Abyssal Reverie

Chapter 8: Descending

 "I asked and you answered."

"Don't touch her." His hands were wild, gripping me with such force I could feel his finger nails digging into my skin. "DON'T. TOUCH. HER." He began slamming my back against the hard wood floor. Shaking, slamming, scratching.

'Vessel, stop!" I pleaded with him. "VESSEL, WAKE UP!" I wiggled my hands loose from under me where they had gotten pinned; Reaching for something- anything to use to get him off of me. "VESSEL." I swallowed once more to push the bile down further, pleading with my body not to throw up. He was viciously attacking me, the limbs around me flying faster than my eyes could process the movements. I was going to die. He was going to kill me.

His hands moved up my arms, to my throat. "ASTRID, Please." His voice was hoarse, he sounded so far away. There was pressure building in my head. I had to get him off of me. It was almost in a flash, I brought my knee between his legs, shoving into him as hard as I could. As soon as I made contact with the most sensitive part of him He rolled off of me. Cupping himself, a whimpering all that was left.

I took deep breaths, the panic of my body pushing me over the edge. I rolled onto my side and vomited all of my breakfast onto the floor. I wretched, the pain in my chest subsiding with each heave.

"Se...." Vessel sounded as though he was under water. "Selah!" He raced over to me, I could feel his hands on the small of my back. My head was pounding as I continued to gag, everything in my stomach now on the floor in front of me. I couldn't breath. I could feel each breath littered with panic... no relief from the moments I was with out oxygen. "Selah, what happened?" I coughed hard, the last bit of bile joining the foamy puddle on the floor. I prayed that was it... Laying my head on the cool wood in hopes of some reprieve from the events I just suffered. The world felt fuzzy, my body aching under the stress of what just happened.

Vessel kept his hands on my back, swirling small circles. He hadn't said anything in a moment, allowing me to catch my breath. When I was finally done heaving up the last of my insides, I rolled onto my back. My neck was throbbing, the few moments he had his hands clasped there tightly still vividly imprinted into my memories. My hands reaching to where Vessels had been, cupping the tender flesh. I could feel tears streaming down my face.

"Selah, Can you sit up?" The sorrow in each word tugging at my heart. The pain deep within myself, the call that drug me here, swirling. "Can you please try?" Taking a deep breath, the cramp in my ribs aching, I braced my hands on either side of myself to give me moment forward. The air smelled vile, the sick next to me heating the space. My head was spinning, snot running down my face meeting the tears in a sick dance of suffering.

One moment I was on the ground, the next I wasn't. I could feel Vessel wrap his arms around me, pulling me into his chest as he walked me to his bed. My head was swimming, thoughts jumbled messes against the confines of my mind. The pressure that was in my head dissipated, leaving a tiredness unlike anything I had yet to experience. My eye lids grew heavy, pulling me deep inside of myself. The longing for sleep calling me. And then... Nothing.

☆~☆

"He just... He won't stop crying." My moms voice was filled with frustration, sorrow, desperation. "I don't know how to get him to stop." The plea in her voice told me all I needed to know. "It's okay Seraphina. We will figure it out." My fathers voice was always one that stood out against the rest his soft lilt was uncommon in this part of the continent. "Cecil is just different from Selah. He isn't anything we can't handle."

My mother sobbed, my brother latched onto her breast, the tears streaming from her face landing on his. "I don't want to do this anymore, Ezra." She unlatched my brother from her breast and handed him to my father. My brother wailed as she walked away from them both. Tears streaming down their faces.