Secrets

Cold and Broken

Thorne

Consciousness prevailed in its battle to win my mind. My head rolled as I awoke. I wasn't sure of how long I'd been unconscious, it could have been minutes, hours, or even days. I was stiff. 

There was a frightening silence, it raised goose bumps on my exposed neck, hands and wrists. I noticed the stale, cold air, it felt foul as it passed through my nostrils. 

Though I wasn't fully awake, I was conscious of my position, it hurt. My back lay flat against what felt like cold, hard stone and my waist was twisted so that my left hip also touched the unwelcoming ground. My arms were placed randomly, my right roughly thrown across my breast and my left, bent awkwardly under my back. I felt as though I had been thrown from a building, clearly I had been disrespected greatly durian my unconsciousness. Everything hurt. 

Celeste... I thought; the demon girl must have dropped me after throwing me into the air. 

My mind raced back to the scene that had lead to my current position, me, suspended within invisible bonds, Celeste, madly laughing whilst she attempted to ward off the waitress, and Sebastian. Though I was still totally unforgiving of him, I hoped he was ok. 

Suddenly realising that I might still be in danger, I opened my eyes; however they did not seem to follow my command, for the darkness still lingered. I thought that maybe I was still asleep, in some sort of lucid dream, or had a concussion. However it took me a moment to realise that my eyes were open, it was in fact the space that I was in that was as black as pitch and dark as closed lids. I listened, still the silence haunted me. It was like both my sight and hearing had abandoned me, and I was left with an aching body, a fowl smell up my nose and a metallic taste in my mouth, possibly blood.

The silence was broken by my shifting into a more comfortable position, the buttons on the cuff of my cardigan scraping against the floor as I pulled my arm out from underneath me and stretched. I was shocked when a bolt of lightning pain radiated from my left elbow, immediately and involuntarily I out a piercing screech that echoed as if in a horror movie. Apparently I was in a room, or at least some sort of closed empty space, not that I had taken much notice, my head was dizzy with pain. Promptly, I shuffled into a sitting position and placed my invisible, injured limb on my invisible lap. A crippling throb persisted in thwarting my attempts to focus; the focus on my eyes was constantly changing as I entered a haze whirl. Another involuntary sound, a groan, passed through my throat as I tried to zone back in and resist the physical torture being inflicted on my arm. Eventually, I managed gain enough clear headedness, though it wasn't much, to evaluate the extent of the damage. I ran my fingers lightly along my skin, and immediately I could feel a large swelling located around my elbow. Trails of fizzy pins and needles were left on my skin in the stead of my strokes but deeper in my flesh, the throb continued to faze me.

My arm was heavy and tender, and had swollen to at least twice its normal size. Trying to move my forearm was impossible and caused even more unimaginable pain; at least I knew what was wrong. When I was fifteen, which was only about two years ago, I had smashed the socket in my elbow by falling off of some scaffolding, I was trying to impress Sebastian. Parts of the bones and cartilage had shattered. I had been told that the bones would have taken a very long time to heal; they needed to be repositioned and would never be as strong as they were before. They would have put metal pins in it but decided not as I was young and still growing. Obviously the doctor must have been right to some extent, because the bones had broken again in exactly the same place... However, I had always healed quite quickly, so I was right as rain again within two short weeks. That made me more worried; if I'm going to be stuck here for a while, I thought, I might as well be crippled in my arm forever. 

I shuffled around on the spot to get a good look at my surroundings; however everything was as black as before, I wouldn't have been able to see my hand even if I held it within inches of my eyes.

With the most extreme care, I removed my cardigan, extracting my bad elbow from my sleeve like I was handling delicate, paper thin glass that tortured me if it were to be damage... Not that my arm wasn't already damaged. I shivered as cold air enveloped the newly uncovered flesh. Gently and with one hand, I placed the item over my lap and other arm, felt for the sleeves and began the tedious task of tying them together. It took me a long while, quite how long I do not know but eventually I managed to comprise a sturdy triple not without being able to see and only using one hand. I was quite proud of myself for the accomplishment.

With my good hand, I threw the cardigan over my head, so that the bound sleeves wrapped around my shoulders and the majority of the item hung down over my front. It was a makeshift sling. Another outbreak of tormenting pain engulfed me as I picked up my tortured limb and placed it within the sling. With a few deep breaths, I managed to muster up the strength to push myself up, and stand.

My ankle was in incredible pain as well, but it was only a sprain at worst, so I soldiered up and began to walk. My aim was to scout the room, and I soon reached an invisible wall, which gave me another nasty bruise on my head as I collided with it. Using it as some sort of safeguard, though it offered me none, I questioned the silence.

"Hello?" I asked. My reply was just an echo, it was creepy and dreary. There was no conscious answer to my call, several more times I whispered into the darkness but all with the same result. Confident in the fact that I was alone, I set to finding some sort of door or window.  

"I have to escape..." I thought out loud. I walked cautiously, keeping my side up against the wall so that I didn't lose it in my search. I used my good hand to feel along the vertical surface, I tried looking for some sort of opening for me to find a way to escape. 

After 20 minutes, I had managed to scout the room more than several times; by that time I knew that every wall was exactly sixteen and a half paces long, there were no windows and no door fame. It was completely sealed, save for the ceiling, which I had not searched. 

I was on the brink of giving up when my first finger brushed a notch in the wall. My stomach dropped as I franticly attempted to explore it, hope sparking up and flaring in my chest. The dent turned out to be at least an inch deep, and two inches square in width, but that didn't discourage me. Flakes of stone and small fragments of rubble were falling free as I teased the gap. I pulled out my sketching pencil from my blouse pocket, I always carried it around, just in case, though I didn't expect to be using my favourite pencil to pick at a hole in the wall. I used the end to scrape at the loose material I eventually achieved my goal. The pressure in the end of my pencil was suddenly released as it glided into empty space. An angelic beam of white light shot through the miniscule gap that had been produced in the concrete. A nervous laugh escaped my throat as I tried to steady my shaking hand and extend the gap. 

But my hopes were crushed as an eery, whisper echoed through the darkness. 

"Tut tut, you naughty little girl!" I whipped around, my back against the wall and the stream of light illuminating the face of every child's nightmare. Celeste took a step forwards, her black eyes reflecting the white light. 

"So rude as to attempt to flea my company, very rude indeed. I think I may have to introduce you to one of my friends... I don't have time to punish you myself, I have angels to hunt." She taunted, terrifyingly with a demonic, pointed grin. I stood up straight and attempted to make myself look bigger. 

"You lay one finger on Aurora or any of my friends and I swear I'll... I'll-" 

"You'll what exactly? Don't be silly, you haven't the faintest idea now have you? You don't even know what you are, let alone what I am or what is going on. But you will soon, you and your friends will make excellent additions to our forces. Master will be pleased..." She laughed and suddenly seemed to fade, merging with the darkness as black smoke. Her voiced echoed once more; "You won't be alone for much longer." And then she was gone. 

I stood, frozen for a bit, doubting that i'd never get over how haunting the image of the girl with pointed teeth and midnight hair like rats' tails. She would rule my dreams and destroy my fantasies. 

Eventually I turned and studied the hole in the wall. It was a pencil width wide at its smallest diameter and was a good four inches deep. The light that came though was at an angle and eventually came into contact with the ground at a shallow gradient. I sighed and turned to find somewhere to rest. Eventually I settled for the left hand corner, farthest from the light. I sank into it, caressing my injured arm and wept silently.