"They say we are asleep until we fall in love
We are children of dust and ashes
But when we fall in love we wake up
And we are a god and angels weep
But if I die here tonight
I die in my sleep"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Benicia walked into her apartment after sitting in her car for hours. She threw her keys onto the table and shook her head. She took her glasses off and cleaned them with the edge of her shirt. She glanced down at her clothes and saw the blood. She whimpered out and started to tear her clothes off. She gasped loudly and threw it to the ground. She kicked off her shoes and rushed into her bathroom. She grabbed one of the hand towels and started to scrub at her skin to get rid of the blood.
She threw the towel across the room and grabbed the edge of the sink. Benicia released a sob and leaned down until her forehead was pressed against the sink spout. She forced herself to push up and look at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot and her skin around it was red. She shut her eyes tightly as she suddenly saw her infrared frame. Benicia cleared her throat and backed away. She slowly walked out of her bathroom and picked her glasses off of the counter.
Benicia was about to walk into her room when she suddenly saw something on her kitchen table. She rubbed her nose and walked over to it. She grabbed the stem and raised it up in the air. From a distance, Benicia had assumed it was a real sunflower until she touched it. It was a fake one. She huffed out a sad laugh and picked up the note beside it.
I'm alive.
That's all that was written but that was enough for Benicia. She thought he wouldn't tell her anything or that he had actually died. She didn't know what to assume anymore but slowly she just started to assume the worst.
Benicia took the sunflower with her to her room and set it down on her nightstand. She crawled onto her bed and stared blankly at the wall. And without even realizing it, Benicia was crying. She knew she was drained and tired. She knew it wasn't her fault but she still blamed herself for the loss of her coworkers. She felt like it was happening all over again.
She wiped at her nose before pulling her blanket over her body. Benicia set her glasses down beside the sunflower and stared directly at it. The blurry image and the after effect of heat surrounding the objects. Benicia just stared at it without blinking before she finally passed out.
"Please don't."
"I'm sorry."
"I didn't-I didn't do it."
"It wasn't me. I couldn't stop."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
Benicia let out a cry as she suddenly woke up in her bed. She backed up against the headrest until and covered her face as she tried to control her breathing. She hadn't had a nightmare for a long time. She furrowed her brows and looked over to the window. There was barely any light outside, which meant she barely had any sleep in the first place.
