Keys To The Hearts

Chapter Eight

A moving black car came to a slow halt at the parking lot as Keyara made an adjust to her bag which presaged to fall off from her shoulder. Masking her face with a passive look to avoid any signs of tiresome, she moved her feet into lazy steps until she was right next to the back door of the car and pulled the handle.

"How was your first day, Keyara?" Mrs. Blythe questioned softly once Keyara shut the door, the rear mirror in the top front giving Keyara the full, clear view of the wrinkled smile and crinkled blue eyes of the older lady.

Keyara shrugged her shoulders half-heartedly, placing her bag next to her before she adjusted herself on the fabric seat.

First day of school exhausted her and she was looking forward for her room. She didn't attend the extra class since she wasn't used to her normal school period yet and texted Mrs. Blythe about that. Mrs. Blythe, being the kind woman, didn't question about it and just sent a couple of thumbs up emoji.

Keyara knew she couldn't miss extra classes therefore, she was going to apply her name into the art class after school tomorrow, no matter how much the devil on her shoulder told her to just skip school and run away.

Keyara couldn't do that, not after Mrs. Blythe and Renee had used an amount of money and energy on a person like her.

She felt the car picking up the speed and her eyes closed slowly, fatigue winning her in her fight to stay up and awake. She didn't want to sleep but as she expected, the loss of three day's sleep was catching up and before she knew it, a dark world had engulfed her into a land of fog.

Keyara breathed in slowly. Her eyes were closed, she had no sight to see.

But she could not stop the vision from appearing.

The black, thick fog hung around like marsh of suffocating brume, not allowing her to breath. Keyara didn't know where she was, what she was walking on, how she got there.

The gas hovered all over her making her unable to see, smell, touch, hear or taste.

Maybe she could do those, just painfully.

She could see, see a raging fire.

She could smell, smell some burning ashes.

She could touch, touch something hot and felt like sand.

She could hear, hear the painful cries and screams from someone.

She could taste, taste the burning, spicy mist over her tongue.

Inhaling some air, the air suddenly turned black and dark, heavy and muddy. It slowly glided into Keyara's mouth, molding into her throat then capturing her lungs as captive.

Choking, Keyara lifted her hands to her burning throat, wanting to breath but as slowly as it felt like, everything happened fast.

The dusk of smoke parted but it didn't reach her skin. Foggy hands appeared from the gas-like smoke, painfully, brutally reaching for Keyara as she dropped to her knees, coughing, desperately encouraging herself not to panic at the gas that entered her system.

She couldn't breath.

Her bluish gray eyes opened widely, the white surrounding the beautiful orbs waeving by threads of bolts of red. The tip of the red reached her eyes, blurring her vision into red instead of darkness.

Her skin burned, her mouth burned, her lungs burned, her throat burned, her eyes burned, everything burned.

Then a white feather, inked by droplets of thick, crimsom red, slowly dropped from the top, carried by the wind that still remained obscure, swaying right to left, left to right.