Never ownED myself

Murky waters

This is raw imagination. Hehe. I think I did good though.

Quote time:
"Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you." – Misty Copeland.

»•» 🌸 «•« Annie »•» 🌸 «•«

A voice pulled her ear upward. The voice was thin. Fraying. Yet, it caught in her chest and tugged, not enough to guide her, just enough to hurt and to wake her. Annie tried to turn toward the sound. The effort stalled halfway through her neck.

Something tightened around her ankle.
She inhaled sharply. The dark wasn't empty. It pressed back.

The ground had texture. It was fibrous, uneven. When she shifted, it shifted with her. Her wrist brushed against it. Cold. Rough. It clung, tightening as if it had been waiting.

"Wait," she said. The word felt wrong in her mouth.

She pulled her arm free. Pain flared through her shoulder, sharp and quick. The vines reacted immediately, sliding higher, wrapping tighter. Her calf, her knee, her thigh. Each movement drew more of them in.

The voice came again. Closer. Maybe. Or fading.
"What did you say? Who are you? Where are you?"

Annie dragged herself forward. The vines pulled her back. They didn't yank. They weighed. Steady. Patient. The pressure settled over her ribs, then her chest, sinking into her lungs. Her breathing shortened. Voices in her head covered the voice from the outside world. It was loud in her head.

"It's pointless." The voices said.

The thought slid in quietly, not fully formed. It didn't feel like hers.
She shook her head. The motion blurred her vision. Her eyesight flickered, then dark, then light again.

Heat bloomed behind her eyes.
"Keep talking," she whispered. "Please. I have something to do. What was I supposed to do already?"

Her hands clawed at the vines. They bit into her palms, rougher now, unyielding. Her grip slipped. Her fingers burned. The more she struggled, the heavier they became.

"Why are you still trying?" The voices replied.

The question pressed down with the weight. Her arms trembled. Her legs went numb, fading from her awareness. The vines crept higher, coiling around her waist, her shoulders, pinning her in place.

"True. Why am I Trying?"
The recognition surfaced without comfort. The thought spread, fogging the edges of her mind.

"Leah." The exterior voice said.
The name hit hard. Laughter followed. The voices inside her were covering the message meant for her.

Faces. The void wasn't all dark anymore. The vines had faces. They leaned in, distorted. Annie cried out and lost her grip completely.

More vines surged. They wrapped her tighter, pulling her back to where she had started. Her spine bowed under the pressure. Her chest struggled to rise. Each breath took more effort than the last.

"You can't win this." The voices said.

Her thoughts slowed. The fog thickened. The need to move dulled, then softened into something quieter. Her arms slackened. The burn in her palms faded to numbness.
The voice thinned.

"Please," she tried again, but the word barely formed.

The pressure in her head spiked, then eased, leaving only heaviness behind. Her body sank fully into the vines, held, cradled, restrained. The dark closed in.
The sound slipped away. Annie stopped fighting.