Sight

Ten.

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't comprehend, I couldn't function. It felt like my body was shutting down, but my mind continued its endless, ruthless torture. Of all the things that was wrong with me, but I didn't understand the underlying objective to what was happening to me.

I was hallucinating; I was seeing things that weren't happening.

Does that mean I'm crazy?

I walked out of the filthy, overused public toilet and kept walking. I walked away, away and away from home.

I didn't want to be like this around my family, I was mean without consenting to be, I was uncontrollable. It's like something that's been compressed for so long has finally been unleashed and is unfurling its wrath and pain to everyone and everything around me.

I wasn't being hurt, I was being manipulated. It was a teasing torture; your worst enemy can be your sickening thoughts.

I kept my eyes on the dried out, graying, cracked pavement. I concentrated on the depth and sudden curves and crooks of the jagged cuts that subtly sliced into the earth.

I heard footsteps approaching my way, but I didn't look up, I didn't dare to.

The footsteps got louder, harder. They were echoing in my head, like pebbles bouncing off a wall in a very hollow, quiet room.

I didn't know why, but I winced as I looked at the feet. They were boots, high heeled boots. I looked at the woman, she wore high waist blue jeans, a short dotted, flow top with no sleeves. A thick shrug lay on her forearm, but she didn't wear it. Instead her caramel colored hair was toppled and settled over her slim shoulders in large, voluminous bunches.

I looked at her face and with a gasp I fell back, hard onto the pavement, a ringing pain throbbing through my tail bone.

I saw my face on this woman.

She looked down at me, but continued to walk, as she got closer and closer, I saw something red spread across her cheek.

My eyes grew wide; I ignored the harsh, biting blow of the withering cold and kept my eyes open. The skin from her jaw, lifted and peeled, rolled upward to her eye. Her skin rolled all the way to her hairline and fell away. The underlying thick, bubbling flesh and blood sizzled against the cold. Her flesh glistened and winked in pinks and reds. I was traumatized, but I couldn't look away.

She looked at me down on the floor, and when she walked by me, her skin was flawless again, but my face on her body remained.

She looked down at me, and only then did I notice her eyes were colored yellow, with vertical slits slicing them open. Hypnotized I looked back; she smirked, winked at me, and walked away.

I twisted around, while still on my butt, feeling the cool of the cement seep through my sweat pants, feeling a little damp, and watched her retreating figure, her hips swaying.

I turned back around, my heart in my mouth; I pushed myself to my feet and continued to walk down the street, my butt still a little numb.

Another set of footsteps, head down Maria.

"Maria?" Oh fuck, I loved that British accent, but at this moment, this isn't what I needed.

I looked up, "Alexander?" I said, no smile, I couldn't.

"Yeah, are you alright?" He closed in on me and tipped my chin up, I looked him in his eyes, his orbs nearly looking yellow mixed in with snippets and swirls of gold, and his skin glowed as he was back lit by the morning sun.

"No." I admitted, "I probably look terrible." I said as I laughed and moved away from Alexander, shaking off the light hold of his fingers on my jaw.