Tainted Skin, Tainted Sin

Chapter 2

She could see Dave's mouth moving as he avoided making eye contact or looking at her, while Michael stared at her with remorse and sadness, but she couldn't move. She couldn't hear them as they tried to explain in further detail what had happened and what they were doing to help her.

All she could think about was her mother. She had lost her mother when she was seven, and now 16 years later she lost her dad too. Her parents were gone.

Why didn't I see it on their faces? Why didn't I piece it together? Why can't I breathe?

She tries to breathe, tries to take a deep breath in, but her heart is racing, she can't. She sees them realize she wasn't listening as they move towards her, but it didn't do anything to stop her vision from going black. Didn't do anything to stop her as she slid off her chair and onto the ground. But she didn't feel the impact, she couldn't feel anything, couldn't see anything, she had melted into the void of darkness, away from the rest of the world.

Her eyes flutter open as she blinks against the light peeking in from the curtains. Once her eyes adjust, she looks around. She was in her own room.

How did I get here? Was it just a dream? Please let it have been just a dream...

Kyra lays there for a minute, she just didn't have the willpower to get up. Scared it wasn't a dream. Scared it was real and that she now had to deal with the reality that her dad was dead.

Her shoulders shake as the tears pool in her eyes. She squeezes her eyes closed as the sobs wrack her body. She tries to cover her mouth to stop the sobs from escaping her, but even that couldn't muffle the heart-wrenching sound coming out of her as she felt her heart physically hurting. She couldn't move. She couldn't stop the pain. She could feel her heart squeeze, like someone had a hold of her heart, squeezing tighter and tighter the more she cried.

It couldn't have been more than an hour that she laid there crying, but it was enough that she tired herself out and cried herself to sleep because when she next opened her eyes, it was dark out. Kyra felt limp, no energy to even move her finger like she was a shell of a person. As much as she wanted to, no more tears would form in her tired brown eyes. So, instead, she laid there motionless.

It wasn't until she heard movement outside her door that she became mentally conscious. She turns her head to look at her door, a new surge of energy washed over her as her heart leapt.

Was he alive!? Was it just a dream?!

Without thinking, she rolls off of the couch she was laying on in her room and drags herself to her door. Practically tripping over herself as she tried to stand and stumbles out her door in a rush. The lights were on in the kitchen and someone was rustling around in what sounded like someone making food. The tears spring into her eyes as she pushes against the walls and forces herself to move.

Faster! Faster! I have to move faster!

She pushes herself.

Feeling like those days she rushed home the weeks after her mother died, hoping to rush in and her mom be there in the kitchen or her room or just somewhere in the house. She ran up the stairs to the apartment every day for weeks before she realized her mother was never coming back.

With those thoughts in her head, she pauses momentarily before rounding the corner to the kitchen.

I don't care. He HAS to be here...

She takes a breath before pushing herself around the corner and taking three quick steps to stand in the opening leading to the kitchen, "D-dad?"

Pausing at the entrance, "Daddy?"