𝙲 𝙷 𝙴 𝚁 𝚁 𝚈

23

FRIDAY

09:12AM

SANTA CARLA 

IS THIS WHAT I'VE BEEN MISSING?

My breathing is heavy, arms pulled tightly around my upper body in an attempt to conceal any fragment of warmth that my body may provide to me, though perhaps it was still running cold from the events that unravelled within the night. Despite having had a charitable amount of sleep, my legs ache beneath me as they carry me the few miles that I have walked in order to get away from the cave, although without a justifiable explanation, a part of me didn't want to leave. Almost as though a thin, invisible thread is tugging back in their direction. I bite my tongue and shake my head angrily. I have no reason to desire their company. I barely know them.

And you watched them slaughter an entire group of people last night.

The rubber soles of my shoes imbed in the last of the sand before finally stepping a foot onto the board walk. It's a ghost town, almost literally. Silence is the only solitude gifted to me in this moment, and a piercing ache thuds over my skull and behind my right eye, reminding me of the possible with-drawal of my medication.

There are a few things I now know about Santa Carla; the people here are strange. No one person is alike. From bulimic teenagers, trouble making goths and untamed children to creatures of the night and murderers. Though, perhaps I should have thought my getaway plan through a little more thoroughly. I suppose they call it the murder capital of the world for a reason.

I swivel to the left and make an exit for the road towards Lucy's place. The street winds over the hill like a carelessly discarded belt, grey and cracked with age and sun. My hands shake, my grip tightening into a knuckle whitening hold over my checked jacket. There was no sign of the boys this morning and I had taken the opportunity to get out of there as soon as possible, though I feel there is no doubt that they will try to find me by night fall, though I plan to be long gone by then. What am I to do? Call the police? I hardly feel they'd be capable of doing much. They'd have done something a long time ago.

Wouldn't they?

I know what they are, but the very word already sounds a ridicule just imagining it slip from my tongue. The feeling of my heartbeat thudding against my skull grows more unbearable. It sounds in my ears louder and louder with every fall of my foot, and I forcefully heave in a breath through my tightening throat. 

Please, not now. 

A numbness spreads over the lower half of my face and up to my eyes, blotches of black sparkling in my field of vision and narrowing my sight. As I finally reach the aged wooden gate at the open of the garden, I almost fall forward. I'm hyperventilating now, and despite my first priority being to survive the walk to the attic bedroom, I can't help but think of the only person who knows how to soothe me.

You can't get her involved with this.

The front door is unlocked, a poor choice for living in Santa Carla, and I tumble inside steadily, trying not to make a sound. Although despite my luck sneaking away undetected this morning, the universe is not quite on my side in this moment.

"Ah, good morning. Would you like some eggs?" I hear Lucy's voice coo from in the direction of the open kitchen, though when she finally catches a glimpse of me, she appears concerned, "Are you okay?"

I nod my head furiously and head in the direction of the stairs. Hands clasping the corners of the walls for stability. The staircase somehow seems longer, taller even, and Sam rounds the corner with a beat up Walkman snug on his head. For a moment, he doesn't see me, his eyes briefly closed as childishly bounces on the balls of his feet, sparring the empty air around him.

He sees me, "The hell's up with you? Get attacked by vampires or somethin'?"

His brows curl upwards, delivering me an all too knowing luck. I grasp tighter onto the know of the bannister when I reach the top.

"Mom, the new girls freaking me out!"

"Sam, be nice!" Lucy calls from behind me, and only now do I realise that she has has a grasp beneath my shoulders and waist.

"I need my medication." I heave outwards, the words seeming much harder to spit out than they should.

"Sam, go get her bag!"

I shake my head but my response doesn't come as easily as the latter. Sam charges up the second flight of stairs.

"I ran out."

I fall to the top of the stairs and pull my knees into my chest in an attempt to hold back tears. I can't cry in front of these people.

"You're okay, honey. You're going to be okay. I'm here." Lucy tells me, and whatever ounce of willpower I have left comes crumbling down.

The tears fall freely, and I let out a pained wail.

"What is this racket?" The old man of the house rounds the bottom of the stairs case and glances up at me, "Oh no, is this women stuff? Is it that time of month already? Are my double stuff oreo cookies safe?"

"Dad!" Lucy exclaims, "It's just a panic attack!"

Her father raises his brows, almost knowingly, "Oh..."

I swallow back my cries.

"Ah. Well actually...I think I have just the thing for that." He wonders off into the open kitchen and opens the cuboard beneath the work top.

He shuffles around for a moment, the light sound of clinging audible from my hostile position above the stairs. He turns back around with a thick, half empty bottle of brown liquid and pops the lid, taking a deep, closed eyed wiff.

"Kentucky owl bourbon. Does the trick every time."

"Dad! It's ten in the morning!"

"It's nine o'clock somewhere." He smiles back up at her.

"Can I get some of that Grandpa?" Sam asks from behind me.

My breathing is slowing down.

"Sam!"

My lips curl upwards into a light smile, and I briefly chuckle. I find myself rather surprised when I feel a little lighter. I've never experienced this before. Just a family being here for me, being themselves.

"What do ya say, girl? How about we have a couple under the sun?"

I realise that this is the first time he's spoken more than a few words to me.

"I'd like that." I say, a foreign warmth envelopes over my chest.

I sense that Lucy has given up, "Well will you please have some eggs? You need to eat."

I smile and nod.

Is this what I've been missing?

-
Hi all, I apologise for my absence. Life got rather busy and I has a serious case of writers block. Wishing you all the best <3