Second to None

Chapter Two

I was dreaming about something. I don't know what it was but it was dark and I was in a forest. It could have been a memory of some sort but I don't think I've ever been in that type of forest before.

And it was dark, I've never been in the forest when it was dark.

I was running, in my pajamas nonetheless, just a pair of panties and a button-up white shirt, the top three buttons undone.

I was sprinting and out of breathe. Either I was running from something or to something, but I didn't know which it was.

There was light, faint, but it was there. And I was running full out towards it.

The scene morphed from me in the forest to me stumbling out of bed, going towards my bedroom door, strides long and awkward. There was something on the other side that I wanted, something important.

My hand grabs the handle and I wrench the door open, walking in before I see what's actually in the next room.

The door closes behind me and I'm in a room covered entirely in flowers, bright yellow and orange flowers, no distinct type, just flowers.

I hated flowers.

--

I jolt out of bed, sweating and breathing heavy. I don't remember the dream, I just know that I had one. A weird one that I don't want to revisit.

I get off my bed, the collar of my pajamas flipping away from my neck, exposing the slightly puckered black lines running from the back of my shoulder to the downward curve of my right breast.

I never knew how I got them, a case an amnesia, caused by the trauma and the fact that my childhood was riddled with intense stress and anxiety.

The doctors said I was most likely never going to remember it. And my parents don't want to tell me, they think I'll just freak out.

Which, they're not wrong.

I make my way to my bathroom, a big tub under a showerhead. I always had this ritual when I was a kid and it stuck. I would shower normally and then fill the tub with water and lay down, my head under water and just listen to my heart.

It helped me relax when I was younger and still does to some degree.

I turn the water on, watching as steam rises in the air. And I get in when the tub is half filled, clothes and all.

Laying down, I sink under the surface, my ears filling with water and my eyes being covered with it. I keep my nose out of the water, wanting to breathe as I listen to the steady beating of my heart.

I stay there till I can distantly hear my alarm clock go off. Getting out, I pull a towel from a nearby rack and wrap it around myself.

I dry off and change into some sweats and an overly large sweatshirt, ready for a relaxing day at my house.

--

Halfway through, a little after noon when I'm binging on cereal, someone knocks on the front door.

Now, my parents aren't home because of some day trip they decided to take, and this has almost never happened.

The cereal turns to ash in my stomach as the person rings the doorbell.

I drop to the floor, my cereal bowl crashing to the ground and crawl my way over to the door, remembering something from a class in elementary school about not letting someone at the door see you until you know who it is or something.

Reaching the door, I slide up the wall, hearing two people talk loudly and hurriedly, one of them pounding on the door.

"Annie!?"