Gehenna's Gate

Without You

Vena flinched awake, body shooting straight into a sitting position as her hand flung to her heart, the pace nauseatingly quick.

A cold sweat clung to her skin, her eyes scanning the room frantically before realizing her current surroundings.

Exhaling deeply, the girl tried to steady her breathing as she closed her eyes, trying to ground herself.

Her dreams were always so vivid, so real that she couldn't usually tell them apart from reality, and that one was a reoccurring and haunting one she'd had many times before, yet every time felt like the first, forced to relive the nightmare over and over again.

After her breathing was a little more steady and her pulse somewhat normal, she threw the covers from her body, deciding it was time to ditch school again and go for some much needed alone time doing something in the city.

It didn't take her long to get ready, deciding to just dress very casually since she didn't plan on running into any familiar faces today.

Black leggings, a hoodie and her black running shoes would have to be enough, although she did take the time to draw on her usual winged eyeliner and fake lashes. She pulled her hair into a messy bun on the top of her head, feeling the anxiety and panic swirling in the pit of her stomach and longer she took.

The urge to leave was almost suffocating, making her skin crawl the longer she took, almost causing her to run out the door without her cell phone.

She silenced the device before shoving it into the pocket of her hoodie snatching her keys from the counter, saying a quick goodbye to Patch before heading out the door.

Where was she headed? She didn't even know yet. All she knew was she needed a change of scenery, something different, something spur of the moment to distract her from her own mind.

In her rush, she'd just started mindlessly walking, not even bothering to use her car since she didn't even know where she wanted to go in the first place.

For a while, Vena stayed like this, simply walking around with no real direction or destination, simply humming along to her playlist as it shuffled through countless songs, steadily causing that claustrophobic panic to disperse as her muscles began to relax.

The library? Fuck it. Maybe I'll find a new book to read.

Turning, the girl decided to head into the nearby parking garage near the town library, trying to maybe plan where she'd like to go next after looking around for a new book.

The place was so quiet during the earlier hours of the morning, probably because everyone was at work or school. Vena took her time, even browsing through the genres of books she didn't like, just silently admiring the art and covers, reading the unique names and filling her mind with any stimuli that could keep her distracted.

Eventually she'd wandered into her usual section- the fantasy books that allowed her imagination to run wild, stories limitless and forever entertaining. The possibilities were endless, and maybe that's what she liked so much about them. Each one could be completely different, come up with whatever they wanted, leaving every storyline fresh and unpredictable.

There were so many- vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches, post-apocalyptic worlds or even cyberpunk type ones. Ghosts, ghouls, demons and angels, countless more, whatever your mind could dream up.