Illicit Affairs(ONC2021)

Chapter Five

"How are we supposed to tell her?"

"I don't know! This was never supposed to happen."

"Fine. I'll tell her tonight, that way she has no chance to ask any questions."

Nina leaned closer to the door but was only able to catch the glimpse of black polished shoes and the hem of another's skirt.

"What are they talking about?" She whispered to herself.

"You, My Dear."

Nina jumped and spun around to meet her mother's bloody face. Her long finger was pointing inches from her face. Accusing.

"Moth-"

"We died, Sugar." Her dad was suddenly next to Marie-Ann, his finger pointing at Nina as well.

Her breath caught in her throat as she took in their appearance. Her mother's dress was torn and ripped and every piece of exposed skin was scratched and bloody. Her father's face was torn and ripped up, flaps of skin hanging in odd places exposing raw and flaming skin beneath. The more Nina looked at them the less they felt alive. 

But it couldn't be true.

"You're... you're not dead. You just left." She managed to squeak.

"No!" Marie-Ann's voice came out sharp and raspy, the way it did when Nina was being scolded. "You killed us. You should have been with us. We wouldn't have taken that shortcut."

"No, no, no... it's not my fault. I didn't mean to not come! I wanted to come!"

"But you didn't!" Her mother began screaming. "You didn't come!"

"You killed us, Adelina!" Her father yelled.

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Nina shot out of bed gasping. Her hair was damp and sticking to her face and shoulders in odd ways and her skin was clammy. In a cold sweat, she climbed out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom.

Slamming her hands onto the ceramic sink she looked at herself in the mirror. Disheveled and crazed-looking. She let her head dangle, feeling the weight of it in her shoulders.

"Breath," She thought. "It was just a dream."

Despite her reasoning Nina's breathes became more hitched, shallowing out until she felt like she was gasping for breath.

She couldn't breathe. She was shaking. Nina could only faintly feel when she had started crying, wet hot tears streaming down her face.

She ran to the balcony and fumbled with the latch.

"Fresh air," she said.

But it wasn't enough. The air was still and the world was too quiet. Where were the owls and the night creatures that are supposed to scurry around, buzzing with noise? The bars of the balcony felt like a cage and so easily Nina could picture herself as a dying bird, trapped within herself.

Outside. She decided she needed to be outside. Now. 

She scanned the garden below her, frantically. She could just see the beginnings of a grove at the far side of the closed-in area. Desperation made her queasy so she bolted.

Barely avoiding a collision with the door Nina managed to escape her room. She ran down the hallway, barely noticing any of the paintings or drapery she found solace in before. She remembered seeing two large glass doors leading to what looked like the garden on her initial arrival. That was all she needed. Those doors. The outside. Freedom.