Reverence - Book 2

- 22 -

"And light, and light, hands Yelena! Hands! Reach up!" 

I reached hopefully up, the twitch of my fingers softly caressing, gritting Ingrid ceaselessly. 

We had been burring at this coda for a week now, my calves wretched from the hours of turning and turning. 

Burning and burning. 

I had been keen enough to this torment before, Ingrid's insatiable palette for perfection hungrily devouring me and all those who puttered carefully across her studio. She would chew you up and lazily digest you as you blood dripped from her jowls. 

I felt the weakening of my legs as I came through the 3rd execution of my turn. The sun had long since settled and I could feel the day setting on me. 

"Again, those can be much sharper." 

She cut, tapping annoyingly against her clip board. 

My shoulders heaved, and I swallowed a dry breath. 

"I need a moment, please." 

I sighed, sweeping fine sweat from my brow. 

"Five more, then you can rest." 

She signaled to the percussion and that god damned symphony rang through the quiet room. I was a step behind already, and I leapt into the movement. 

I knew the turn felt wrong. It was stiff and my body resisted the inert force. I stumbled from the spiral and steadied myself against the mirror, my fingers smudging helplessly. 

"Finish." 

She was cold, eyes boring into my chest. 

In a push of effort, I felt myself roll softly onto the toe of my shoe. It was so easy, the languid movement of my joints. 

Like angels regaling, I turned to the sweetest sashay of violins silver strings. 

But what was that? It was sharp, radiating from the ground up. Hot and fervent, almost like the waking of a limb that was held captivated by the numbness of sleep. 

The music was louder to me, rushing up against my face. It was fast and coming hard like me to the - 

To the floor. 

That wailing music was not angels, it was piercing defiantly in my ears. White, cascading halo's set in my eyes. They warbled and flounced. 

I rolled to my side, gasping at the surmounting fire that ravaged up my leg. 

Through those deceptive lakes of white, I could see the grotesque right turn of my foot. 

Shock was a confusing thing. 

The pain wasn't pain, it was white hot numbness seeping into my blood stream. I wasn't nauseas from the displacement of my bone, It was from where my elbow had braced my crash. 

"Do not move." 

Ingrid said, the calmness of her voice shaking. Her careful hands touched my swelling calf and I bellowed, a slithering rash of pain tearing from my lips. 

"FUCK." 

"It's dislocated Yelena." 

I pulled my leg defensively back into me, my head lolling from the aggressive wave of sick that turmoiled in my stomach. 

"Leave it. Leave it please." 

She shook her head. 

"We can't leave it baby." 

She motioned for others, assuring hands coming to my back. 

"Get behind her. I need to reset it." 

I felt hands come around my ribs, a hard chest bracing into my back. I shook my head violently. 

"NO, don't. Just take me to the hospital." 

"We can't move you when it's like this." 

I met Ingrid's steely eyes. 

"On three Yelena. Breathe." 

My chest filled with a tearful breath. 

"One..." 

The reverberating snap of my ankle back into place sent shockwaves through the floor. My bones. 

The sickness was gone, but the impending darkness of unconsciousness steamed forward, dark clouds looming precariously over me. 

"Yelena," 

Her voice was murky. 

"Keep your eyes open." 

Was I sinking? 

"Your eyes," 

I felt my back rest against the floor. My body was floating, suspended in those tranquil white lakes. 

I hadn't been in this place in so long. Not since flames reached expectantly towards a full silver moon and the ruins of what was once my home burned to cinders. 

I felt those calm hands of nothing close over my eyes, it's warm lips drawing soft awful breaths into my lungs. 

And softly I slipped into the great breadth of painful unconsciousness.