TEYSAN: The Rise of Rosie (PAUSED)

Cope

~Blake~

"Blake honey, it's time for dinner." my mother called softly behind my door. I rolled my eyes and pulled my covers over my head. "Blake, I'm serious. Your fathers going to be very upset if-"

"Let him come." I responded through the door. There was a pause before I heard the sound of retreating footsteps on the creaky floor.

I closed my eyes in an attempt to escape this world by sleep, but as my mother said, my father came knocking.

"Blake, we are having a family dinner and you must attend," he demanded in a low voice.

"And what are you gonna do if I don't?" I retorted. He mumbled something, but I couldn't hear him through the door. So I stood from my bed and opened the door. "Sorry, I couldn't hear you." I sassed to his face.

"Blake, come downstairs." he demanded.

"No, I wanna hear what you said." I retorted with my arms crossed, but he didn't respond. "What? You didn't have a problem yelling and punishing me before Blair came home." I said a little too loudly for his liking.

"Quiet down." he said through gritted teeth.

"Or wha-" I started but I was cut off by the feeling of a hand hitting my face. The slap resonated throughout the whole top floor, leaving a deafening silence afterward. He opened his mouth to speak again, but I slammed the door hard in his face to cut him off. If the slap couldn't be heard from downstairs, then that definitely could.

I rubbed my stinging cheek as I locked my door and headed toward the window. I could feel the tears stinging in my eyes, but I blinked them away before they could fall.

I pulled my window open, allowing the cold autumn air flow into my room. I contemplated trying to jump out in order to escape, but my room was on the second floor and below was the pavement of the driveway. In the past, I was able to escape by getting on the roof and jumping down at a lower portion, but ever since the incident I've been too scared to.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before sticking my head out of the window. When I opened my eyes, I was paralyzed with fear as the pavement below seemed to get farther and farther away. My heart was beating hard in my ears as flash backs of me dangling from the bell tower played through my mind. I quickly threw myself back into the room and slammed my window closed before cowering on the floor next to my bed.

I shook violently as tears fell from my eyes. Every time I closed my eyes to sleep, I was falling. Falling from 300 feet in the air with the pavement rushing toward me faster than my brain could comprehend. I plummet to the ground, but I can't scream; I'm too paralyzed with fear as death comes ever closer. I fall and I fall and I fall— faster than a rock thrown in the ocean, but the ground comes slow as if I were a feather floating through air.

The wind whipping past my face tells me I'm going fast, but time moves slow as I realize my inevitable doom. My brain is so focused on what is going to happen and how bad it's going to hurt, that it happens sooner than expected. So caught up in the future pain that I will be in, that I lose track of the present, and when the ground does hit me, it hurts twice as much.

Except I never hit the ground, I never experienced the pain, but somehow as I relive it every night, it hurts more each time.

"Blake?" A voice resonated through the door. It shook me from my nightmare, allowing me to wipe my eyes dry and stand up from the floor.

The door knob jiggled as she tried to open it, but she realized it was locked pretty quickly.

"Blake, please just let me in." she pleaded.