris can’t help it, can’t stop it as she does the same, crying as she’s forced to turn away, and hearing her door close-- the world goes dark.

She’s next aware when she finds herself in a window. Siri is walking out of the building... right into Eddie. She cries out, hitting at the glass. “Leave him alone! Leave him alone!”

But she’s powerless, completely and utterly trapped as Siri turns and grabs Eddie’s arm, throwing him to the ground.

“EDDIE!” She screeches, but he can’t hear her. No one can.

No one sees her. They see Siri. Someone tries to step in, but Siri holds up a fireball, flinging at the infringing student, sending people scattering and lighting up a tree... and the fire spreads... and Iris just screams in desperation for someone, anyone to see what’s happening... to realize it’s not her...

But it is... and it just makes it worse...

[spaceasshxle]

Solo Para: Why Don’t You Stay?

His gut tells him to panic when the sky goes dark, even if only for a minute. James gets up and grabs his jacket to bolt out of his room, expecting Morph to follow after him and not noticing when the little blob doesn’t.

Bursting out the door, he sees Mackenzie in the courtyard, feeding her birds again. “Mackenzie? Hey, are you oka--”

She jerks away when he reaches out to touch her arm, turning away from him. He frowns, worried. “Mackenzie--”

But she turns and stalks off. He blinks, confused. “What was that about?” Sighing, he shakes his head. The sky. He bolts off to find Hailey.

His sister is at her locker. “Hails! Hailey, are you okay--?”

“Liz,” Hailey looks right past him with a smile, walking past him to her girlfriend.

James blinks. “Hails--”

“Ugh. Can we go?” Hailey glances at him and then at Elizabeth, and the other nods and the two walk away. “So glad to be leaving here for good.”

James blinks, watching her in confusion, shaking his head. “Wh--?”

Eva. He sighs and shakes his head, running off to find her, sliding up to her door. Before he can knock, she opens it, carrying a box. He frowns. “Eva? What’s going on? What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving, James,” she scoffs a bit, struggling with the door and her box. “Isn’t that obvious?”

No... not her, too. “Eva--”

“Look, I’d rather go back to homeschooling than spend another day here with you,” she snaps at him, managing to get out and pushing past him. “Bye, James.”

He watches her walk away, blinking in confusion. That doesn’t make any sense. Turning, he starts looking for Tayen.

But he runs into Hannah, who glares at him and turns and heads away from him, pulling her hood up. No--

And he can’t find Tayen at all. No, no, no--

He tries calling his father. No answer.

Aunt Amelia. No answer.

Uncle Delbert. No answer.

Finally, he realizes Morph hadn’t followed him out of his room, checking his pockets and starting back to his room quickly. When he gets there, though, Morph is trailing after Hailey, ignoring him when he calls after him.

His heart sinks. They were... all... leaving.

And it was just him.

James sinks to his knees, feeling tears fill his eyes. “Please... stay...”

But no one hears him.

[welcxmetxtheshxw]

Solo Para: Daddy, Love You More

The thing about typically being found in a theatre thanks to severe agoraphobia is that you don’t always notice when the sky briefly goes dark.

What Victoria DOES notice is that suddenly, somehow, her arms are bound to the chair she’s in in the house, and her waist and legs.

And then a spotlight on the stage lights itself in the darkness and her head shoots up, seeing... her dad. “Daddy?”

“Tori--” he starts, but cries out when suddenly, from the darkness, someone punches him in the gut, bringing him to the ground.

The lights come up more and she sees her. Victoria struggles against the restraints. “No, no leave him alone!”

Tayen doesn’t seem to hear her. “Rumor has it, Liam Adlon, that you ran one of the biggest refugee operation in the Hollow. The Blackbird operation.”

No. No this can’t be happening. Her father shakes his head. “I-- I didn’t--”

Tayen kicks him. He cries out and sinks to the floor. She rolls him over with her foot. “I want to know everything. Where did you send my subjects, Liam?”

“No,” Victoria says weakly. Her voice shakes. “No, no, it wasn’t him--”

But Tayen ignores her entirely, like she can’t even hear her. She grabs Liam by his shirt, pulling him up into her face. “I can make this far, far worse. You’d be smart to tell me what I need to know.”

“He doesn’t know anything!” Victoria yells. “It was me!”

But Tayen clearly can’t hear her. Liam shakes his head and Tayen cocks her head. “Very well. I suppose we can bleed you for the answers. We can start with removing one of your fingers, I’m not particularly in the mood to wait patiently.”

“NO!” Victoria screeches. “PLEASE, IT’S NOT HIM, IT’S ME, IT WAS ME! I RAN THAT OPERATION, I’M BLACKBIRD, LEAVE HIM ALONE, I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING, DON’T HURT HIM, PLEASE--”

And neither one acknowledges her as she continues to scream, plead and beg. She doesn’t understand. She just knows her dad is going to die up there.

Because he doesn’t know anything about what she did.

[untxld-stxries]

Solo: Sweet Dreams... (Celena)

The fairy looked up at the sky, giggling madly. Sunny sunshine... but not for long. She flitted past her team, her servants, her subjects, and straight down the path.

Nobody paid her any attention.

That was their first mistake.

Their second was not stopping her when she reached the castle.

Celena flew up to the top of the castle, to the highest point on the building, and looked down at the ants below her. Shameful. All of them. But they'd bow to her... she was sure of that.

She grabbed the large bag of black pixie dust, flying straight upward, then spun in a circle, flinging the dust as far as she could. It spread out around her, filling the sky and blacking out the sun before descending on the populace. Celena tilted her head back, closing her eyes and grinning as she felt it.

The nightmares. Glorious nightmares.

[nxtsojoyful]

Solo Para: And I Don’t Know What Path You’re On

The sky going dark even gives him pause, and Wynn turns away from the drums in the band room to cock his head at the window even as the light comes back. “What...?”

Shaking his head, he gets up and walks over to said window, grabbing his phone to text Ziva... when she texts him, instead. Where are you?

Band room Why

I need to talk to you. I’ll be there soon.

Thats not ominous

No response. Sighing, Wynn squints outside the window, trying to see if he can determine what happened out there. Maybe she’ll know something, he decides, going back to the drums.

He looks up when Ziva walks in, smiling just a bit. “Good timing. What’s up?”

“My mom’s pulling me from school here.”

Wynn freezes, dropping his drumsticks. “What?”

“She doesn’t like that my safety here is in so much question, that the staff don’t really do anything to prevent evil takeovers and stuff. She was debating it for a long time, I guess.”

“But there haven’t been any recent takeovers, everything’s been fine--!” Wynn gets up, going over to her.

“I know, but she doesn’t see it that way. She thinks you and Holly are bad influences and I could do better somewhere else.”

Wynn runs a hand through his hair. “But Ziva-- Ziva, you can’t leave, I need you here, I... I was just getting used to not...”

Being alone. She sighs and nods... hugging him, which is a bit unusual for them, but he accepts it, hugging her back. “Please don’t go.”

“I don’t have a choice, Wynn,” she shakes her head. “She’s already almost here. I just... thought you needed to know.”

“But... I don’t understand, why didn’t you tell me, we could have come up with something--” But he knows they couldn’t have, not really.

His best friend, his only friend, is leaving him. On his own, again.

And there’s nothing he can do about it.

[merbxtch]

Solo Para: Hold Tight

Holly flinches to herself when the sky goes dark. Seeing her mother fall asleep in the chair she’d pulled out.

Neptune looks confused in her arms. “Sissy? Wha happened?”

Holly smiles weakly, reaching up and fluffing his curls. “That was just a signal, buddy. Do you wanna help sissy with...” Hmm, he’s five, “A game?”

Neptune lights up. “Yeah!!”

Holly smiles. “I thought so.” She sets him on the bed beside her and gets up, walking to her desk and opening the top drawer, then getting into a dark wooden box with a lock, gently lifting the chain around her neck that dropped below her shirt collar to pull out the key, unlocking it and pulling out the small bags she and Sarah had worked hard to get finished in time, alongside the photos of her friends... the people who needed her protection.

Walking over, she helps him down off her bed and kneels down with him. “Okay, now, I want you to stand still and listen closely to me, buddy. The important part of this game is you have to be sneaky. If you hear ANYONE coming, even me, you have to hide so no one sees you. No giggles, either, this isn’t like hide and go seek, you need to be really, really quiet. If anyone sees you or finds you during your part of the game, the game will be over, and sissy will lose, okay?”

He nods solemnly. She nods and holds up the bags. “Your job is to sneak all around the school and find some of my friends who are playing with us. They’re going to be pretending to sleep, just like mommy is. I don’t want you to touch them or anything. I just want you to leave one of these with them. I made sure you have pictures of all my friends so you know who to leave bags with. This bag is their wake-up spell so they know to get up and come find me. Okay?”

He nods again. She thinks. “When you’re all done, I want you come back to my room. I might not be here anymore, but I want you to be out of the way for the next part of the game, because it’s a lot trickier and I don’t want you getting hurt. So you just come back to my room, I’ll put a fishy sticker on the door so you’ll know it’s mine. Okay?”

And he nods again. She nods and pulls off the key necklace entirely... remembering something she’d been shown, at just the last minute. A simple charm, that would help protect him.

An invisibility spell. She grabs her phone and opens the notes app, finding the thing she was looking for and nodding to herself. Crazy simple. Crazy enough to work.

When that’s done, she sets a hand on his shoulder and gently puts the necklace over him... watching him vanish right before her eyes, alongside the bags in his hands and the photos. Thank the gods.

“Okay, buddy, remember everything I said, but also keep that necklace on. It’s... so that if anybody accidentally wakes up when they’re not supposed to, they know what job you have in the game. You can take it off and put it on my desk when you’re all done with your part and you’re back here. Okay?”

She feels him nod against her hand. Smiling, she manages to approximate where his head is and kisses his forehead. “Okay, buddy. Go, go, quick now.” She opens the door for him and hears his little feet march out and down the hall in a quick run.

Sighing, she grabs the sheet of fish stickers he’d given her when he’d arrived this morning from her nightstand, walking back to the door and sticking one on the door at about his eye level before putting the stickers back on her nightstand, looking in the mirror and realizing she’d been crying. She sniffles and wipes her tears, quickly going to fix her makeup before her hair, heading out to find Celena.

Gods, keep her brother safe. That’s all she asks.

[nxtsoprincess]

Solo Para: I Was Almost Home

Shockingly, the sky briefly going dark is the least of Hannah’s concerns. Because it’s as simple as a blink.

And when her eyes open again, she’s acutely aware of the floor underneath her. She’s sitting on the floor. But it’s... too familiar a sensation.

The next thing she recognizes is her hair on her cheeks. Yes, she keeps her hair shoulder-length now, but... it never falls in her face like this. There’s too much, it’s too heavy... too long, it feels... but...

She shakes it out of her face by looking up, crying out at the ceiling above her.

Because she’d memorized every single line in it, etched every single detail and spot into it until she saw it when she was asleep.

Footsteps. Heavy ones. Bump. Bump. Bump.

No.

“Good morning to you, too, blondie.”

No.

She’s imagining it. She’s just not having a good day, she’s just flashing back. But he grabs her chin and forces her to look up at him and he’s real, it’s real, he can’t touch her in her flashbacks, he’s got her, he’s--

She never got away.

They never found her.

Mama, daddy-- she’d made it all up. She’d lied to herself, she’d never gotten out of here. Foolish blondie. Of course she hadn’t escaped.

No one was looking for her.

They thought she was dead.

Why would they be looking?

Hannah chokes as she starts sobbing, her head dropping the second he lets her go. No strength in her to hold herself up.

Because there’s no point.

She’ll never be strong enough. Never be enough. Never be found. Never. Never. Never. Never.