Trapped |Jake Sim|

7

Jake felt disoriented, as if he had gone through the trippiest of fever dreams.

He sat up on the floor as he looked around, trying to catch his breath, and wiping his tears.

He wondered when or how he had ended up laying there on the floor, and thought back to the receipt that the bartender had given him.

"You." He recited the word in confusion. "I knew Sonny?... I know Sonny. No, I don't. I had never seen her in my life."

He gripped his head as he brought his knees to his chest, closing his eyes and trying to think.

"Jake."

"Shut up."

"Jake."

"Shut up! Shut it! I need to think!" He screamed as he covered his ears, hearing Sonny's voice calling out to him as if she had always been there.

He tried to keep himself calm as he slightly rocked in his spot, taking his hands off his ears, but still not opening his eyes.

"Jake, you need to look at me. See me, Jake."

"I don't know what's happening." His voice broke as he contained his sobs. "I don't know you. I don't know who you are. I've never seen you in my life."

"See me, Jake." Her voice was soft and sweet, and almost echoed through his ears. "You still need to see me. I need you to see me. Help me."

Jake tried to take in a couple of breaths, before opening his eyes to nothing.

"You told me to see you." He whispered softly, feeling angry for a reason that was unknown to him. "You told me you need me to see you, Sonny. Where the hell are you? Why do you do this to me?"

Jake felt so many emotions that he didn't know he had or why he had them. After that receipt, in a span of what he thinks is a few minutes, Sonny's name became the route to pain, suffering and anger. But he still didn't know why.

"Sonny!" He called out to her, but she still didn't show, and he placed his head to his hands again, this time in frustration.

"Jake."

"What do you want from me?! Why do you keep playing with my feelings Sonny?!"

He was tired of hearing her but not seeing her or seeing her but not hearing her. He was tired of her not hearing him. Not seeing him.

He was tired of being disconnected from her.

"Jake." She said his name gently, and he could only hear it in his ear like a soft whisper, but he deeply knew that she currently wasn't there. "Calm down. Just breath, Jake. Follow my voice."

He stood up from the floor, still sobbing, but he still listened intently for her instructions.

"Over here." Her voice resonated and his feet took him to the bathroom.

"In here." She said, seemingly behind the curtain of the bathtub. "Close the door and then come here."

Jake didn't think much before doing as she said, closing the door, and then opening the curtain.

The tub was full to the brim with cold water, and he didn't have time to wonder how it got there, before he got in fully clothed, for some reason knowing what to do, closing his eyes as he lay his head back in the water, just enough to cover his ears.

"Breath, Jake. In and out." She instructed in his ears only, and he could hear her as if his ears weren't under water.

He let out a shaky breath, focusing on the sounds surrounding him, and the density that made him focus on the pattern that his chest was going.