Rebirth

Chapter Two - Different Protocol

Chapter 2 - Different Protocol

Claws; they surround me; my heart pounds.  Shadows encircle around me, their eyes pierce through my skin like a sword pierces armour.  The air bears no smell; there is no wind, only darkness and the figures that watch overhead.  I lie on the floor, barely able to breathe.  As I manoeuvre my left hand slowly towards my body I can feel it gliding past a thick liquid substance.  I direct my hand above the liquid, but it follows. 

The substance left on my hand trails along my arm, its spreads; devouring my arm.  I struggle to fight against it; I convulse my entire body in effort to escape.  The shadows do nothing.  They watch as if trapped beyond glass.  Liquid begins to rise in tendrils around me, defying gravity, and continue to rise until they join directly above the centre of my chest.  Then the liquid falls, once again obeying gravity.  By now I have been completely covered by the substance, all except my face.

Then, all in an instant, the shadows attack with their mighty claws and jaws.  The sickly substance surrounds me enough to disable any resistance, and all I can manage to do is scream! I scream and scream until one incredibly dark shadow stands before my eyes, I gaze into the bright red and orange irises.  But then it growls a thunderous growl and all I see is its bloodied teeth.

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Screaming, I wake.  Fear spreads through my body as I forget where I am for the split second between sleep and reality.  My hands are clammy and I seem to have whacked my head on something during my surge of fear.  The fear goes away almost instantly when I smell my mother’s special Peppermint Pancakes.  Surprisingly peppermint goes extremely well with the delicious pancake treat.

As I rise from my bed I see Loki guarding my door. When I approach him he lolls his tongue at me and rolls over.  This makes me smile.  No matter what he feels he will always cheer you up but get affection at the same time.  So I give in and rub his belly while saying in high pitched voice ‘who’s a good boy then?’ After that, I attempt to straighten myself up; my knee however has a different opinion on that.  Collapsing on the floor I try to avoid the door but instead just end up hitting my dresser.  Instead of screaming like I would usually do I make a strange whimpering sound.  Pathetic! I snarl at myself.  Hearing me fall my mother charges into the room with panic painted all over her face.

“Dear God Atka! What have you done?”

“It’s my knee!” I protest with anguish.

“I thought it was healing” she states worryingly.

“Evidently not” I snarl.  Mother does not like that.  She explodes with anger.

“Atka Kaskae! How you dare speak to me like that!” Without apologizing I lift myself up.  She offers me my old crutches but I turn them down.  I smile though, suggesting an apology but not actually stating it.

“Why did you make Peppermint Pancakes?” I ask, pondering over what brought on such a treat.  My mother smiles softly.

“Because their your favourite and since you didn’t have such a good night I thought you could have an excellent breakfast.” That one sentence is just one reason why I love my mother.   Although I’m not sure she means the events of last night or my nightmares.  Nevertheless I limp to the kitchen with my mother guarding me like a mother bear and her cub.  Eventually I reach the stool where I always sit during breakfast.

We live in a bungalow.  Our family are not poor, but neither are we rich, among society we are the Middle class.  The Authorities never give families a house too big for their needs; which meant that when my brother moved out the Authorities made us move into a bungalow.  My brother’s name is Suka and I miss him sometimes, but there was nothing I could do when the Authorities decided to knock on our door one morning and take him away.  My father told me they took him because he had been accepted to join the armed forces specialist group, he told me to be proud and I was.  But when he never wrote to us or visited I had my suspicions; I still do.